More to health than working out

In nearly all jobs, there are certain risks to one's health that you assume when you take a job. Police work is certainly no exception, but cops are probably exposed to more physical danger than any other career with the exception of the military. One thing I want to talk about, because I am potentially exposed to it every time I go to work, is the danger of hypodermic needles.

For those of you who don't know, Massachusetts fairly recently decided that possession of hypodermic needles is not in and of itself illegal. Therefore, people can legally carry around hypodermic needles. The problem with this, as I'm sure you can guess, is that really only people involved in illegal activity routinely carry hypodermics. And with the use of hypodermics, comes the increased risk of communicable diseases such as HIV and AIDS.

Nearly every day I go to work I have to book someone who has been arrested and the possibility of an accidental needle stick from some cretin who has taped a hypodermic to his leg scares the heck out of me.

http://www.leaderpost.com/cars/wielded+hypodermic+needle+altercation+free/1993215/story.html

That's a story about a drug user who got caught shoplifting and used his hypodermic as a weapon. Getting stuck with a needle would potentially change nearly everything I have worked for in life, and everything I have planned such as maybe having kids someday. When I was in the Police Academy, the way the instructors teach recruits to do a pat frisk is specifically designed to help safely detect hypodermics hidden on the body. Every time I do a search I specifically ask a person, "Do you have a needles, knives or anything else sharp on you that I need to know about?" Usually they answer no unless they have a pocket knife or something, but I always follow up with, "You better not be lying to me." It may sound kind of rough, but I will not be a victim to some punk with a dirty needle.

http://www.aegis.com/news/ads/1992/AD920230.html