What Does a Police Officer Do on a Typical Day?

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Law enforcement officers, including those who work on the local police level, often specialize in a particular area of work. There really is no such thing as a typical day. The general tasks each officer will perform are typical.

1 Check In

The first two things officers do at the beginning of each shift are get briefed on all pertinent occurrences since the previous shift and obtain the daily assignment.

2 Patrol

To be effective, officers need to patrol their assigned area and conduct investigations into suspicious behavior or observances as needed.

3 File Reports

A task included in an officer’s typical day, regardless of the work he does, is writing and filing accurate and in-depth reports.

4 Enforce

Officers are expected to make sure people they encounter are observing the law, whether the officer is on duty or not.

5 Represent

Because police officers are role models, they might be asked to speak at schools or to represent the department at community events.

Tanisha Coffey, a MBA graduate and certified advertising copywriter, is an author and entrepreneur who provides strategic marketing consulting, professional copy-writing and author services through her firm Scribe, Etc. When she’s not working on client projects, Coffey writes self-help books for entrepreneurs, children’s stories and television and movie scripts.

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