Joining the Canadian Forces

The biggest thing is that most municipal/ provincial police forces will not take a 21/ 22 year old person who has just finished school, most of them recommend more life experience and maybe joining the CF first. We get a lot of young people who are heart broken because they cant be cops in their home towns mostly because of age.

I have seen cops who spent 25 years retire and then become MPs just because they could still do the job but the stress was a lot less than being a real cop

I suppose if you retire as a constable, joining the MP's to top up your pension isn't a bad thing. I can't see anybody with any rank in the cops wanting to be a rookie again though, especially at those pay rates.

The way I see it in the CF, your salary starts lower, but has the potential to increase more than any position as a Civilian Police Officer (except if you were Chief).

A 3 year constable is on $82,000.

A top pay grade Master Warrant Officer in the CF makes $86,000 and that's the highest NCO rank.

That's less than a police sergeant.

A police SSgt makes $108,000 basic. So your assumption is a little wrong ginger.

I meant a salary can climb even higher in CF if you include becoming an Officer, which I hope to be. So comparing, say a Police Sgt. with an Army Captain. A General probably makes (I sincerely hope anyway) more than any position as a Civilian P.O. (Although Police Chief probably comes close). The Military has more ranks than Civi police. Also, it is regarded as acceptable to be a Constable for a 30-year career as a P.O., but one probably wouldn't keep the same rank for such a period of time in the Military.

An MPO with the rank of major and up isn't a police officer anymore...different job, with different responsibilities altogether.

Again Ginger, you are a bit off the mark. There are quite a few ranks within the civilian police:

Chief of Police

Deputy Chief

Staff Superintendent

Superintendent

Staff Inspector

Inspector

Staff Sergeant

Sergeant

Constable

First-Class Constable

Second-Class Constable

Third-Class Constable

Fourth-Class Constable

And a 6 year major in the CF is on the same pay as a staff sergeant in the police.

That begs the question: "Why are they no longer cops?" Did they leave those 3 services voluntarily?

Not being able to deal with the daily stress and responsibility of a police officer might play a role in their choice to become an MP. The SSgt at the detachment in the reserve i worked at spent fifteen years as an MP before joining the RCMP. He said he felt more like a security guard than a police officer...no challenge and just reminding people of the rules. He spent sometime overseas in some Canadian embassies and there he just did Commissionaire work...sit at a desk and ask people for their ID, while you answer enquiries.

Well reserve MPs do not get a badge, so ya they pretty much are just commissionaires.

Really, comparing MP's to civvy cops is inequitable. The variety and volume of calls dealt with by the civvies far outweighs a bad night in Borden. Your average two year constable will have done more calls than a 20 year MP.

MP’s are usually less educated that civvy cops (most civvy recruits have at the very least a degree) and all civvy management and leaders have been beat cops at one time or other. MP’s have officers that haven’t been there or got the t-shirt or any calls under their belts before they ‘lead’ a platoon of MP’s.

That said, the MP's have, like most operational CF units, seen their roles expand in unexpected ways. MP's in Afghanistan attend all IED scenes. A grim job but a necessary one. Evidence they have gathered has been enormously useful and the CF MP's have become the experts in large trauma scenes. The civilian police don't have this capability or expertise. We can all learn from each other.

A kid off the street starting out as a QL3 MP will be making $60144. If they are posted to a field unit that gets topped up with an additional monthly allowance dependant on their time in a field unit.
A senior Cpl makes $66708, again before field allowances, or TD money. A Sgt makes approx 72000.
Not a bad paycheque compared to your peers in other trades, mind you the MP has no union to protect him/her from complaints, and therefore is on their own when it comes to legal issues that result in complaints layed by disgruntled "customers.

Brenda it is not the "get someone to pay for their training", then "we'll" take you. Previously the CF was paying sign up bonuses up to 10 grand or more for kids off the street to join the MP trade, something remusters were not entitlied to, I am unsure if this is still the norm as I have no dealings with the recruiting world, but it may very well still be, so it is not as you say with the big bad establishment take take take.

ALot of people misunderstand the role the Military Police play in CF operations as they only see the frontline patrolman. Before taking shots at these guys, maybe spend a bit of time doing some research and see how much they do, Policing is just a small piece of the pie. Many people want to be just cops, good for them, but many like the adventure of combining policing with soldiering, their areopprotunities to fly with an aircrew as a air marshal, do Close Protection work all around the world, do force protection work abroad with the Navy, gather counter intelligence force force protection mission and many more. These guys get around

Also for Ginger, I personally know of two currently serving MP's who I met on my last tour at a PSS they were working at, I asked them basically the same question, one was formerly PEEL Regional Police who missed the comraderie and hated the urban lifestyle of Bram-ledesh. The other was a Mountie who was previously an MP who went into the mounties and was stuck in the north, and missed going on deployments. To each their own I guess

So I'm thinking that, if MP doesn't work out, then I'll change my selection to Armour Officer and Infantry Officer. Those professions are still open, so that's good. Not sure if the MPAC is going well, so I may have to make other choices. I just hope I can make other choices if unsuccessful with the MPAC. I mean, I think I would be, as it is an entirely different assessment from regular CF. Any thoughts?