- In other words, you're a college man.
She'd like to have seen you land a job
with a little more status attached to it, is that it?
- I guess that's part of it.
- But not all of it?
I think maybe I can understand how she feels.
And maybe she's right, Culver.
It's awkward having a policeman around the house.
Friends drop in, a man with a badge answers the door.
The temperature drops 20 degrees.
You throw a party and the badge gets in the way.
All of a sudden, there isn't a straight man in the crowd.
Everybody's a comedian.
"Don't drink to much" somebody says
or the man with a badge will run you in.
Or "How's it going, Dick Tracy?"
"How many jaywalkers did you pinch today?"
And then there's always the one wants
to know how many apples you stole.
All at once you lost your first name.
You're a cop, a flat foot, a bull, a dick, John Law.
You're the fuzz, the heat.
You're poison.
You're trouble.
You're bad news.
They call you everything.
But never a Policeman.
Maybe she's right.
It's not much of a life unless you don't mind missing
a Dodger game because the hotshot phone rings.
Unless you like working Saturdays, Sundays, Holidays
at a job that doesn't pay overtime.
Oh, the pay's adequate.
If you count your pennies,
you can put your kid through college.
But you better plan on seeing Europe on your television set.
Then there's your first night on the beat,
when you try to arrest a drunken prostitute
in a main street bar
and she rips your new uniform to shreds.
You'll buy another one out of your own pocket.
And you're going to rub elbows with all the elite-
pimps, addicts, thieves, bums, winos,
girls who can't keep an address, and men who don't care.
Liars, cheats, con men, the class of skid row.
And the heartbreak.
Underfed kids, beaten kids, molested kids, lost kids,
crying kids, homeless kids, hit and run kids,
broken arm kids, broken leg kids, broken head kids,
sick kids, dying kids, dead kids.
The old people that nobody wants, the reliefers,
the pensioners, the ones who walk the street cold,
and those that try to keep warm and died
in a three dollar room with an unvented gas heater.
You'll walk your beat and try to pick up the pieces.
Do you have real adventure in your soul, Culver?
You better have.
'Cause you're going to do time in a prowl car.
Oh, it's going to be a thrill a minute
when you get an unknown trouble call
and hit a backyard at two in the morning.
Never knowing who you'll meet.
A kid with a knife, a pillhead with a gun, or two ex-cons
with nothing to lose.
And you're going to have plenty of time to think.
You'll draw duty in a lonely car with nobody to talk
but your radio.
Four years in uniform, you'll have the ability,
the experience, and maybe the desire to be a Detective.
If you like to fly by the seat of your pants,
this is where you belong.
For every crime that's committed,
you've got three millions suspects to choose from.
Most of the time, you'll have few facts
and a lot of hunches.
You'll run down leads that dead-end on you.
You'll work all night stake-outs that could last a week.
You'll do leg work until your sure you've talked
to everybody in the state of California.
People who saw it happen but really didn't.
People who insist they did it but really didn't.
People who remember, those who try to forget.
Those who tell the truth, those who lie.
You'll run the files until your eyes ache.
And paperwork?
Oh you'll fill out a report when you're right.
You'll fill out a report when you're wrong.
You'll fill one out when you're not sure.
You'll fill one out listing your leads.
You'll fill one out when you have no leads.
You'll make out report on the reports you've made.
You'll write enough words in your lifetime
to stock a library.
You'll learn to live with doubt, anxiety, frustration,
court decisions that tend to hinder rather than help you-
Dorado, Moore, Escobedo, Cahan.
You'll learn to live with the District Attorney,
testifying in court, Defense Attorneys,
prosecuting Attorneys, Judges, juries, witnesses.
And sometimes you're not going to be happy with the outcome.
Maybe your girlfriend's right, Culver.
But there's also this.
There are over 5000 men in this city who know
that being a Policemen is an endless, glamorless,
thankless job that's gotta be done.
I know it too.
And I'm damn glad to be one of them.