Everyone knows why we all become cops: Drive fast and shoot s*it, right?
Well that's not the real story, at least for all the cops I know. But, I'd be lying if I said driving fast wasn't fun. When a "hot" call comes out we all want to be their first to help and do what we can to catch a bad guy.
But once you're on scene you often spend the next several hours maintaining the crime scene for detectives if it's a homicide or serious shooting.
Where I work the vast majority of our homicides are gang and drug related, even if "officially" we don't label them gang related (makes the city look bad).
The movies and TV shows that depict cops overcome with emotion at the sight of a shooting victim are largely fictitious. I've been on dozens of homicides and I've yet to see any officer cry, or even be really concerned honestly. It's harsh but true, generally these victims are a result of their lifestyle choices to be in a gang or other criminal enterprise and we consider it the cost of doing business.
It's not that we're shallow, we just can't get emotional because someone was a gang member who robbed people and they got taken out by a rival.
Crime scene management is a serious and difficult job, though. Family and friends often want to see the victim. We try to be compassionate to these people, it's not their fault their son sold drugs or robbed people. But, sometimes we've got to be hard with them and threaten to arrest them if they keep trying to cross the barrier. It doesn't make them like us, but it ensures the sanctity of evidence and helps us to try and find a suspect and successfully arrest them.