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The story
A poster who became a police officer at 19, right after graduating high school, confessed on 5ch’s “Nandemo Jikkyo G” board to making a string of mistakes on the job. They revealed one failure after another in detail — repeatedly botching how to write traffic tickets no matter how many times they were taught, wrecking a patrol car while practicing on a moped, and oversleeping through a break and causing trouble for coworkers. Replies ranged widely, from criticism that “claiming to be a cop and starting a thread like this is a problem,” to advice suggesting “maybe you have ADHD,” to encouragement that “just landing this job at 19 is something to be proud of” — with opinions split over whether the mistakes stem from the poster’s own aptitude or from inadequate training and workplace conditions.
What people said
If people like your personality, you can get away without being hated for a while even if you're bad at the job.
I'm bad at talking to people, I even stutter around kids. But I can smile and get along fine with elderly people.
Rooting for you.
I'm making so many mistakes it's got me wondering if I have ADHD. It sucks.
When you're mentally unwell, you screw up no matter how careful you try to be.
Getting chewed out hard by my supervisor left a trauma — something just comes over me whenever I'm on shift with him. But yeah, it's all because of my own screwups.
Honestly, in my case I think it's just ADHD. When the section chief is talking I space out, and if the explanation drags on I drift off into my own little world.
1 (2B) Pressed print wrong while practicing writing tickets, got a misprint, had to file a report afterward — a needless-work generator
2 (LF) Over the radio, casually talked back ("what's up?") to a superior with 20 years' seniority, at 2am
3 (3B) Rode a bicycle against traffic on the road, got chewed out hard
4 (1B) Crashed while practicing on a moped and wrecked a patrol car
5 (SS) Let a month's worth of the work diary pile up, then filled it in with giant letters at the last minute
6 (RF) Didn't respond to a call myself, sent my senior squad leader instead, and ticked off my supervisor
7 (CF) Spectacularly failed at writing a ticket even after being taught how four times, making my supervisor angrier than ever
8 (C) Overslept through my break (sleeping) and caused a huge amount of trouble
9 (P) Forgot to make a phone call, got lectured by another supervisor, and burst into tears right there with people in the police box watching
How did you even manage to graduate from the police academy with all that going on?
Don't go thinking being a cop is everything and blame yourself into suicide over not doing well — that'd be such a waste.
If it's not a good fit, quitting fast and looking for the next thing is a valid option too.
Don't blindly swallow rules like 'you have to grind it out for at least 3 years'
or 'don't quit until you've found your next job.'
Suicide's not on the table. All I want is to get the basics down.
writing it as if the reader already understands just how impressive that is, when they have no way of knowing that.
It's scary, the inability to think from the other person's perspective.
Simply put, it means becoming a section chief by around age 23.
Well then, what exactly am I supposed to do about this defect in my brain?
First, try talking to the staff physician (the in-house occupational doctor).
I'm not self-employed, I'm a civil servant.
Listen, any large workplace always has what's called a staff physician.
You can go see someone outside too, but seeing the staff physician first is the proper way to go about it.
Wonder if we even have something like that where I work — I'll look into it. Thanks ("サンガツ," slang for thanks, a play on 3-9 = san-kyu).
There's no way I could make it into the detective division as I am now — those guys are all people who were already top-tier even at regular police-box work.
I'm active duty myself, but I've been to a psychiatric clinic and I'm thinking about changing careers —
the downside when you screw up is just too massive to bear.
Thanks for your hard work. Plenty of issues on duty over here too.
If you really are one, that's a big problem.
There's nothing here that looks like it violates the Police Act or anything like that —
though the behavior itself is a mess.
From what you're describing it sounds like Traffic Division.
I write police-related fiction, so let me hear more stories.
Just fresh out of training, working in Community Police Affairs. Happy to share more of my blunders if you're interested — like I said earlier, I took the Metropolitan Police exam but failed. I'll just say it's somewhere in the Kanto region.
There's definitely one there, so go ask and talk to them.
It might not solve everything, but it could be the starting point for fixing things.
I'm scared they'll just see me as some incompetent rookie fresh out of training and recommend I quit. I'll think about it, though. Thanks.
You're dealing with pressure at 19 that's incomparable to what I faced starting work at 25.
The fact that you keep going without giving up despite messing up over and over is impressive.
Thanks — that actually made me tear up.
If a staff physician tells an employee to quit, that physician has failed at their job.
I won't force the issue, but staying as you are now is just too rough on both you and the people around you.
Especially the people around me, honestly. Being stuck with a liability like me — I'm really sorry about that.
It's not that I want to quit this job, though.
My senior at work struggled like crazy and only passed on his fifth try or so.
There's a night-and-day difference between Gen Z cops and cops from the Lost Generation (the generation that job-hunted during Japan's long 1990s–2000s economic slump). Which generation is your senior from?
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
After being hired, police officers graduate from the police academy and are assigned to a police box or Community Safety Division, entering an on-the-job training period right after their first posting (“sotsuhai”), during which they learn practical duties under the guidance of senior officers. The ticket-writing mistakes and radio-response failures the poster describes are considered typical troubles that often occur during this period. That said, it’s worth noting there’s no way within the thread to confirm whether the poster is actually an active-duty officer — the content remains self-reported. Some replies pointed out that hiring standards may have been relaxed due to staffing shortages, raising the question of whether training systems and working conditions for new recruits are adequate. The fact that civil servants also have access to a staff physician consultation service was shared in the thread as institutional information the poster themselves hadn’t been aware of.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyo G) thread “I’m a 19-Year-Old High-School-Grad Cop, Way Too Many Screwups, Ugh.”
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