A Guide into Law Enforcement

By Francisco Nieto

A Guide into Law Enforcement is a guide for anyone interested in a rewarding career in law enforcement. This book chronicles the steps to take in achieving your goal. This guide also has information on the criminal legal system and how it works. This guide highlights what to expect when you attend the regional law enforcement academy and beyond. This book highlights several important issues in law enforcement such as arrest and control, search and seizure, patrol, traffic stops, and career survival.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jun 4, 2019
• ISBN: 9781796038460

Book preview

Copyright © 2019 by Francisco Nieto.

ISBN:                  Softcover                       978-1-7960-3847-7

                            eBook                             978-1-7960-3846-0

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 06/04/2019

Xlibris

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CONTENTS

Chapter 1    Where to begin

Chapter 2    What is law enforcement?

Chapter 3    Essential communication

Chapter 4    Criminal Justice System

Chapter 5    Arrest and Control

Chapter 6    Police Field Operations

Chapter 7    Traffic Patrol

Chapter 8    Officer Survival

Chapter 9    Career Survival

Chapter 1

Where to begin

This guide is geared towards anyone who has ever thought about a rewarding career in law Enforcement. The questions most aspiring police officers or deputy sheriffs have is,where do I begin?. How do I begin? Well I hope to answer all your questions about how to begin. Police officers protect the lives and property of citizens. They maintain order, catch lawbreakers, and work to prevent crimes.

First of all be mindful of automatic dis-qualifiers. Any form of felony convictions or use of illegal drugs or controlled substances used or experimented prior to you applying for any police department may automatically disqualify you from even getting in to test for any police department exam. Remember, even though Cannabis Sativa - Marijuana is legal in several states, including California, it is still a federal offence. Also, if you have ever been deemed at risk by virtue of possible mental or health issues which may have been documented as a danger to yourself or the safety of others by a law enforcement officer or health professional may disqualify you.

Any major health, back, shoulder or knee injury may also disqualify you from completing the gauntlet application process. Another disqualifier may be any documented domestic violence you may have been a participant to or allegedly committed, and were sentenced, committed or commuted. Therefore, stay clean, stay healthy, and don’t abuse alcohol or drugs.

Let’s start at the very beginning. If you’re between the ages of 11 – 14 years of age; joining an association like the Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts of America, KARE youth groups, etc, will help you prepare for almost any career. Why, you may ask? Because these are organizations that prepares young persons for life. They provide programs for young people that build character. They learn about crafts, science, trades, business and future careers as they earn merit badges. Their programs offer fun challenging activities that promote character development and physical fitness. I would also include organized sports in this category. Organized sports teaches self-discipline, order, team work, physical fitness and also challenges. However, they should be well rounded. All sports all the time without other activities is not recommended. A variety of activities will help prepare you for adulthood.

If you are between the ages of Between 14 – 20; Law Enforcement Explorer Scouts, police cadets, or Junior ROTC (Reserve Officer Training Corp) at your local high school will help guide you towards a career in law enforcement. These are organizations that focus on your career choice. In particular, the Law Enforcement Scouts focus directly at guiding you into a law enforcement career. They have competitions against other explorer units on handling burglary calls, robbery calls, how to conduct a building search, rescue, felony car stops and regular traffic stops and officer safety. They also provide ride-a-longs in an actual police patrol unit with a sworn law enforcement officer, and special events. Generally, in the ride-along program, explorer scouts get to sit along side a police officer or deputy sheriff and are allowed to observe the law enforcement officers as they perform their day to day policing duties. The explorer scouts get to observe different methods of policing by various officers. This is actually a front row seat learning method.

The Junior ROTC program at your local high school prepares you for a career in the military. However, the skills you develop under a Junior ROTC program will also help you in preparing you for a career in law enforcement. This program also has a limited duty, cadet military police unit, which helps you learn basic traffic and crowd control at the school’s local football games and other sports or special events within the school. Even though this program dosen’t dwell in law enforcement per-say, it helps develop leadership, team work, and tactical survival instincts.

If you are between the ages of 18 - 21, you may apply to be a general employee at most governmental entities. You may secure a position as a Police Cadets or even volunteer for military service, which may help guide you into a career in law enforcement. At 18 years of age you can secure a position as a custody officer. Working as a custody officer at a county jail or as a jailer in a city police department will help you get into your career choice. You’ll learn police jargon, police codes and even methods of operations of certain crimes. This is a very unique way to get your foot in the doorway, per say. You would be considered a general employee. You do not need to be a sworn law enforcement officer to be a custody deputy of city police department jailer. Yet, these positions provide a wealth of information, experience and knowledge about law enforcement. Police cadets, generally perform a variety of needed law enforcement support services, which in turn provide you with knowledge and experience about your career choice. Even working for the California courts as a court clerk will benefit you if your ultimate goal is to be a law enforcement officer.

If you are over 21 years of age, that’s the starting age that you can apply to any city police, county sheriffs department, state highway patrol, federal law enforcement jobs or corrections. Don’t discount volunteering at your local police, sheriff or court houses. Any type of exposure you get volunteering will help you get in the right direction. There are many volunteer groups throughout the state. Each police or sheriff’s department has a wide range of volunteers that are needed and used. You can volunteer to be a police officer reserve, Citizen volunteer, search and rescue volunteer, special department volunteers; such as the coroner’s office, homicide, narcotics. Records, and so much more. Generally, age is not a factor with some police departments. It’s all about being able to complete the grueling requirements and then being able to do the job. However, some departments, such as the California Highway Patrol Department do have an age limit.

Keep your focus on your end goal, keep applying at various agencies throughout your city, county or state. You never know what each agency is looking for. They may be looking for a particular type of candidate that fills their requirements. Keep going to school, obtaining additional education and training. Be prepared, stay in shape, stay healthy. Stay off social media. The less you put out on the net about yourself the better off you’ll be.

You can also apply with almost any police department to go on some ride-a-longs. Meaning you could ride in an actual police vehicle, beside an officer, and see exactly what police officers encounter on a daily basis. If you are accepted and authorized to go on a citizen ride-a-long, please be mindful of your hygiene. Brush your teeth, brush your hair, shower or bath the morning of your ride-a-long. Wear a clean fresh shirt and trousers. You’ll be riding with an officer anywhere from eight to twelve hours. Try not to eat garlic, chutney or fish the night before. These few tidbits of information may not seem important, but they are. Please be mindful of your host.

Preparing for the exam

The next step is to Brush up on your writing skills. Take an English class at your local community college if you think you might need it. You’ll be amazed at how many police reports you have to write. This is one area that you should really be proficient. Practice writing stories. Practice writing out incidents you see and describing what you saw. Be descriptive without being too creative. You don’t want to embellish. Just write the facts, who, what, where, when and if known, why. Write exactly as it was conveyed. If unknown, then simply write a synopsis of what occurred, but be forthright in you assessment. Use basic English grammar language. No need to use technical jargon or fanciful wording. Do good in English class. There’s no need to be creative. Simple English grammar is all that is needed to write good police reports. Creative writing is for those who wish to write fictional novels or stories. In police work, simple straightforward basic facts about what occurred is what is relevant.

Math class is a good ideal too. However, you don’t need to get bogged downed with a higher math then algebra. Algebra may be helpful in traffic collision reconstruction, however, with today’s technology even traffic collision reconstruction has gotten computerized. If you have already taken calculus or physics, don’t worry. If you have a special skill set, such as computer technology, it may be helpful too. Mathematics is used in traffic collision investigations. Measuring skid marks evidence can be used to determine estimate speed, together with other factors in determining