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December 2024

What Drove You to Become a Cop? 



This is the most common of all the questions I have been asked over the years. My response is short, sweet, and to the point. I needed a job.

Fresh out of the USMC and highly skilled with the Browning Automatic Rifle and a subset of the arts and sciences of the installation and removal of explosive devices—that is, manufactured and improvised anti-personnel mines—I came to civilian life with absolutely no marketable skills. 

One evening after dinner with my parents, I drove across town to meet my buddies and have a cup of coffee. Halfway to my destination, and with the radio tuned to KTKT, the tones of Dragnet caught my attention. As the music faded, a Jack Webb type of voice spoke with a commanding tone; “Are you looking for a career? Now is the time to join a force of professional officers at the Tucson Police Department.”

That short little blurb in the quiet of the Tucson streets caught my attention. Yes, I needed not just a job, but a career. Could this be it?

The next business day, wearing a well-pressed shirt, clean-shaven, and with a fresh haircut, I took the challenge, and before I knew it, the deed was done. I completed a million-question questionnaire, had my first mugshot taken, and survived a quick interview with Captain Tom Rickel. 

It was over. I was offered a job and the beginning of a fifty-year career. It ranged from uniform patrol, fraud and bunco games, crimes of violence, narcotics, organized crime, executive protection, and a milieu of administrative and investigative techniques mixed in with the concept of community policing.

That time has come and gone. Now my second career is writing novels and screenplays. Follow us at www.thomasjnichols.com, Thomas J Nichols, and on X at (20) Thomas J. Nichols Author (@Tomas0274) / X



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