Samuel Perez of Lutz, Fla., retired from the New York City Police Department after 20 years of honorable and distinguished service. Perez held numerous ranks within the police department and was directly involved with 9/11 Ground Zero recovery efforts. Upon retirement he temporarily left law enforcement, and worked in different aspects of the private sector. Eventually, Perez returned to law enforcement and he is currently a detective in the Pasco Sheriff’s Office in New Port Richey, Fla.
NYPD To Lose Thousands of Cops to Retirement Over Next Few Years appeared in the DNAinfo New York website. It emphasized that exactly 20-years-ago there was a massive hiring in which they added 10,225 officers from 1992 to 1995. Since more officers are retiring, there is a spike in crime and a shortage in officer experience.
Retiring from the “Thin Blue Line” A Need for Formal Preretirement Training, reinforced through a study which was conducted due to the recession of 2008 that there were many retirees who had to come out of retirement and returned back into the work force. Caudill & Peak stated that, “people are, and increasingly expect to continue, working beyond the usual retirement ages of 62 and 65. A contributing factor might be that those in today’s labor force are generally living longer after retirement.” Currently, there are agencies, which have educational incentives to include tuition reimbursement to their full-time members. By obtaining a higher education degree it could advance their career path opportunities for promotion within an agency.
Upon retirement, police officers find themselves working in the private sector to later realize they miss law enforcement. Therefore, even after experiencing traumatic and devastating events throughout their former career police officers return back to once again serve in their community.
Perez’s mindset concerning retirement was that he felt an emptiness which directed him back into the law enforcement field where he could once again help people in the community and continue serving in a sworn certified officer capacity.
Detective Perez is a distinguished deputy sheriff while on duty and serves his local community on his off-duty time as a baseball coach.
