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any law enforcement here? question regarding police officer position

2K views 55 replies 19 participants last post by  Paladin 
#1 ·
I am contemplating a career in law enforcement. I just started my research about a month ago and have decided to move forward. I downloaded the "personal history" form and was amazed at its length. 4 main questions I have for any resident leo's:

1)How in depth is the background check? (I don't know if I can remember everywhere I lived since I was 18)
2)Right out of college - must have had 18-20 jobs in 2 years time- is that a disqualifier? Hell I don't even know if I can remember them all. (Currently been with the same company almost 10 yrs though)
3) How difficult is it for a normal citizen to get on with a police department with no previous leo experience?
4)Anything an individual can do to better their chances of getting on with department?
 
#4 ·
Traffic tickets, etc will have you frowned upon. You pretty much have to walk the line (before you're hired) and they do a background check, some even do credit checks, but the best way to get hired is to know someone or a few officers or people in the field (dispatchers, correctional officers, etc).

One thing to keep in mind is, if you have a family....make sure you give it a lot of time to discuss because in that line of work, your wife doesnt want a knock on her door at 2am.....
 
#5 ·
1. Pretty in depth butttt thye can kinda understand if you can not remember everywhere. You really need to find out though. Kinda says hey I made an effort.
2. NO but doesnt look good
3. easy as pie. I had zero law enforcement.
4. College hours help. Oh an be really honest about prior drug use.

It is a true pain in the butttt to get hired on but the perks are decent.
 
#6 ·
What city did you apply for? Some citys will be strict about all of the info. The whole thing is being honest about everything. They will give you a poly graph. That many jobs in 2 years does look kinda bad on you. Shows that you do not have stability, but it is not a dis-qualifier.


Just remember one thing BE HONEST! I used to conduct the background checks on new applicants and if i found any dis-honesty I would recommend to reject the applicant.
 
#10 ·
Haven't applied officially anywhere yet, just started looking tonight around the metroplex and noticed the personal history statement.

I noticed plano was hiring.

Yean I didn't know what I wanted to do out of college, so I hopped around a lot until I found out what I wanted to do. Been there the past 9 yrs now.

Honesty is a given, just didn't want to start something if I was going to get dq'ed because of a reason like I asked about.

Are certain department's around the metroplex easier to get onto?
 
#17 ·
We are not going to be hiring for a while. There is money for one more academy class and it's already full. After that, all classes have benn cancelled due to budget concerns.
 
#30 ·
One thing to keep in mind is you'll be going up against people...

-Ex military in some cases
-Hold/held a clearance with full background check and have all that information
-Zero record of any kind, to include tickets

With that said, I find it hard to believe a couple of tickets will destroy your chances. However, you had better remember any and everything you did from 18 on. I would not hire anyone who could not at least ballpark that information. I'm not a LEO but I do plenty of work for local and federal government to know they want that information.
 
#15 ·
1)How in depth is the background check? (I don't know if I can remember everywhere I lived since I was 18)
2)Right out of college - must have had 18-20 jobs in 2 years time- is that a disqualifier? Hell I don't even know if I can remember them all. (Currently been with the same company almost 10 yrs though)
3) How difficult is it for a normal citizen to get on with a police department with no previous leo experience?
4)Anything an individual can do to better their chances of getting on with department?
Like a few of the other ppl that have been in LE, I'll say it depends on the dept for some things.
1. You better figure it out. A good way to at least get started is to run a full blown credit check of yourself, because they will. This will at least give you an idea of some of the places you've lived. They're not going to wanna see credit/resident history problems.
2. Again, better figure it out, somehow. At Richardson, they said you better figure it all out. Do you have prior year tax returns? Maybe you can ask for copies from the IRS to see where you got W2's from and the like. When I had applied, if you couldn't give an address/phone number/contact number, you better track down whoever the last boss was, and if the business was defunct, you had to supply some sort of record to indicate that.
3. I don't find this matters much. If you're already LE, obviously it helps alot because you've already been through background/training before.
4. Do a ride along to see if it's what you want to do. A few traffic citations here and there isn't going to hurt, but anything above that, i.e. class B etc will obviously hurt your chances. But like I said, it depends. With Dallas, it won't matter as much as a smaller municipality.

I know Plano (at least they used to) would hire a lot of people, and put them through the NCTCOG academy, and then would wash everybody out in their mini-academy at the Tri-Cities academy. Kind of a retarded way to do things but what can you do?

I won't sit here and argue the validity of a polygraph, but I am of the general mindset that if you lie, you will most likely get caught. Period.

Most cities will have the civil service test, then the B-PAD, agility course, lots of interviews, and then an oral review board. If you make it that far, stick to your guns and your convictions. Especially if they give you a bunch of "what if' scenarios. They're looking to see that you can make a solid, committed decision in the field and be confident about it.

Keep in mind, there's usually 150-200 other people vying for 1-2 spots in the suburbs.
 
#24 ·
dallas like most larger departments is on a hiring freeze right now so no. what prior conviction would you be refering to? no department can hire you for a mis a or above. you can be hired with a mis b if it is over 10 years old. you can never have had a dwi or a family violence conviction either...
 
#22 ·
For me it was easy to get hired on. My driving history was fairly decent. I had some college hours but no degree.

I went ahead and put myself through the academy (TCC) and then put in two applications. I was told not to put in too many applications. I'm not with a big department or anything (30 sworn officers) and I didn't know anyone.
 
#23 ·
Please don't apply and admit to committing a felony offense that you were never arrested for. You would be surprised at how many people will apply and admit in the application to things that are immediate disqualifiers.
 
#52 ·
They say we are only 8-9 down. However I think the math is fuzzy since we have whole divisions missing. LOL Its more like 14 down and for us that is a bunch. We just had a test and you can tell the economy is down because we had 130 applicants. I think we are only filling 6 for now though. I have a feeling when the new budget hits it will be worse.
 
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