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Careers In Law Enforcement |
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A Guide To The
Basics Provided by the through the Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School ©1996 There are
nearly 800,000 police officers in the WHAT ARE
YOU GETTING YOURSELF INTO? The Yarmouth
Police Department has fifty-two sworn police officers,
ten civilian employees including a mechanic, clerical staff, and public
safety telecommunicators, two K-9s, and over twenty
reserve police officers. We operate 30
vehicles, several bicycles, two 4x4 ATVs and a motorcycle. Our operating budget is about 4 million
dollars a year. We serve a community
of 26,000 year-round residents plus as many as 60,000 to 70,000 visitors at
the height of the tourist season. The
Yarmouth Police Department is a community oriented agency and we truly are “Committed To Our Community”. Many new
recruits are surprised to find out that law enforcement is not all catching
the bad guys. Police work is a
service-oriented people business. The
Yarmouth Police Department handles more than 40,000 calls for service a
year. We handle a wide range of
situations, from bank robberies and domestic disturbances to giving
directions to lost tourists and providing information at neighborhood
meetings. Most of those calls were
service activities as opposed to law enforcement calls. The Yarmouth
Police Department, like many other agencies, runs a Citizen
Police Academy. This intensive
program provides the student with a tremendous amount of information about
what police work is really like and can be an excellent resource to those
considering law enforcement as their career field. HOW DO I
GET A JOB IN LAW ENFORCEMENT? Watch the
newspapers! Most agencies must
advertise when they begin their hiring process. If you do not know when they are hiring,
then you cannot apply. Every law
enforcement agency has its own hiring process, but many of the elements are
generally the same. Here is the hiring
process of the Yarmouth Police Department as a typical
example. Only applicants who pass each
stage move on to the next: ·
An ad for applicants is placed in various newspapers. ·
A general-knowledge written test is administered. ·
Background investigations are conducted on applicants who
meet or exceed a set cut-off score. ·
Those applicants are then interviewed by a board of senior
Yarmouth Police Officers. Some
applicants will be eliminated base upon their interview. ·
A smaller number of applicants are then interviewed by a
representative from the office of the Chief
of Police and from the Town Administrator’s Office (usually the
Chief and Town Administrator
themselves) ·
A list is formed and each applicant has a specific ranking
on that list. ·
As openings come up, a conditional offer of employment is
extended to the person ranked number one on the list. ·
Applicants are given a psychological screening to ensure
they have the appropriate disposition for police work. A physical screening is also conducted to
ensure an applicant is physically capable of doing the job. ·
A physical ability test (PAT) is held that,
by law, each candidate must pass in order to be hired as a police officer in
the Commonwealth. The PAT standards
are set by the Massachusetts Human Resources Division and the test is conducted by their
personnel. Applicants must also meet
the criteria for acceptance to the academy as set by the Municipal Police Training Committee. Applicants
passing all phases and accepting the job are appointed as police officers by
the Honorable Board of Selectmen. Unless
they are already academy trained, new hires are given a date on which they
begin the six months of police academy training. This
process is typical for an agency about the size of the Yarmouth
Police Department.
The process will vary from agency to agency. A very large number of law enforcement
agencies in MAKE YOURSELF MARKETABLE Law
enforcement is generally a buyer’s market.
In other words, there are more applicants than there are jobs. Most agencies have the luxury of picking
and choosing who they want. Making yourself
marketable is crucial. COLLEGE
EDUCATION While some
agencies do not require a college degree, almost all prefer a minimum of an
Associates Degree. Degrees in Criminal
Justice or similar fields are preferred. EXPERIENCE Applicants
who come to the job with some type of experience are very attractive. Many agencies have some type of reserve,
auxiliary, or cadet program where prospective police officers can get their
feet wet and gain valuable experience and training. The armed forces also offer excellent
training and experience in their Military Police Schools, both on active duty
and in the reserves. POLICE
ACADEMY TRAINING Applicants
who are graduates of a Municipal Police Training Committee approved police academy are very desirable. The hiring police department can put the
academy trained applicant to work immediately and not wait the normal four
month training lag between hiring and active duty. Most applicants who are already academy
trained are coming from other police departments where they have had the
opportunity to get some experience under their belt. A few others are sponsored by a police
department. These people are few and
far between because they must commit to the rigors of four months of training
without pay. They are also responsible
for providing their own uniforms, equipment, and health insurance. Not many agencies participate in
sponsorship. CRIMINAL
RECORD You must
keep your nose clean. Even the smallest
infraction on your record can keep you from getting a job. Many state and federal laws carry a
prohibition from carrying a firearm upon conviction. In minor cases where no prohibition exists,
the impact can still be significant.
