This post is mainly towards those on this forum who are either police officers or know a lot about police officers.

I have a few general questions that I hope the LCPDFR community can turn into a discussion(I really love posting questions here and reading the different perspectives on things)

1- What are the different values and virtues a person would need to become a police officer? Does it depend on the position in the department?

2-What are certain studies/majors/degree that you can study and graduate with to help you become a better candidate in application times

3-Are certain childhood upbringings(wealthy, middle class, poor, ghetto etc) crucial in developing the ambition/ want to become a police officer. For example, I have no idea why I have always wanted to become a cop, but as I get older I realize I want to be a leader in the community. One who can help many and be looked up to by kids. I want to make a difference by taking away those who do not do good for the community

4-As a police officer, what is the primary goal? What criminals do you focus on taking in the most? Does you degree in college/highschool or whatever increase/decrease your chance to get into certain divisions?

beckugan1

Some of this information should be available on your preferred department's website. Just take a long in their employment section and see what personal characteristics they look for, or what values they state are important to their service. A high level of integrity would be important, and perhaps the most important skills would be in communication.

I don't think many agencies have required tertiary qualifications, most in my country require high school completion at a minimum. It's not uncommon to hear people who are intending to be police officers are currently studying a degree in Criminal Justice or Criminology, but they aren't all that common. Some department's might have recognised tertiary qualifications come from the usual application process.

The primary goal really depends on where you end up and what job you have. Again, you should look into the specific organsitions you are interested in and find out what they offer, and what it takes to get into those divisions.

I'm not speaking as a law enforcement officer so take my answers to your questions with a grain of salt, I'll give you my best answers coming from a family that is mostly in law enforcement and a student of criminal justice.

1- What are the different values and virtues a person would need to become a police officer? Does it depend on the position in the department?

I would say you need a thick skin, HONEST, assertive in a non- threating way, able to handle pressure well, excellent communication and listing skills. These would be good skills of any position in law enforcement and are by no means an exhaustive list.

2-What are certain studies/majors/degree that you can study and graduate with to help you become a better candidate in application times

Great question, study anything that interests you! I happen to love criminal justice so that is what I study, but you can study business, and computers, which would be great assets to any department to have an officer that has these skills. A degree in one of the liberal arts would also good for this field. As critical thinking and writing are often forgotten, but integral parts of police work. You could even major in one of the sciences, if you are interested in forensics and criminalistics. GIS/Geography is a good major for someone who wants to be in law enforcement, but might not want to be a police officer and crime mapping is becoming essential to “community policing” and patrol mapping.

3-Are certain childhood upbringings(wealthy, middle class, poor, ghetto etc) crucial in developing the ambition/ want to become a police officer. For example, I have no idea why I have always wanted to become a cop, but as I get older I realize I want to be a leader in the community. One who can help many and be looked up to by kids. I want to make a difference by taking away those who do not do good for the community

Policing is not a job one takes just because they need a job. The majority of people become cops because they want to for any number of reasons. They come from all different backgrounds, black, white, Hispanic, male, female, gay or straight. It does not matter they background you come from, you will all have the same uniform and badge and that’s the unifying factor within policing. Also, I think you have noble reasons! J

4-As a police officer, what is the primary goal? What criminals do you focus on taking in the most? Does you degree in college/highschool or whatever increase/decrease your chance to get into certain divisions?

I’m going to go with a clichéd answer of “protect and serve” for your first question. Second questions It depends on your departments goals a state trooper is not going to have the same focus as a deputy in a civil sheriff’s office. Likewise a municipal police officer is going to have a very different focus than either of the latter. I just depends on what kind of police work you want to do. If you want to spend all day pulling over truckers, an agency does that in my state. If you want to serve papers all day, find a civil sheriff’s office. If you like rural areas, you might consider becoming a deputy. Just depends on what you want to do.

Edited November 6, 201213 yr by cwoods

Well....The one thing you definitely need is bravery but not sure about the degrees and stuff like that cause im in a different country lol.

You put forward some interesting points, and its good to see you interested in policing as a career!

As before mentioned spend a little time looking at your force's website, this always helps in knowing a bit more about it.

1- What are the different values and virtues a person would need to become a police officer? Does it depend on the position in the department?

A question like this is hard to answer, there are so many different values which you could have, but do not need. However, you will not survive a week if you can't take a hell of a lot of abuse, as said before- you NEED thick skin. It would also help if you can easily keep stress down, and be able to get on with the job no matter what. For example, I was involved in a scrap with two youths when one pulled a knife on me, cut about a 1 inch gash just under my eye and proceeded to start a pursuit, I continued through the pursuit as second-car and my colleagues went onto arrest them later.

Expect to end up in hospital once or twice- ALWAYS expect the unexpected

2-What are certain studies/majors/degree that you can study and graduate with to help you become a better candidate in application times

All I can say is get to the end of school and try to get to college, if not, get experience with a security force to get to the area. Just get as many qualifications as you can!

3-Are certain childhood upbringings(wealthy, middle class, poor, ghetto etc) crucial in developing the ambition/ want to become a police officer. For example, I have no idea why I have always wanted to become a cop, but as I get older I realize I want to be a leader in the community. One who can help many and be looked up to by kids. I want to make a difference by taking away those who do not do good for the community

Different upbringings have absolutely nothing to do with anything. No matter what kind of family you're from, you'll have something different to give.

4-As a police officer, what is the primary goal? What criminals do you focus on taking in the most? Does you degree in college/highschool or whatever increase/decrease your chance to get into certain divisions?

Degrees always help with getting into different parts of the police, desk jobs do require degrees, pro-active jobs don't so much but they help with getting in.

As a police officer in the RCU, our main job is to shut down all illegal road users... not much else. But we also deal with more tense calls for when a taser is required to subdue a suspect.

I hope you get the answers you're looking for at some point!

3-Are certain childhood upbringings(wealthy, middle class, poor, ghetto etc) crucial in developing the ambition/ want to become a police officer. For example, I have no idea why I have always wanted to become a cop, but as I get older I realize I want to be a leader in the community. One who can help many and be looked up to by kids. I want to make a difference by taking away those who do not do good for the community

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It depends...Because, sure, a young, poor person may want to be a cop, but he may get in with the wrong group and get a criminal history and his chances of becoming a cop are lower. Also, cops that aren't white tend to get made fun of because of their race by their own race.(Typically seen in Chicago, LA, NYC, any big city.) It really depends on the community you're serving in too.

It depends...Because, sure, a young, poor person may want to be a cop, but he may get in with the wrong group and get a criminal history and his chances of becoming a cop are lower.

This. If you want to be a cop, stay out of trouble. If they're picking between two people, and one has a criminal record, they're probably going to take the other one.