police officer

lieutenant

detective

software development specialist

Houston Police Department

This job has its ups and downs for sure. Some of the positives and negatives:
- There is always an opportunity to make more money via, overtime, staffing (sosp), extra-jobs, events, and promoting. 
- There are so many different job positions, but you have to start in patrol. Patrol is where you learn foundational skills, build your reputation and develop relationships with other departments. 
- Your reputation may not always be what you perceive, but what others perceive of you, so being social, and a team player goes a long way. While being a loaner will more often ostracize you and diminish your opportunities.
-This is a fairly straight forward job if you can listen and follow directions and show up to work and make good judgement calls.
-If you lack self-control, have a bad temper, have a habit of lying, or cant take correction, this job is likely not for you. 
-This job can make you numb to a lot of things frequently seeing death, or interviewing victims for certain crimes, so you have to be aware of that side of things.
-There is a retirement, but its not the best, there are definitely other places with a better retirement
-We have the opportunity to take an enormous amount of paid time off, which is great for vacation, but you better plan ahead. 
-Lastly, I will say, that if you stick around for a while you will meet some incredibly great people, both people who work here, and people you interface with that do not. 

Although Houston is a large city, the department has a small town feel. You get to know most of your co-workers while at the same time gaining experience policing a large city. There is always room for advancement and lateral movement in duty assignments. Pay and benefits are competitive especially for those with higher education degrees and those willing to work nights and weekends.
The experience working at this company varies based upon the working culture in the division you are in and current mid-level leadership. A new sergeant or lieutenant can completely change a division for good or bad. There is poor supervision and hands-off leadership responsible for many poor working cultures and there are certainly supervisors that are task masters. I have had decent supervisors most of my career, but I cannot help but blame the organization for the disparity. This is a good place to work most of the time; however, it really depends on who your boss is, and this is part of the current organizational culture.

I've been employed by HPD for 23 years and will retire from here. This job is what you make, you can have many different "careers" as a police officer in this agency. You don't to stay in patrol your entire career. One of the best things about this department is the flexibility to move around to different units and division and take additional training. If you get bored with what you're doing then apply for something else. You always have opportunities for training and the department essentially pays for any college degree you want. You get about 3 months paid time off per year and with the new contract pay is pretty good. 

Supervision can vary and there are lots of young supervisors and mid-managers being promoted with little time on the streets. Work environment depends on the station, buildings are not maintained like they should be and maintenance is always an issue. The vehicle fleet is in disarray and few new vehicles are purchased every year. Prepare for buying a lot of your own gear if you want stuff that works. 

The Houston Police Department is defined by its culture of incompetence and mediocrity. Personnel do not have working knowledge of the general orders or the law, including the highest levels of command staff. Paying special attention to policy while making detailed, thorough reports far above average is not appreciated and is actually frowned upon. Training from the academy and in service is high quality but not implemented. 

There is a culture of grudge holding and getting back at people months or years later, including from supervisors. Supervisors are unprofessional and will demean officers, and are not open to constructive disagreement. 

Patrol stations are understaffed and patrol officers quickly get worn down. There are countless administrative and desk jobs for officers that could be filled by civilians that contribute to the manpower shortage. Patrol officers are demoralized by peers not doing their fair share. If you're moderately intelligent or competent this job will make you feel unappreciated and as though you're wasting your life.


This was going to be my lifetime career, and I learned leadership skills, communication skills with people from all walks of life. Also I was the back up person for desk duty and that was a good back up for my office skills and helping people with their complaints and explaining their rights in areas of understanding the rights.  The hardest part of the job was when children were abused - trying to get them away from the abuser,  and I was witness to many suicide scenes. Since I was the only woman on the evening shift, any time an incident occurred that involved a woman or a child - I was automatically required to go to the scene.  The most enjoyable part of the job was getting suspects off the streets and helping people// being a first responder.

A typical day is training, maintenance, and corresponding with the client or end-user. My learning experience was enhancing software applications to best meet the needs of the client and end-user. In addition, providing training resources (manuals, tools, visual aids...) to the end-user to ensure support to their daily tasks, protecting and managing data. The work place culture is very diverse, respectable, and adaptable with ease. The challenges were helping the client/end-user understand and how to effectively use their product to meet the department or company goals. The most enjoyable part of the job was implementation and completion of a task and the client/end-users were pleased and their needs were successfully met.

A typical day at work consists of going out into calls for service writing at least 5-6 reports a day and nothing is very predictable. Management can be either non-existent (yet, you still get a 6-month review from a supervisor you don't see), it can be micro-management and sometimes it's a nice in-between with a solid leader for a supervisor. The workplace culture can be toxic seeped in gossip, cheating, alcohol abuse, money issues, and dysfunctional behavioral patterns. 

The most enjoyable part is being able to help those in need. 

The hardest part is the intricate steps and processes you must go through to get simple tasks done and trying to regulate stress and life in a highly stressful, trauma-filled job with limited resources available for support.

Very large organization that enables advancement, training, education, and job security. Competitive salary with opportunities for overtime. Very large geographic area enables the opportunity to work in every type of work environment as well as various divisions enabling specialized assignments.
Allows for non-direct supervision and the ability to manage time individually. Time off encouraged, with opportunities to earn additional time off in lieu of pay. 
Very large organization that does not allow for personal interaction with those in command positions and frequently is completely impersonal unless subjected to the disciplinary system.

Currently HPD has not established a career progression plan for Civilian Intelligence Analyst (CIA). I was informed more than a year ago there was a plan in the works, but it turned out to not be true. 

As for work/life balance, most civilians work M-F on a 8-5 schedule. However, CIAs in the Command Center work rotating shifts. The shifts and HPD policies don't play well with life outside of the department. Specifically Reserve or National Guard service members. The 15 days the department provides only works for civilians on a M-F 8-5 schedule.

My daily responsibilities start with modifing the inventory, also prepare for shipping and recieving and updating (EAM) Equipment Assest Management System. Also monitor milage and service records of division vehicles. Occationally service ALPR. Automatic License Plate Reader Vehicles. trouble shoot and grant access to vender to remote in to camera system. Also assist co-workers in special projects. Weather conditions are the most difficult part of this.
The enviroment working next to the police officers is the most enjoyable and memorble part of this job.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Police officer 1 salary reported	$70,788 per year
Lieutenant 3 salaries reported	$109,000 per year
Detective 3 salaries reported	$90,000 per year
Software development specialist 1 salary reported	$108,000 per year

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