police officers

th3vault
Thu, 26 Aug 2010 00:48:26 +0000

I don’t know the specifics of your respiratory issues that would require a waiver for the military, but I will say this: local and state LE can be slightly more flexible about issues such as that than the military is, however they will still DQ you if it is a serious issue. Federal LE can be just as strict as the military is regarding those issues.

The rest of my post will assume you can get a waiver, or that the issue is minor.

The law enforcement hiring market is terrible right now. The last agencies that were on hiring binges in Texas have seriously scaled back, and most of the rest of the country is either on a freeze or layoffs. Due to the amount of layoffs and the limited number of departments that are still hiring, most of the slots are going to those with prior LE experience. The standards for those just now trying to get into LE have gone through the roof. A degree plus minor retail experience will not make you competitive. You need “life experience” in addition which typically means one of 3 things:


LE related (Dispatcher, reserves, community service officer, corrections…etc)
Military
Civilian job of significant responsibility (flipping burgers doesn’t count, but managing the night shift might)


Will need that for at least 2 yrs plus at least 2 yrs of college to be a competitive candidate. While life experience may substitute for college, college typically cannot substitute for life experience. In this market you should have at least 6 years of some combination of the college and life experience to have a good chance. Then you must complete the hiring process succesfully and do very well during the oral board and written exam.

The good news is that a recent article stated that 50% of American LEO’s will be eligible for retirement within the next five years, which means a massive hiring spree is on the horizon. The bad news is that it’s 5 years down the road, and those officers won’t be retiring and/or the departments won’t replace them until the economy improves. So you need somewhere to ride out the next 4-5 years and get good life experience.

In the other thread you mentioned law enforcement and the foreign service…well there is a way to sort of combine the two while serving in the military.

ENLIST (you cannot do this as an officer) in the Marine Corps. Pick any MOS you want (I’d recommend MP as the Marine MP’s still do some patrol functions unlike some of the other branches) and complete the training and serve at a station for a year and a half. Then you can apply to become a MSG (Marine Security Guard). You must be unmarried and be eligible for a Top Secret clearance. Then you will be assigned to a US Embassy for a year, you will do this 3 times for a total of 3 embassies in 3 years. While there you will be working the security of the embassy alongside foreign service officers and bureau of diplomatic security. It is also possible to draw presidential guard duty in the Marines, though that is not nearly as straightforward as MSG duty is. There are other security/LE like functions in the Marines, but I believe they are closed to females. A TS clearance will also be VERY helpful in getting a federal law enforcement job once you would leave the Marines. However, it should be noted that you could also end up training Afghani police or guarding prisoners or assisting the infantry/deploying while an MP or other MOS. I do believe that MSG’s are non-deployable.

Now should you discount the military, there are other ways to give yourself advantages.

Reserves, self sponsoring to an academy in states that allow that, community service officer posisitions, dispatching, corrections in the states that separate that from patrol sheriff’s offices…the list goes on. However all of those are not exactly on a hiring spree right now, they are all flooded with too many applicants…though they should be a little bit better than patrol LE agencies are.

BigeastBeast is right though…you do need thicker skin. You will be screamed at and all sorts of nasty insults will be hurled your way in either boot camp or the academy. You will find that a large amount of people have no respect for the police and are not shy about expressing their feelings. As long as they stay within the law you have to just let it bounce off you no matter how mean or rude they are.