Makings of a Police Officer: A Guide to What One May Expect when Looking Into Becoming a Police Officer

By Officer Joe

This book was written with the hopes of reaching anyone interested in law enforcement, anyone who wants to become a police officer, and anyone interested in what happens during the daily life of an officer in training. It is also a resource for people who wonder what kind of and how much training a police officer receives. I have written about my academy classes and experiences that I believe were essential to my becoming an officer as well as a few experiences during the time that I have been an officer. When I was preparing to join an agency, there were no resources available for new-hire officers, and this book’s intention is to reach those who want to know what they are getting into.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jan 8, 2024
• ISBN: 9781304820396

Book preview

Preface

This book aims to reach as many people as possible interested in what it takes to become a police officer. My path has led me to live a life that helps others, and the best way I could think of doing it was to become a police officer. My experiences differ from many, but many of my experiences have similarities to those in my profession. A police officer should want to help other people be the best version of themselves and to help others. Those interested in being officers, remember this during your careers.

Many people join law enforcement to help their communities and improve the world. Some join for selfish reasons and perform the job poorly, making the rest of us look bad. I hope that people join law enforcement to better themselves and their communities. I hope that people can learn to better themselves through my experiences in this book.

I also hope that the people who are not interested in joining law enforcement and are curious about the profession find my book appealing to better understand what life may be like for a law enforcement officer. Again, experiences differ, and I may have seen worse than some officers or less than others.

As police officers, our calling is to help others. Officers help people through a plethora of methods, some of which include proactive enforcement by approaching those who appear to be searching for a crime to commit, some writing a copious number of tickets to help reduce fatal traffic collisions, some responding to fatal traffic collisions, some are on SWAT teams, some are on mental health teams, and some search for drunk drivers to reduce fatal traffic accidents. Officers perform countless tasks, and every single one is thankless. Be ready for that.

Few of us are on the job to be thanked for what we do, and we are rarely acknowledged for the hard work we put in daily. We do our job to help our communities be safer and to provide a better place to live for our families and everyone else’s.

This book may have no meaning to many people, but for others it will provide a much-desired window into our lives. I knew I desperately wanted something to read, watch, or experience before becoming a police officer that would let me know what I would be in for. I wanted something to help better understand the job, and most of the officers I spoke to either forgot what the academy was like or said, You’ll see when you get there. I wanted to have any point-of-view references by actual police officers who had been through a police academy and were working the job I wanted. Videos on the internet provided only a few minutes of information to help me better understand what might lie ahead for me. I wanted to know more before I dedicated my life to a profession and needed more information.

After a few years on the job, the stories seem endless; I have included only a few that were especially memorable for one reason or another in this book. Still, I hope I have included enough to help people better understand my profession and how some of these experiences have affected me.

I want everyone to better understand law enforcement and what the job entails. Future officers, current officers, and civilians alike. Everyone should know the job before judging it or wanting to work in it. I know I am not perfect, but I do my best to be my best every day, and I have many friends who do the same.

My goal through this book, my continued education, and my career is to better educate the public, officers, and supervisors on what the job entails. I hope to be promoted to higher ranks to treat officers who have been in some of my situations better than I have been treated and help others succeed in their careers. If someone knows more about the job they are joining, they will likely perform better, retain their job longer, and work harder.

***

Admiral William H. McRaven gave a speech to the University of Texas in 2014 and wrote a book on his tips for success. In that speech, he said that an average person meets about ten thousand people in their lives and recommends that each person try to positively change the lives of just ten people. If they can change the lives of just ten people, and those ten people can change the lives of ten others, and so on—you get the point…. The point: the 2014 class that he addressed with that speech that day could potentially impact the lives of more than eight hundred million people in just five generations.

If each person tries to help just ten people in their lives, the world could be a noticeably better place to live in just a few generations. This book is not only aimed to help people better understand police officers but also to encourage police officers and everyone else to try and make the world a better place.

Part One

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Chapter One

⁓Origins

That one hurt.… Those were the first words from my mouth after orienting myself while lying underneath a car. The ten seconds prior felt as if ten minutes had passed. A vehicle had just driven into oncoming traffic and hit me head-on.

