Law Enforcement Interview Report

To get a better understanding of law enforcement and what it is really like on the job, I wanted to interview someone I know would give me their honest opinion without sugar coating anything. I am undecided what I want to do in law enforcement, so I hoped this interview would give me some insight. On September 27th, 2016 at approximately 2225 hours, I interviewed Michael Jarabek at his place of employment at Delta College Public Safety. I have known Jarabek for about two years from working with him at Public Safety. I had many questions about the different things he did during his law enforcement career and I knew he would be more than willing to share his experiences. I first got his background information to get a sense of how his career …show more content…
I wanted to know how he got his job with Saginaw City. He told me after a divorce he was at the bar crying into his beer with his cousin. She asked him what he wanted in life if he could have anything. Jarabek said he wanted to be a police officer, but knew he would never get in. His cousin asked him, “How do you know if you don’t try?” They pulled out a newspaper and seen that Saginaw Police Department was hiring. He didn’t think he would get in because he never went to college and had no experience in law enforcement, but he gave it a shot anyways. His cousin bet him twenty dollars that he would get the job and Jarabek told me it was the best bet he ever lost. At the time, Saginaw Police paid police officers with college degrees up to 12% more than officers without degrees. If you had an Associate’s they paid you 5% more. If you had a Bachelor’s degree it was 7% more and for a Master’s it was 12% more. This started to become too expensive for the department to afford so they decided to hire a group of police officers with no college degree. The department also switched from paying the percentages to just giving yearly bonuses for college degrees. Saginaw Police Department even paid for Jarabek to go through the police academy at Delta College. Jarabek stated several times that he “got …show more content…
Jarabek told me to treat others how you want your mother to be treated. He said it is as simple as that. He also told me that new officers have it tougher than he did when he first started as a police officer. It is going to be a lot harder nowadays, but he said to do whatever you think is going to help make things better. Overall, he said he had a good career and that it was “a lot of fun.” He suggested to me that working for the State is a great option and that I will be able to go anywhere since I am a female with a college