Think of it this way: if it
came down to someone with a “minor in possession of alcohol” charge on his or
her record, or the next person whose record is clean, who would you pick to
be a police officer? PART-TIME
OPPORTUNITIES Many
cities and towns including those on the Cape & Islands have part-time
police officers. Reserve, special, or
auxiliary police officers are used to increase manpower to meet the needs of
the seasonal population increases, and during special or major police
deployments. The Yarmouth
Police Department has a moderate number of reservists on our
roster. The hiring process resembles
our regular hiring process very closely and it to is very competitive. A background investigation is conducted on
all new hires. Those hired must
complete the Reserve Basic Academy training
course approved by the Municipal Police Training Committee. This program offers prospective police
officers a taste of the real thing and provides them with some very valuable
training and experience. FULL-TIME OPPORTUNITIES MUNICIPAL
(LOCAL) Municipal
government is the home of the bulk of police employment opportunities. The average police agency in the
COUNTY Sheriff's departments
in Massachusetts, like the Barnstable County Sheriff’s Office are
primarily responsible for corrections and not law enforcement, though some
have a small staff of criminal investigators whose role is to provide
forensic and photographic support to local police departments and act as
clearing houses for information such as fingerprints. In other parts of CAMPUS
LAW ENFORCEMENT Most large
colleges and universities maintain a private police force on campus. In many cases these officers are granted
their arrest powers by the local or state government where the campus is
located. These officers receive their
basic academy and in-service training alongside municipal police officers at
state accredited training centers.
Campus police agencies such as the Boston
College Police, Assumption College Campus Police, and the University of
Massachusetts Police (Amherst) offer tremendous career opportunities
and excellent benefits packages. STATE The Massachusetts
State Police is a large agency that offers a diverse range of
specialty units from ballistics to aviation.
The State Police hold their own civil service style entrance exam and
academy when they have a need to hire new troopers. The Massachusetts State Police Academy is
located in New Braintree. The state
also operates other agencies such as the Environmental
Police, and the Massachusetts
Bay Transit Authority (MBTA) Transit Police. Some of these agencies are Civil Service
subscribers. OPPORTUNITIES AT THE FEDERAL LEVEL The
federal government has a large number of law enforcement agencies, usually
with small staffs. Almost every federal
agency has some law enforcement branch within it. These agencies have a wide range of
jurisdictions and specialties to choose from.
Most train new recruits at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center. Each has its own extensive hiring
process. This is just a partial list. ·
Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives · Drug Enforcement Administration ·
Federal
Bureau of Investigation ·
United States Marshals Service Department of Homeland
Security ·
Customs & Boarder Protection ·
Transportation Security Administration o Coast
Guard Investigative Service ·
United States
Secret Service ·
United States Postal Inspection Service (the oldest law enforcement agency in the Other
federal departments that have one or more law enforcement agencies under
their auspice: o
Defense Investigative Service · Environmental Protection Agency (Criminal Enforcement) ·
o
United States Capitol Police o
MILITARY LAW ENFORCEMENT Each branch
of the armed forces is served by its own law enforcement agency. The Army and Marines have the Military Police
Corps; the Air Force has Security Police; the
Navy, Master at Arms. Each branch has battlefield obligations on
top of its law enforcement responsibility.
They are each charged with security, force protection, and law
enforcement on military installations at home and abroad. Serious crimes are investigated by the Army’s Criminal
Investigation Command (C.I.D.), and the Air Force
Office of Special Investigation (O.S.I.). The Navy and Marine Corps fall under the
jurisdiction of the Marine Corps Criminal Investigation Division
and Naval Criminal
Investigative Service (N.C.I.S.). C.I.D. and O.S.I. do not take
direct enlistments. You must serve in the
respective branch for a period of time before being considered. N.C.I.S. is
actually a civilian branch of the Navy and hires personnel in much the same
way other federal law enforcement agencies do. C.I.D.
is a hybrid agency employing civilian agents to work alongside Army
personnel. The United States Coast Guard, a division of the Department
of Homeland Security, is
responsible for enforcing criminal as well as environmental and maritime law
on the high seas and in port. All
offer excellent training, opportunities and assignments all over the
world. The M.P.s
and S.P.s offer excellent training for prospective
civilian police officers and can be a good starting point for young people
who do not choose the college route. MORE QUESTIONS? Remember,
this guide is just meant to give you basic information. The U.S. Department of
Labor also has information in its on-line on
pursuing a Police & Detectives career. If you are seriously considering a career
in law enforcement at any level, please do not hesitate to stop by the D-Y Police Services
Unit to get more information, or if you are reading this on the internet
contact your local police department or any of the other agencies mentioned
here. CAREERS
IN LAW ENFORCEMENT A Guide To
The Basics Written by School Resource Officer Provided
by The Frank G. Frederickson, Chief of Police through the Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School “Committed
To Our Community” © 1996-2009 Nicholas R.
Pasquarosa, Jr. |
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