Those ten seconds provided a moment of clarity in my life. Another moment that led me to want to help others. A leap toward utilitarianism and helping those who have been in my shoes before. My current and previous pain may later influence the lives of many.

In the darkness of my mind, while traveling through the air, I thought back eight years to when I was training to be a police officer in a major metropolitan police department. This realization provided insight into what led me to my career in law enforcement and how I can use my experiences to help others interested in beginning their journeys. This book will help readers understand what is necessary to start a career in law enforcement. The experiences within will include what to expect in the interview process, the academy process, my path in law enforcement, and what may be expected for those who continue their careers in law enforcement. Situations for each person vary based on the location of the police department. Still, many aspects of the job are similar in many agencies.

I had trained for all my years on duty for any conceivable incident that may occur. Little did I think that the two most significant moments in the first half of my career would include traffic collisions. Few people know this, but the majority of law-enforcement-related deaths and injuries are sustained from traffic collisions. Being a police officer is a dangerous job. Still, I never expected that a traffic collision could be more dangerous than any other aspect of the job and almost end my life twice. I still find this difficult to believe after being involved in two near-fatal traffic collisions. Regardless of who is at fault for the crash (I was not at fault for either, by the way), any collision can cause severe or fatal injuries in the blink of an eye.

Like many professionals who drive for a living, the likelihood for them to be involved in a collision is significantly increased over those who do not drive for a living. And apparently, police officers have an increased chance of being struck by vehicles while directing traffic or riding a police motorcycle at night (so I’ve learned from experience). While training to be a police officer, I knew physical fitness was necessary to reduce injuries and maintain a healthy lifestyle in a hazardous and strenuous profession. Little did I know, being physically fit would help save my life in both of the collisions that I was involved in.

By sharing my stories from the beginning of my career, I am hoping that people who read this have a better understanding of what it may take to pass the police academy; I hope they also learn from my experiences how they can have a successful career with minimal injuries and great success while serving their communities and contributing to a nice pension.

My path began in a small town in southern Oregon. I had grown up intending to be a police officer to help others and ensure that people could live safe lives. As a child, my mom would always call me Officer Joe because of the integrity I displayed as a child and because her father had also been a police officer (hint hint). While completing high school, I was told by local police departments that they preferred candidates who had completed a bachelor’s degree or had military experience. At the time, I was not eligible for any military branch because of a very recent broken ankle and a torn knee (both injuries from high school sports). With my only option being college, which I planned on attending anyway, I attended a university and completed a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and criminology.

While in college, I contacted local law enforcement agencies to see what was required to become a police officer in their departments. I was informed by each department that I would need to complete numerous ride-along hours with officers to be considered for the job. I also would need to complete enough ride-along hours to know some of the officers in the department and see if the job was right for me.

I knew I wanted to be an officer and only cared a little where I went as long as I got the job. I also knew I was only twenty years old and willing to work for whatever department hired me first. Each agency had a minimum hiring age of twenty-one, so I knew I could begin the application process for each agency while I was completing my degree and graduate exactly at twenty-one and have a job ready for me. I was wrong. My intended department had a hiring process that took two years before they called me for the job offer, after I had already accepted another job from an agency whose process took only six months.

After graduating college, I took a part-time job as a dishwasher so that I could leave at any time for a potential job interview or testing process. My boss allowed me to leave for every testing process that I was invited to. The work was surprisingly terrible and far more difficult than I had expected, not at all the job I expected after completing a bachelor’s degree! Luckily, the opportunity to work as a dishwasher helped me appreciate the job I have now, and it also allowed me to complete a black belt in karate. I worked as a dishwasher for almost two years before I could turn in my two-week notice and accept an academy opportunity.

In almost two years as a dishwasher, I completed about twenty to thirty interviews and hiring processes for different agencies and went on approximately one hundred ride-alongs. Apparently, being a twenty-one-year-old college graduate was not the ideal candidate for a police officer at the time of my application process. During a few of my ride-alongs, I was told by senior officers that a college kid doesn’t know anything about law enforcement and needs some life experience before I would be considered for a job. Each interview and each experience only provided more incentive to pass the next interview and get my dream job.

