Show of Hands

Do you mean a job working for the government or do you mean a job interacting with the public?

For me it is a “no” for the first & “yes” for the second.

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Do you mean a government paid job? No.

Yeah, I've been a cop for almost 3 years. I like it but I don't love it.

I had the same question

What’s a public job? Like retail with the public or for the government?

30 years retired.

Sub-contracted, never directly.

I don’t understand the question

What do you mean by public? I worked several jobs.

I was a state trooper for almost 40 years. Half was spent in the driver license service and the other half in highway patrol/ commercial vehicle enforcement.

I interpret it as whether or not you have/had a government job at the local, state, or federal level.

Yep. Drive a School bus. Paid by the State just like teachers.

Several. Starting with the military, and ending with the FAA.

I used to work for Ocean City Beach Patrol in Ocean City, Maryland

Better than prison guard, which I was for awhile.

Just my entire adult life...

I spent my entire career working for government.

@ TA7 - I have a couple of buddies who are/were COs. Being a CO isn't a bad gig in Iowa, since they make as much or more than cops and there are no private prisons. My guy who works at ISP in Fort Madison makes the same as me and does a tenth of the work; life is good for him. Obviously YMMV from other states.
@Pipers that's WAY too long. I'll be done at 20, MAYBE 30.

I can’t watch prison shows because I had a family member in prison, under an unjust sentence, imho.

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Gunfighter, I worked at a max con facility on death row, single cell-A, and mental health. Mandatory 12 hour shifts (understaffed). I applied hoping to get a tower guard position 😂. Back then you could make 50-60 with mandatory overtime. The difference between you and I is once you affected the arrest and dropped ‘em off, you got a break. I got locked in for 12+ hours with ‘em and all they have is time to make my day miserable.

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I used to work for the department of mental health for the state of Missouri back in the states.

Didn't mean to downplay it. I have nothing but love/respect for COs. It's overlooked but it's just as vital as LEOs. I was just saying it's a decent job in Iowa (unlike a lot of states, sadly)

"Yes". It was about as public as 'community service' implies!

I was a public school teacher

Thanks to all of you, for your service! LEOs get an undeserved bad rap nowadays. The vast majority are there to help people, and keep them safe!

Do any of you watch Blue Bloods, The Rookie, or the Chicago trilogy, which includes Chicago PD?

Are any of them anywhere near realistic? In your opinion, what has been the most realistic cop show on tv?

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Aren’t you glad that you’re getting paid right now? There are some states that are cutting educational employees’ salaries by 50% and others that aren’t paying them at all!

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I honestly don’t watch any of them, as I don’t care to dwell on those days 😂! My lady however loves watching prison shows and unsolved mysteries/cold cases. I did watch a bit of Orange is the New Black, it’s incorrect on multiple levels.

I’ve never really worked because I’ve saved enough not to have to. Right now, I babysit my little brother and get paid, though.

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If I had a second life, I would love to be a cop.

Public sector

As others have mentioned, I’m not sure what you mean by “public job.”

I haven’t had a job as a government employee. But I was a government contractor for several years (in the NIOSH laboratory where I was doing my doctoral research), and I had a postdoctoral fellowship for a few years and then was paid partly through an NIH grant to my boss, both at the medical school where I worked as a postdoc. Actually my very first job might have been paid through a government grant, too, as a research assistant at the same medical school as where I had my last job, decades later. 3-4 decades later.

Interaction with the public? Not really. Unless being a supervisor of the clerk receptionists and phlobotomists who drew blood from outpatients (and doing some of that myself) in a hospital clinical laboratory counts. I suppose it does.

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Technically, if you consider being partially paid by Medicaid as a public job.

On the state level for Juvenile Court Services.

Oh I didn’t think you were downplaying at all! I’m saying it would have been totally worth it had I been assigned to tower, armory or gate house! 😂 My brother started as a mall security guard at around 23yo, which paid for his BLET and made him a sworn officer for their private department. He made sgt. there then transferred to a nearby town. Now he’s one of two captains and first in line for chief (provided they don’t opt for an out of house hire). He’s 39 this year, and his family is pretty much set for life. I may have followed him, but feared I couldn’t pass the POPAT (lung issues).

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Same here, in the past, and that’s one of hubby’s jobs now.

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