What’s Your Back-Up Plan?

Thursday, May 1st, 2008 by John

As a cop, who’s your back-up? Whose back-up are you? Do you carry a back-up? Are you always planning in your mind when you go to a call what you will do if everything goes to shit?

I think we are always planning in our minds and thinking tactically on the job but I wonder if we do enough of it in our personal lives.

Do you have a career plan? Are you going to promote or transfer to the Detective Bureau? Are you going to become a police chief someday or maybe commissioner? How about a family plan or a plan for a side business?

What if something goes wrong? Have you considered the possibility that you might get sick, injured or even worse? What if you get pissed off and lose your job?

Not to be morbid but have you planned your own funeral? Have you done any estate planning to make arrangements for those you leave behind? Some benevolent and fraternal organizations even make arrangements for attorneys that will help you with this kind of planning at a lower cost to you because of your profession or memberships.

Maybe most importantly, what’s your plan if you just get tired of being a cop? Have you planned financially to retire from the job when you choose? Have you considered starting a business or are you al least investing money earned from that side job?

These are things that we should all consider and make plans for now that we can sit and think about them without the heat of the moment driving us. How many cops do you know that are happily and successfully retired and are not working as security guards because they have to?