My mom was a school teacher and both my parents were college-educated so I spent most of my childhood enduring frequent lectures about the importance of academics. Grades were not a problem for me until I entered middle school; then there were just too many other interesting things to do besides study and my grades slipped a bit. This did not ...

When I became a cop in 1980 many of the veteran officers made fun of the new recruits who had college degrees. We heard things like “What are you going to do in that bar fight, Rookie, hit ‘em with your diploma?!” And to be honest, at the time I really didn’t see how my four year degree in “Law Enforcement ...

One of the most popular workshops we teach is titled “What Did You Just Say?!” We call it that because if we called it “Organizational Communication for Professional Police Agencies” no one would hire us. Attending classes on how to communicate with each other is right up there with sexual harassment prevention, cultural diversity training, and learning CPR; its stuff we ...

When I finally procured my criminal justice employment, where I would eventually spend the majority of my law enforcement career, I was so thrilled to receive that letter of appointment that I didn’t bother to find out how much money I’d be taking home each week. I’d been involved in the testing process for months, I was 21, single, still in ...

*“Forget everything you learned in the academy”* At least one veteran officer is going to say this to you as you begin your FTO program. And you know what? They’re probably right! All those weeks you spent in your criminal justice degree program learning about tactics, law, procedure, ethics, human behavior, report writing, firearms and traffic stop procedures from that dedicated ...

Most of us start the academy with a servant’s heart. Remember the old LAPD motto “To Serve and Protect?” That’s all of us, that’s supposed to be what cops are all about, but pretty quickly into your law enforcement career, it becomes less about “them” and more about “us.” We separate ourselves from the rest of society, even from our family ...

The very last thing on my mind the day I was hired by my police department was getting promoted. Oh sure, I had a fleeting fantasy that “some day” I’d be the agency’s first female chief. But I was mostly concerned with getting through the academy and then on to field training; in other words, I desperately wanted to be a ...

Once you’ve passed the written test, the oral interview, the physical agility test, and you’ve successfully jumped through a few other hoops, you’re probably ready for the background investigation. How ironic that part of the process to become a crime fighter is to be investigated by one! In this competitive job market, the background investigation is becoming even more important to ...

People always ask me, “Why did you become a cop?” I’d love to have a great philosophical answer like, “I wanted to have the opportunity to give back to my community” or a really cool answer like “I wanted to drive fast cars, shoot big guns and put evil men behind bars” or even the standard oral board interview answer everyone ...

*Start with some one-on-one time* One of the best training sessions I ever attended was one-on-one with a fellow officer who taught me (yes, this will totally show my age) how to “word process” on something called a “personal computer.” I was a new sergeant who had been told I’d better learn how to how to use a PC; he was ...

While police entrance processes vary widely from state to state, and even from department to department, most law enforcement applicant screening processes begin with the written exam. By starting with the written exam, most sheriffs and police chiefs (having been one I understand this concept) use the written exam as just that: a screening tool. Written exams are a fairly cheap ...

Teenagers get a bad rap. Many adults think that teens today are nothing but a lazy, drug-crazed, sexually obsessed, over-privileged, video-game-addicted drain on society…all the same things that adults thought about my generation, except for the video game part. In reality, this current generation of teens may be the next “Greatest Generation;” many have an excellent work ethic, a deep sense ...

You’re out of the academy, done with field training and out on your own. You may be just off probation, ten years into the job, a detective, a supervisor, a manager; you may even be the chief, but chances are, you’re hoping to _never_ have to sit in a classroom again. After all, isn’t most of what we learn in law ...

Through all of the law-enforcement hiring articles, emails, and discussions I've been involved with, one thing has become clear: a person’s ability to be hired is not in the stars. It's in the patterns you can read in their lives, and police chiefs, sheriffs, and the recruiters and background investigators that work with them, are looking for those patterns. The best ...

I had been a field training sergeant for several years when we hired a new recruit who sat down with my boss and told him that she really didn’t have the time or the inclination to go through all that silly police academy and patrol officer stuff. She asked to be immediately assigned to our Investigations Division as a detective, and ...

So you’ve decided that law enforcement is the profession for you. Congratulations! As you’ve probably figured out by now, it’s not as simple as choosing your agency, walking in the door, filling out an application and being handed your dream assignment. Law enforcement is a diverse profession with literally thousands of options, specialties, and career paths. That’s the good news. Here’s ...

I’ve been a cop at the same police department for 28 years. That’s more than half my life, longer than any of my romantic relationships and four years more than my oldest kid was on his last birthday. That’s quite a commitment. You’d think that I must have chosen carefully back in 1980 when I took my agency’s police entrance exam. ...

You’ve filled out the endless applications, taken the tests, sailed through the interviews, rocked the physical agility test, and chosen your police department; now you’re finally in the academy. Whether you find yourself at the local junior college or at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, there’s no doubt this is going to be tough, and its just going to get ...

Wouldn't it be great if there was one and _only one_ police entrance exam for every department in the nation? However, as many of you know, that's just not the case. Every police agency has different requirements and different attributes they are looking for in an employee, which means you could take a dozen police entrance exams and none of them ...

Do you love the idea of being involved in crimefighting but are not sure you’re ready, willing or able to strap on a gun, a badge, and a TASER? Fortunately for you, there are literally hundreds of opportunities to work in law enforcement without being a sworn officer. In fact, your most difficult decision may be which position to go after, ...