I should warn you that I like to eavesdrop. I'm not sure if it is a cop thing, a writer thing or a girl thing, but I do it all the time. Actually, if it's clear it's a private conversation I do my best to respect privacy. But in restaurants, elevators and stores...there is no reasonable expectation of privacy in my book. And today, a young lady was in the coffee shop talking to her friend on her cell phone at an elevated voice level as people often do when on the cell phone. So anyway...here's the scoop:
She went through the police academy and it wasn't "kick ass" enough, so she didn't apply to be a cop. She said she was interested in SWAT but that she would have to do 5 years as a street cop, and then could only do if she got good reviews and evaluations, and patrol just sounded too boring.
So she went into the military. But whatever her current position was, she wasn't happy with it. She mentioned that she might "have her commander" assign her to another position she feels is more "kick ass." (I hope she is successful telling her commander what to do!)
This is a common misperception among young people. Maybe television contributes to this, but the reality of any business is that you have to "pay your dues" to progress through the ranks. And in law enforcement, you do this by developing patrol experience and to learn to be a cop, before you can be an effective Detective or SWAT team member.
Conversely, we have an intern at the office who is working on her Masters in Criminology, training with a special ops guy to learn hand-to-hand combat/street fighting, and she acquired the fitness plan the Federal Law Enforcement Agency models after to prepare for the academy training. With this kind of initiative I have no doubt she will succeed in whatever career path she chooses.
As for the girl from the coffee shop...I hope she doesn't go into law enforcement. To enter it for the power trip is dangerous. For me, I'm proud to contribute to making our communities a little safer, and consider it a responsibility rather than a power kick.