The Good Old Days

By Mike Simmons

I was beaming! Sitting on a hard bench in the desk sergeant’s office, I was waiting to be called in to complete my paperwork to become a police officer. As I looked around, I noticed the old office, which had a hallway to the left for the old holding cells. The “desk” was actually a counter, wrapped in sheet metal so the blood could be wiped off with ease after a bad guy met with a police officer. The whole place had a distinctive smell to it.

Presiding over the room, sitting in a chair on an elevated platform behind the sheet-metal desk was the almighty desk sergeant. He looked to be an old crusty tough guy with a cigar stub hanging out of his mouth and a permanent scowl on his face. When an officer or prisoner approached his desk, profanity-laced commands usually followed. As I was watching him, the thought of a grizzly with a bad tooth came to mind.

As I was amusing myself with the old hard-bitten sergeant’s mannerisms, his gaze turned toward me, as if he had read my mind. I wasn’t afraid. I mean what was there to be afraid of? No – I was petrified! I truly felt that this was the end of my career…maybe my life.

The old general stared at me for about ten hours (okay, maybe ten seconds) with squinted eyes. Then, slowly, he took the piece of cigar out of his mouth, looked at it, and said to me, “Why in the world do you want to be a police officer?

I looked at him with horror in my eyes. Not only did I not know how to answer, but I couldn’t even process the question! I finally stammered out, “I…uh…I…”

Without even noticing what I was trying to say, he bellowed with all of the confidence of a typical old police sergeant, “Y’know, I don’t know why anybody would want to be a police officer these days. It’s not like the good ole days, when we could do real police work. Nowadays, you just coddle ‘em. Nope…wouldn’t do it again if I could start over.”

Over the span of my career, I heard that same question asked many times. Funny thing…it was always an older officer at the end of his career asking a young officer who wanted to get into the business.

Shortly before my retirement, another veteran and I were standing in the training section of our department talking when a young man walked in. When I say he was young, he was YOUNG! I don’t think he had started shaving yet. But he had a wide-eyed, starry look on his face. He said he was looking for the training officer to get his uniforms. He was told by the secretary to sit down and wait.

I watched as the youngster went over to the chair and sat down. Then I heard the other veteran say, “Why in the world do you want to be a police officer? It ain’t like the good old days. You can’t do anything, not with all the changes!”

Immediately I recalled the same conversation 30 years before. I smiled a little. I thought about that for a moment. How could it be that the good old days had ended when I started, but were only ending now…again? While it is true that times have changed and we are not allowed to do some of the things that we were able to do then, it is still the best job in the world.

I remember when I was a young officer working on the street. I could not believe they paid me to have so much fun. I looked forward to the job. The worst part of my week was when I had to wait two days to come back to work! I loved the job! But I didn’t understand the old desk sergeant’s comment that the good old days were over. They weren’t! As a young officer, I lived in the good old days.

Then it dawned on me…the good old days for every officer are when he is young and living in the middle of this new, wonderful career. Every officer has his own good old days. As times change and that young officer becomes older, the first days he remembers and loves pass away.

I am now the director of a criminal justice training center. At the beginning of every academy, I address the new class. As I look out over the new trainees, I see faces that light up, just like mine did. They will soon be living in their own good old days.

So…every old officer has the privilege – correctly – of claiming that the good old days are over. And every new officer has the option of rolling his eyes. He will be there soon enough.

Mike