The subject of this thread isn’t whether your family would survive without you. It’s whether you, and/or your unit/agency value your family as much as you do. Given the decision to make, do you protect your family, or the families of others who haven’t prepared to fend for themselves. I think I was pretty clear that if my family is out of harm’s way, I’ll be on the job. If it’s not, then I’ll be doing what I need to do to make that happen.
If your family’s ability to survive a chaotic event isn’t enhanced by your presence, then you must not be bringing anything to the table. If you think it’s OK to leave your family to fend for themselves in a dangerous situation when you could choose be there to enhance their capabilities, I’d contend that you’re a poor provider for your family, regardless of what preparations you’ve made in advance.
For my last post about this subject I would suggest that each individual LEO would do whats best for his family first and then report for duty with a clear mind and conscience knowing that the most valuable and treasured members in his life were safe and secure.
To place others safety over yourself is said to be heroic and brave.
To place others safety over your families wellbeing is poor priority assessment.
I mentioned earlier that the Bureau does have policies in place to get our loved ones to safety in time of emergency.
However, I failed to mention that yearly we have to sign a form stating that we are “mission essential” personnel and even if all other gov. employees are excused from coming to work or are allowed to leave early, these directives do not pertain to us. “Violation will result in the officer being considered AWOL and will be subject to disciplinary action”.
So as others have said quite well, it just comes down to each individual doing what you need to do when you need to do it.
This conversation comes up from time to time amongst colleagues. To put it in a nutshell . . . at the end of the day it is nothing more than a J O B.
Our agency practiced a drill once upon a time in the event of a terrorist biological/chemical attack. Back then I was on our department’s crowd control unit, the drill was a joint op with us and SWAT. If you keep up with the Federal Governments COG plans then you should be aware of the SNS. One thing I learned after the drill was that during such an event decision makers anticipate public safety personnel not reporting in for work. If such an event were to transpire one of the incentives for the LE/EMS personnel to report for duty is that at pre-determined collection and distribution centers their families would receive medications/vaccines/et al. before the general public.
Right there is why the police will be ineffective and the military will get it done. One is a job you can quit and the other isn’t.
As long as after things are sorted out everyone who disappeared is terminated for cause I don’t care if you hang around or not. I’m probably better off without the police nearby anyway.
Yea the problem is the military can’t by law police civilians. And if you want to compare professionalism and dedication to the job, I would take a 25 to 40 something officer over a 18 to 22 year old solider. I have a friend who is a first sergeant in the Army and he is constantly getting calls about his guys getting arrested for DUI, DV crimes and other stupidity. He wants to pull his hair out. In my career in Law Enforcement I have only seen a handful of cops do that kind of behavior that he is dealing with on a daily basis. Hell one of the more serious calls I had recently was a soldier managed to steel a few pounds of C4 and was reportedly heading our way to kill himself. We confirmed with his commander that the C4 was in fact missing and they advised us the kill radius for the stuff he had was 400 yards. Talk about high pucker factor. Lucky he was caught and did not blow anybody up.
I respect our soldiers and I have many I call friends. But this back and forth on this thread (soldiers are better than cops crap) needs to stop its stupid.
I’m not saying Soldiers are better than cops. I’m saying they’ll go into places that people who are allowed to quit won’t. They’ll do it perhaps because they are trained to think differently, or because they have pride in their units, or because they go where they are ordered or to prison. Why doesn’t matter, they’ll go.
Posse Comitatus is mostly defunct at this point, doesn’t affect the Guard, etc. If its bad, there will be no consequences to the use of AD military.
Posse Comitatus is still in effect. When I was in the drug task force the National guard would help with somethings like evidence collection but they were not allowed to arrest or carry weapons. Yes soldiers can quit, they can desert and it happens all the time.
Pat
“Section 1031 essentially repeals the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 by authorizing the US military to perform law enforcement functions on American soil, ” - Senator Mark Udahl
I am lucky that my family has the availability of extended family in the area to look after each other.
I think it would also depend on the type of agency and the type of emergency. Guys from a smaller agency whose family is part of a small community will have much more of an interest in seeing the community defended from whatever threats exist.
Guys whoa ren’t part of the community they work for will be more likely to put family ahead of the job
