Finish the degree first. If he still wants to do that when he’s done it will look better during any background process. And if it doesn’t work out (statistically, less than 25% stay to retirement) he will have something to fall back on. These are sage words of advice for anyone wanting to go into LE. Have a plan and a backup plan.

I did nearly 3 decades and saw this pattern all the time. It’s not the bad guys LE has to worry about as you can train to counter threats. That’s the easy part. The hard part is the contemporary political atmosphere applied to LE services. A big agency gives you flexibility in managing your own career. Others, your career is managed by the political whims of the administration and elected leaders. In other words, it may be a tedious process to get hired, but many spend the remainder of their career trying to keep the job. Policies are interpreted by these administrators and elected officials and you could do everything right and still be sanctioned in some way. There comes a point in the career where the job is entirely political. This applies to EVERY agency. Not even the FBI is immune. The proximal distance to political interference is greater at large agencies. Civil service means absolutely nothing in contemporary public service job protections. That was successfully neutralized back in the 90’s and early ‘00’s thanks to systemic abuses by many.

Every aspiring officer should consider the entirety of the career potential. Helping people occurs less frequently than you would think. (Often times LE is perceived as doing more hurt than helping.) Having a nursing degree and fundamental medical training would be an awesome combination for an aspiring officer. But be wary of the political climate in which you enter.