A cop’s story

An unusual career path, a $100,000 pay cut, and a cop who calls people "neighbors." Also, 7 other things worth your time.

This is the story of a rookie beat patrol officer in a medium-sized city. He came to the job late—49 years old now, and he’s only been on the force a few years.

Here’s his career path: joined the Coast Guard out of high school, then worked as a waiter and a flight attendant while attending college at night. From there, he worked for the U.S. Capitol Police in Washington for a couple years, then the federal air marshal program after 9/11.

Then, a few years with the CIA, then work with a global intelligence and security company, and finally his current job with the police in Savannah, Georgia.

Wait, back up. The CIA. Good, you caught that. The officer’s name is Patrick Skinner. I originally heard of him because somebody retweeted him on Twitter, and I started following.

(This despite the fact that his Twitter bio reads in part: “a truly terrible twitter follow.”)

His story, as I missed at the time but later read, was shared in an article by Ben Taub in The New Yorker, which spurred some m…