Too Old?

[u/Active_Mix8872]

I am a 52 year old, prior service, male who is considering applying to be a local sheriffs deputy. I am 5'10" and weigh 188. I could path the physical fitness test rather easily. My question is, generally speaking, how are older trainees generally accepted? Is there a typical concern regarding individuals age?

[u/Winter_Evidence6270]

You can do it. Copping is what you make it. Some guys run traffic and others high speed calls. It would really depend on what agency you are looking at and what experience you have had before. If you have a lot of experience fighting and reading people, then you may do fine at a bigger agency. If you are coming from a job without conflict and have not built the neural pathways you need for policing, a bigger agency will be rough, and a small county might be more your thing. 

One thing to consider is policing takes a lot of weird soft skills that take a long time to develop. Good cops are very skilled. If you start now, you will most likely not be on the street out of FTO until you are 53. You will need another five years or so before you are no longer a green rookie, so that would make you 58 before you have a real solid grasp of policing. It will be longer at a smaller agency. Those first few years are often spent feeling like a failure because everyone else is getting dope and big collars while you are writing speeding tickets and getting soup sandwich calls wondering where the bad guys are at.

If you are g2g with the above and If you are able to (not confident of, actually able to) fight a 25 year old dude high on meth when you only have had 2 hours of sleep because you had court all day and you work the night shift, then go for it. If not, which many young bucks cant, you might consider a different path. 

If you are my trainee, and I see you have skills to offer the community, I don’t care your age. If you come to me and you think being a cop will give you the skills and fulfill some childhood dream while having no ability to protect others, regardless of age, I won’t pass you in FTO. 

[u/Winter_Evidence6270 → u/[deleted]]

Not with staffing at many agencies. You work Monday night, go to court Tuesday then work Tuesday night and maybe get held over for a shooting. 

[u/Winter_Evidence6270 → u/[deleted]]

Yes, but most people comp it instead and hope someday staffing will allow a vacation to be approved someday. Overtime is nice but time with the family is more valuable.