After many rejection letters, I finally considered working for a major police department rather than a small city. I was still waiting for my opportunity at my original department, which was pretty large in size, but was told I may need to wait another six months to a year before I would be considered for an academy position because my demographic was not essential for the city (quality reverse discrimination). Knowing this, I considered the department that I am currently in. The application process took six months to complete from start to finish before I signed papers and had an academy date.

From research, I knew that I had a lot of training to do for the department because of the high standards necessary to succeed in the academy. I followed the suggested training regimen provided by the department on their website for the most demanding physical fitness standards. I did three times the number of push-ups and sit-ups daily to ensure I was ahead of the game before I went to academy. During my interview, I convinced the interviewers that I could complete all necessary requirements for their department because I had easily completed the fitness standards from their website and was likely in the best shape of my life. During the interview process, I was also training to achieve my black belt in karate and working out multiple hours daily.

I also studied the requirements for the polygraph exam and psychological examinations, which would be necessary. Each of these was an easy requirement for me. The only requirements necessary were consistency in my answers (the majority of which consisted of my response to avoid pyromancy as a hobby) and the consistent negative drug test results conducted every month.

While completing the hiring process, I spoke with police officers who had recently gone through the academy. They informed me that the academy process was difficult. Still, it was more straightforward than it appeared to be through the stories of many. I was told that Academy was a game of wits.

As I had been told, the police academy was similar to a military boot camp. Police agencies were known to be militaristic but were not allowed to consider themselves militaristic for the sake of public appearance. At the time, anything police related was the talk of the nation. Militarizing police was a significant violation in the eyes of the public, and many people refused to believe that an academy may include any inclination toward military existence.

Trusting my source (and the many people I knew in law enforcement), I knew I needed to train as if I were entering the military. I also knew the strict standards of my new department and that I would want to fly through the ranks as quickly as possible. This encouraged me to train past the minimum standards necessary in the department and ensure that I could pass the minimum fitness requirements when I arrived.

My motivation throughout the entirety of my process encouraged me to run approximately twenty miles a week and complete two hundred push-ups and sit-ups daily to succeed in the police academy.

With the assistance of law enforcement friends and the will to succeed, I finally completed the entirety of the hiring process! I received the call while I was at the gym with my father. I had been selected for the next class. I was asked when I could make the next class and replied that I could be there immediately. I was chosen for the first class in November 2015.

Here are a few tips for interviews that I found helpful for myself. Through all of the failed interviews I have completed and a lot of trial and error, I discovered that although my tips are simple, they are effective.

Tips for the Interview

• Dress well and look the part. If you want to be a police officer, have a sharp haircut, shave your face, and wear a nice suit.

• Come prepared. Have all required documents ready days in advance and your ironed and backup clothes in the car if needed. Have numbers memorized. I was one of very few who remembered my phone numbers, driver’s license, and Social Security numbers. I always had a pen and notebook if needed (and it was required each time) and was the only one to bring them every time.

• Shake hands and be polite. It may be awkward and inconvenient to do so, but ask to shake their hands (because people are COVID-conscious now), shake their hands, and ask to be seated. Always make eye contact or look at their forehead or above their heads if you don’t like looking into someone’s eyes, and speak clearly. Use Sir or Ma’am (or whatever they ask you to use) whenever you talk to them or answer their questions.

• Sell yourself. No one likes to talk about themselves, but now is the time to do so. It seems awkward and annoying to say I too many times, but it needs to be done to sell yourself. A police officer needs to be confident, or he or she will not succeed. Confidence starts in the interview. Make the life experience you already have work for you in every answer. Even if life experience has been limited, we all have experienced something that can be used to help promote our dependability, integrity, and confidence.

• Never give up. You may fail twenty interviews, but you only need to pass one. After a few interviews, I learned what they wanted me to say and how to say it. I began placing in the top five or top ten of every department list, and eventually, I became number one. This same approach has worked for me in promotional interviews. Eventually, I was given numerous job opportunities in my department because I learned from my earlier failures.

