What do law enforcement officers worry about in their profession?

Cops have the same sort of concerns that any other working person has: money, personal relationships, career advancement, etc. Specifics that come to mind include: Getting hurt. If you obsess about getting killed in the line of duty, it will eat you up, so most cops put it to the side. You have to maintain a "survival mindset" to keep from becoming complacent and letting your guard down, but too much can amount to paranoia. More to the forefront is the possibility of sustaining a career-ending injury. Relatively few cops are killed in the line of duty (most years, 1 in 5000), but the likelihood you will suffer a significant injury some time during your career is very high. Most injuries are recoverable, but those that severely limit mobility or cause chronic pain can cause you to become unfit for duty. Some people might think that an injury just means access to a cushy disability pension, but that is frequently not the case. Some states provide generously for public safety employees who are disabled in the line of duty (and, not surprisingly, the incidence of abuse of this system is highest in those states), but others provide little or nothing at all. Even if there is a disability pension, medical care costs may not be covered. If the injury is suffered while off duty, there is often no compensation at all. Once you're out of sick leave, you're unemployed. Getting sued. People often file lawsuits against law enforcement officers and their employers in the hopes of winning the legal lottery and getting a large award or settlement. Cops generally hate it when their employers decide to settle, as they would rather go to trial and have their day in court. But it's often cheaper to settle than to pay the costs of litigation, even if a defendant's verdict would be likely. If you get sued, your life can become an open book. Civil attorneys will file discovery motions on every aspect of the cop's life, to include personal finances and health records. Few people are comfortable exposing the minutiae of their private life to an adversary. Internal politics. Time and again, when cops are asked about the greatest source of their emotional stress, they cite the political goings-on within their own agencies. Cops generally have strong, alpha-male personalities (including the women). In a mix of other personality types, these find a way of fitting in, even if not everyone is comfortable with them. Put a group of near-100% alpha males in an isolated group, and you have the recipe for a never-ending conflict. Even with a civil service system structure where hiring and promotions are supposed to be competitive and merit-based, there are always fair-haired boys (and girls) who have an advantage over others. These are sometimes called "blue flamers," people who rise rapidly through the organization while getting little experience in the basic mission and work. Instead of learning the job for several years as a uniformed patrol officer, they quickly secure a preferred, often administrative assignment where they get noticed by their superiors. From there, they get promoted repeatedly and rapidly. A very few of these people are genuinely talented and gifted leaders. Far more commonly, they are great politicians and lousy cops who will never understand the basic dynamics of the job and will make the lives of the worker bees miserable for their entire careers. Personal safety. Some departments have "minimum staffing" policies where each shift or patrol area is required to have a minimum number of officers working at designated times. If sick leave, attrition, or other factors cause staffing to fall below this number, off-duty officers are called in, or officers due to go off watch are held over to cover. More often, there is no minimum staffing requirement, and staffing levels can go as low as management will allow them, often without regard for the safety of the people on the street. Only the stupid and woefully inexperienced believe they can handle everything that might come at them alone, John Wayne style. The cops have no control over staffing levels; they just have to live with them or find someplace else to work. Law enforcement agencies around the country are contending with reduced staffing due to budget shortfalls. Any cop confronting this situation is concerned with the possibility that today or tomorrow may be the day he is called to handle a situation that needs multiple officers, but there is no one to respond but him.

I used to worry that I might miss something. A red flag warning me of danger, a person's body language, a silent victim's cry for help, or a car we were looking for that had been used in a crime. I used to take it personally if there was an armed robbery in my zone.  I mellowed as I grew older, but early on I was intent on changing my corner of the world. I hated missing something. Still do.

Having armchair critics examine and probe a decision I had to make in a split-second.

Being killed and who's going to take care of their family.  Or being injured and maimed and unable to work, and who's going to take care of their family. Or doing the right thing but being sold out by the brass and politicians and set upon by the media, so your life is forever ruined even though you did The right thing.  Then who's going to take care of their family? Or just doing nothing but having someone make a false complaint against you and ruining your life once the media runs with it, and you get sold out again and your life ruined.  Who's going to take of your family? See a theme?  Cops are working people like anyone else with the same worries mainly to provide for themselves and their family, except we have different ways to lose our livelihood that most people will never have to imaagine.