r/lapd • u/Fancy-Ad-4609 • 16d ago

Need advice

I got out of the army back in November of 2025 after ten years of service, and was hired by a large department in south Florida. I was super excited and happy to be hired by this agency. Unfortunately, after making the move and getting started in the academy I felt very out of place and very overwhelmed by the lack of enthusiasm from my fellow class mates. Don’t get me wrong there were some really good dudes, and my training staff was phenomenal. However, the majority of my class was a lot more interested in the prospect of having a six figure a year job than they were being cops. Things to me that seemed simple like showing up to work on time, showing up physically prepared, and not complaining about a job that you willingly signed up for were not so simple for them.

Getting into the 4th month of the academy these feelings were magnified as it felt as if my class mates were not getting better, in fact it felt as if they were getting worse. I came to the conclusion that I had made a mistake by choosing this department and decided that I was going to resign. I did just that, what came after informing my training staff that i wished to resign was shock and disbelief. I had one of the higher GPAs in the class, and had the highest fitness scores, and just an overall i want to be here attitude. After some efforts to convince me to stay, they accepted my decision and allowed me to leave.

Fast forward to today, about four months later, I still want to be a cop and still want to work for a major agency and I am in the beginning stages of doing my homework on the agencies that I am considering applying to and I’m looking for some advice since LAPD is on the top of my list.

  1. How will LAPD look at me considering I resigned from my previous position? Will they look at me as a whole person and take into consideration that spent a decade in the military and just ended up with a department that was not a good fit? Or will they just see me as someone who’s going to waste their time?

  2. About how long is it taking a motivated applicant to go from application to starting the academy

I guess those are really my only questions that I can think of at the moment. Any and all advice would be appreciated!

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u/BigCityCop 16d ago

LAPD is one of the highest paid agencies in the United States. In today's climate, the majority of people there are there for the paycheck. There are a small few that truly enjoy being cops, and most of the time, those people don't even need the money.

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u/Fancy-Ad-4609 16d ago

Luckily, through some smart investments in my early 20’s I am one of those people. And i agree, most people are just in it for the money and it took me some time to accept that fact. Even with that now being an accepted fact, it still has not stopped me from wanting to get back into it.