To take this further, all available stats show that the average tenure of a police officer is <5 years. This is no surprise -- the hours are rough, the work ca

To take this further, all available stats show that the average tenure of a police officer is <5 years. This is no surprise -- the hours are rough, the work can be exceptionally dangerous or stressful at times, pay is middling (generally 50-70k a year, tho often much lower in poorer counties), and there is an entire class of US society that is blatantly "fuck the police". Why get into fist-fights with crackheads at 4am when I can get an A+ and Network+ and answer tickets all day? Slightly less degrading and no one will try to shoot me. The result is that smart, qualified people rightly fuck-off to better paying or less stressful gigs. Additionally, there is no lateral move into higher levels of police leadership (unless you're transferring from another PD). So your mid-to-senior leadership is often whoever manages to stick around. See pg. 6 https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/wpor_ltpov.pdf https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/wpor_ltpov.pdf ("Why Police Officers Resign") also https://www.bls.gov/ooh/protective-service/police-and-detectives.htm https://www.bls.gov/ooh/protective-service/police-and-detect... (salary info)