Non traditional Sworn Positions

[TheKansan]

While looking for full-time work as an leo, I have come across several positions which are not quite traditional police work, but they are sworn positions and would offer some sort of experience in the field. I mean positions such as park police, airport police, (high)school police, university/campus police, etc.

Do you think it would be worth it to pursue a career in law enforcement in such areas, if my overall goal is to do more traditional police work?

[L-1]

I don't know about Kansas, but in California, most of those positions are considered fairly respectable. The pay, benefits and retirement are usually comparable with PD's & SO's and those agencies use the same academy as the locals. The only difference is that their mission or focus is a little different.

There is nothing wrong with taking a job with agencies such as these. Not only does it get you training and experience, but with a basic academy under your belt it opens the door for lateral transfers to other departments (at least in California). Assuming that like California, most Kansas agencies contract with the same retirement system or have reciprocity, starting now gets you earning credits a lot sooner and puts you that much closer to retirement.

[WPD954]

Listen to L-1.............he said it all in one post.

[MrVega$]

I found out a few months ago that one of the benefits for Stanford University Police is that their children get 1/2 of the annual Stanford tuition towards tuition at any college/university they can get into. The current Stanford tuition runs around 45K/year so that means over 20k/year for tuition anywhere else, which depending on where the child attends colllege it could cover most if not all the costs. Sounded like a pretty sweet deal when I heard about it.