Just looking for the public opinion on this. How old is too old to start a career as a cop?
I would think there would be somewhere in America that didn’t have any age limit to start some kind of law enforcement career. Do you have any specific goals and geographic area in mind?
In the City of Chicago, you must not have reached your 40th birthday by initial hire date.
Since you’re looking for an opinion instead of an answer to a specific question, let’s go to IMHO.
samclem
IMO if you want to put in enough time to get some sort of retirement benefits then 30 would be about as old as I would go. I don’t know many cops over 50, and pretty much all of them are jaded to say the least.
My father did it at 43 (San Diego PD). Then my mother did it a few years later at about 37 or 38 (San Diego Sheriff Dept.) Dad lasted about 10 years before getting too jaded; mom retired about 3 years ago after putting in 19 years.
Oklahoma City’s cutoff age is 35 to be hired.
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