Large department or small departmet?

[MixOp]

In your opinion, what department is better to work for? A small department, like a small town, consisting of about 70 peace officers or a large department, like SD, consisting of 1200 peace officers.

Which one is better for non-sworn officers, like CSOs?

What are advantages and disadvantages?

[dw]

By very nature, a larger agency will have more opportunities than a smaller one in terms of job diversity and promotion. To me, that says it all.

[Mac]

DW pretty much hit the nail on the head as far as that goes - larger departments usually have more opportunities for diversity and/or promotion. If they have multiple stations/substations, it also gives you the opportunity to move around (and the opportunity to be able to go hide for a while if you piss the wrong person off - a luxury you don't have in a small department!) Smaller departments, with the right tax base and the right administration, have the potential to be much more progressive - it's a lot cheaper and easier to buy equipment and administer changes for a 50-officer department than for a 5,000-officer department. Also, in a smaller town you (hopefully) have less crime and the ability to know your city and the people better, which is a big plus.

For non-sworn, I'd imagine that you'd have more opportunities and more diversity in a bigger department - but a lot of that depends on each particular department's policies. Some are very restrictive with CSO's, while others allow them to do an amazing array of things.