Best Career Opportunities for Cops to Explore After Retirement

It is not easy for police officers to hang up their boots after 25 years of service. You may not still like to spend your hours by the pool just yet. You still have it in you to pursue your interests and earn some money while at it.

Fortunately, the skills you have picked up over the years will help you lengthen your career graph, even if you retire from the police force. The best part is that you will get a cushier job and with lesser risk. Take a look at some of the job opportunities you can try.

Loss Prevention Specialist

Most companies hate losing money, and hence to protect their assets, they hire specialists. Loss prevention specialists (or agents) either work independently or get hired by organizations, right from big corporations to the FBI.

For example, if you work in a department store, you may find a job as an officer who prevents shoplifting. You will have to keep a close check on the employees and shoppers to ensure they do not take away any merchandise without paying for it. You can prevent vandalism and embezzlement at the corporate level with your experience and skills.

Computer-savvy former police officers can use their policing skills to good effect to work online, set up computer security systems for companies, and prevent and combat cyber attacks.

Crime Scene Investigator

Suppose you have loved digging up important clues and working on them to nab the culprit and find their motive. In that case, you are in luck because you have the scope of pursuing that train of the investigation by being one private investigator. The best part is you already know the drill, so you don’t necessarily have to do a course or something. However, you can still upgrade your skills by taking up photography or something in that direction.

It can only help your work and help you make a name for yourself. You may set yourself to earn a six-figure salary in the process. Crime scene investigators have a lot of jobs to do, such as gathering fingerprints, picking up tire tracks, hairs, or bodily fluids, and gathering the evidence.

Next, they ensure the evidence is not contaminated. Crime scene investigators have to be careful about the clues, and they should exercise meticulous attention to detail; missing a piece of evidence can affect your entire investigation process and stop you from catching the right criminal.

Bounty Hunter

If you have been an avid fan of Duane ‘The Dog’ Chapman and his crew on the television show Dog the Bounty Hunter, you may already know what a bounty hunter is. The real bounty hunters are a lot less dramatic than those shown on TV.

Here is all you wanted to know about bounty hunting. For instance, if a man is under arrest for assaulting his wife, the bail he has to pay is $25,000. If the guy cannot afford the bail, he will see a bail bondsman, who will provide him $25,000 as a loan in exchange for a certain percentage of the total bail. If the accused husband does not turn up at the court, the bail bondsman must pay the bill.

The bail bondsman, in some cases, will hire a bounty hunter to track what went wrong. The bounty hunter will look through the various databases, investigate and track down the fugitive. Bounty hunters earn about 10 -20 percent of the total bail bond. It is just the job for thrill-seekers and those who want to earn a fair bit of money. It’s a bit dangerous terrain, so you have to weigh the pros and cons.

Security Guard/Bodyguard

You have successfully protected the public your entire career. Now it is time to use your skills to effectively and diverge in different directions. Security guards can work as a great option for you. You can protect your clients against theft, vandalism, and other such illegal activities.

As a security guard, you’re going to spend much of your time waiting, and things may never happen. But if you are in a situation where someone attacks the place, you are supposed to protect it and may end up in a spot or armed conflict. In most states, you may have to have a license and undergo a background check. You may have to consider these things before agreeing to take a job like this.

So, you see, you can still achieve a lot in your career if you have the gumption to pursue it, even after retirement from the police force.