Pursuing a career in law enforcement can offer a varied career with roles at local, state and national level, as well as a number of specialist roles. Andrew Tafoya told wmicentral.com that in his 21 years' service as a law enforcement officer he has fulfilled a number of assignments for agencies working at both county to state levels. He started out working at a county sheriff's office before attending police academy and becoming a patrol officer. During this time, Mr Tafoya undertook undercover work for the state's Narcotics Investigation Unit, before being assigned to lead a county-level drugs task force. He eventually moved on to co-ordinate the efforts of a number of law enforcement agencies in different jurisdictions as they attempted to deal with gang-related crime. He also took on Special Weapons and Tactics (Swat) team training and taught other officers "extraordinary deployment" tactics for handling emergency situations. According to the US Department of Labor, law enforcement jobs can incorporate roles with local sheriff's offices, local government police forces, the state troopers or nationwide agencies such as the Drug Enforcement Agency or the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Around 7% of the United States' 861,000 law enforcement officers worked for federal agencies in 2006. In May of that year, the average earnings for these employees were $43,510.  |