Chapter Two

⁓Training

As stated in the previous chapter, I was told that the academy was a game of wits. If I did what I was told, the academy would be easy. It was as simple as that. I had consistently done what I thought was a lot of working out. I went on runs three to four times a week and worked out in some fashion every day. Little did I know, my working out was barely enough to get me through some of the most challenging days.

Many of the people I had spoken to when preparing had been through a boot camp of some variation before they moved on to police work for their next profession. I had not had the opportunity to do this because of my aforementioned ankle and knee injuries. The previous boot camp experience provided them insight into what it really meant to be physically fit and mentally prepared to complete a police academy and a life in law enforcement. They had already experienced the mental and physical abuse that I had only a small amount of experience with during my time in high school football practices.

As a young human (twenty-three years old), I knew very little about what it takes to be a law enforcement officer in a major city and how to be a functioning adult (let alone an adult who cares for all other adults). My training consisted of what I believed would be helpful in a police academy and what I thought would be useful as a police officer. I knew that fitness is necessary for longevity and that it may save my life sometime in the future. I had also considered how important being physically fit would be for me in the very near future now that the academy was approaching.

To train for the academy, I spoke with people who were already in a police academy in my new department and in other departments to compare notes. After speaking with a few cadets and officers in charge of training recruits, my training regimen would likely lead me to success.

I had difficulty finding consistent stories and mentors who could help me train for success in academy and in my early career. I did have many mentors who helped provide interview advice, ride-along experiences, and stories on what I may expect in the field. Still, I needed to know even more than they were offering. I planned on passing the academy without failing any tests. I knew I had one shot to succeed when I moved seven hundred miles from home and I was not going to mess it up.

For those hoping to join law enforcement, I offer my experience. My advice is the same as many others, but at the time, the people I asked couldn’t remember anything about their academy time or probation because it was too long ago to remember. For those who did remember, I was consistently told how difficult the process would be, how it was more of a mind game than anything else. Similar stories were shared by those who were in the military before their careers in law enforcement.

I was told that the drill instructors treated each minor infraction as a significant crime against the entirety of the class. Every person will inevitably commit an infraction, something small but still an infraction. No one will be perfect. Everyone will fail at some point. The point of failure is to learn from the experience and keep moving forward. This is a tough concept to grasp but one you actually need to understand.

I was told that everyone will have flaws no matter how perfect they think they are; each person also has strengths. Working as a team, we have an increased capacity to succeed because we can employ everyone’s strengths. Each person is part of a team and must continue working together to help one another to achieve a common goal, in this case to pass academy.

I was also told to train my physical fitness to the best of my ability before the police academy so that it would be the least of my worries when testing began. Testing would occur three to four times daily to ensure each recruit’s perfection. Testing that involved fitness, policies, tactics, and law. Failing at any of these could mean immediate expulsion from the academy.

Knowing what I was told, I ensured that fitness was the least of my worries. As I said, I had just received my black belt in karate, which significantly helped my physical fitness. I lifted weights two to three times a week and ran at least three times a week. I knew that cardio may be a significant issue for many people during the academy and that I may need to run three to five miles at a time and likely do so daily. This encouraged me to run three to five miles every other day while preparing to ensure complete success.

I also performed two hundred push-ups and sit-ups every night. I had been doing about one hundred of each a night for the previous few years, but I knew I needed to do more to be better than other recruits when I made it to the academy. I knew I did not want to be the worst in the class, or even to be struggling. I knew there were going to be plenty of challenges along the way, and I did not want fitness to be one of them. No matter the exercise in my future, push-ups and sit-ups always helped. Little did I know just how beneficial they would prove to be!

During my interview, I was asked to provide the workout regimen suggested by the department to determine if I would qualify for their academy. I had to complete a three-month workout plan consisting of running, push-ups, sit-ups, and other workouts. Completing this plan would ensure my success in the academy; noting progress weekly ensured constant improvement.

Before utilizing the department’s workout regimen, I was already doing my own workouts, which consisted of their recommendations and many others. Doing so made me feel like I would be ready for the academy without any issues. I also had a bachelor’s degree in the field, so I expected to learn policy and procedure quickly.

In some ways, I was right, and in others, I was wrong. Before attending the police academy, I could run five to ten miles at my own pace without any struggle. I could also do a couple hundred push-ups