Position Accepted: Officially Hired

Earlier this week, I received a phone call from my preferred agency officially offering me the position of Police Officer with their city.

I currently feel like I'm on cloud-nine and I'm still trying to get used to the fact that I'm actually a police officer now. I will be sworn-in in about 2 weeks on the same day that I start my new career.

That one, seemingly simple phone call was worth all the nerveracking days.... all the fingernail-biting, all the hopes and realizations of the possibility of failure. It was all worth it.

I now sit at my current job thinking about what is to come in the next few weeks. This is a job that I've wanted since I was a kid (what boy doesn't want to be a cop when they're young?), and now I'm finally realizing that it is happening to me.

So, after all the months of traveling to this city to test, interview, test, test, and test, I am going to be reaping the benefits. This goes to show that if you keep pushing and trying with all your heart, you WILL accomplish your dreams... whether that dream includes law enforcement or not.

I will keep this blog updated with what kind of training I go through in the months to come. Also, don't forget to check out my main blog HERE for further updates.

July of 2008 - Final Phases

In the middle of July, I took a trip to the city where I would hopefully be working for the final phases of the department's hiring process.

I was to take the following tests over a period of two days:

1. Polygraph Examination
2. Psychological Evaluation
3. Physical Examination
4. Stress Test

On a Tuesday, I showed up to the department at 1000 hrs. I was placed in a room with a polygraph machine for about 20 minutes..... staring at "the machine." I think this was all part of the process. The polygrapher came in and we went over all the questions that would be asked. I had nothing to hide or lie about, so I was very confident that all would go well. We chatted for a while about anything that would possibly come up during the test. After being hooked up for what seemed to be about 10 hours (I think it was only about 30 minutes), I was free to go.

After grabbing some lunch, I reported back to the department for my psychological evaluation. This consisted of 3 different written tests (fill-in-the-bubble) totalling about 1,300 questions. It was about 5 hours of reading seemingly pointless questions and filling in the corresponding bubbles on the answer sheet. There is a good reason they use these tests, and that is to get a good idea about the mental stability of the candidates. I hope I didn't come off as crazy! :-) Any type of question that could have possibly have been asked was asked. Don't get me wrong, it's not like they locked me in a room for 5 hours. They told me I was free to come and go (take breaks) as I needed to. By the time I was done, it was past 5:00 PM and the whole building was dark. The psychologist (who I thought had left for the day) had to come in and get me and show me out of the building because I was technically locked in!

That night, I had to fast. I could not eat anything for 12 hours. This was in preparation for my physical the next morning.

The next morning, I reported the medical clinic and was poked and prodded in every way imaginable. My hearing, vision, reflexes, blood, blood pressure.... everything was checked. I also took a drug test.

After all of that, I went and got some lunch and came back for the final test; the stress test.

The stress-test consisted of being hooked up to about 12 "diodes" or whatever those things are called that they stick to your chest. I was then placed on a treadmill and went through a variety of speeds and inclines which got my heart to do different things. They found that my blood pressure was a little high, but other than that, I was good to go.

Now, every agency has a different hiring process. They all do things differently.... so everything you have read may be tweaked in one way or another, but for the most part, you will go through (or have gone through) basically the same process.

May-June of 2008 - Background Investigation

The background investigation phase took approximately 6 weeks.

I waited without word for nearly the whole time. One day, I received a few phone calls from my references telling me that they had been contacted by someone from the agency. This told me that progress was being made.

Finally, I got a phone call from a Sergeant that told me that my background had just landed on his desk and that there are no issues with it (woo hoo!).

About 3-5 weeks later, I received a call from the city's human resource department. They offered me the job (conditional offer)!

The conditions were that I pass a polygraph exam, a psychological evaluation, a physical, and a stress-test (running on a treadmill).

I received a letter with all the information I needed.... and I began a 6-week wait...

May of 2008 - Letter

I received a letter in early May stating that this agency had decided to go with other candidates for officers.

I was a little disappointed, but I wasn't going to let that get me down. I simply started looking at other agencies.

I found another agency in rural South Dakota who seemed interested in me. I applied, tested, and interviewed with this agency and the week before they offered me the job, I received a call from the FIRST agency (who sent me the denial letter) asking me if I was still interested!

I said yes... and they began my background investigation.

I waited yet again...

April of 2008 - Interview

I receieved a letter stating that I had passed the written test and that I would be contacted to set up an interview!

This was great news to me because again, I wanted to work for this department.

I set up my interview with one of the Human Resources ladies and spent the week preceeding it studying up and sharpening my interviewing skills.

Upon the day of my interview, I was called early in the morning while I was still sleeping. The HR lady asked me if I could be there about 5 hours earlier than I was originally scheduled because they had had a cancellation. Of course, I didn't refuse. I accepted the interview slot and got up and got ready in a storm of haste.

When I arrived, the staff was very happy that I had come in early. I didn't have to wait long until I was shown into a room with about five people in it. Keep in mind, this was a board interview. Two individuals from the city commission (I believe) were there, one patrol officer, and two sergeants (one of whom was a detective).

Once my nerves calmed down a bit, it was fairly relaxed. They asked me all kinds of questions, but because I had studied and freshened up my interview skills, none of these came as a surprise to me. Everyone was very friendly and seemed happy to be there interviewing candidates. This was very important to me as I have been to other interviews where the interviewers act as if I am a pain in their rear.... like they would rather be doing something else. This has been the cause for my leaving the hiring process more than once.

The way I look at interviews is that I am not the only one being interviewed. The agency for which I'm applying to is being interviewed by me. This agency passed all of MY tests with flying colors.

At the end of the interview, they took my picture because they said they had so many interviews that day, that they were afraid of confusing candidates.

I went home that day feeling very good about the interview... and the possibility of working for their department.

I waited yet again...

March of 2008 - Written Test

In February, I finally received a call asking me to come to the department and take a test.

I showed up in the morning in a suit and tie to a room with about 12 other people who were police-hopefuls. None of them had dressed up like I had. This was slightly embarrassing, but I knew about the rule of "dress to impress" and I knew I couldn't go wrong by wearing the suit.

The test took about 2 hours (split up into sections) and it was comprised of all kinds of questions ranging from math to sentence structure to grammar. The last part of the test was a report-writing test. It basically measured how well you could write. Having prior law enforcement knowledge was not required as there were no actual legal questions on the test.

After the test, we handed all our materials back in and went home. I had to drive about 180 miles..... and I waited yet again.

January of 2008 - Application

I applied for my current department in January of 2008.

One of my best friends had an interview in this city for a firefighter position (sadly, he ended up not taking that job). He told me that the city was looking to hire some police officers and I said "what the heck, could you pick up an application for me when you're down town?" He did, and I took it home and filled it out.

The application was about 15 pages long. The first part consisted of the usual "name, date-of-birth, address, etc." The rest of the application was what is considered a "background packet." This consisted of anything you could possibly imagine. It asked for information such as previous names, references, all addresses, criminal history, past drug use, and even all contact with law enforcement.

I have come to learn from watching other individuals' misfortunes that it is ALWAYS best to list everything you can possibly think of on these things... because if you don't, they WILL find out about it when they do the background investigation on you.

Anyhow, it took quite some time to fill out, but it was worth it. I mailed it in about a week later and began waiting.

Description of Blog!

I created this blog to chronical my journey through the police hiring process and training.

I will be keeping most agency names out of my posts, but I will try to be as detailed as possible.

The reason I have created this is so that the generations to come have some material to view with regards to what it takes for a person to become a police officer in the state of South Dakota. I hope this blog will also prove helpful to those who reside outside of SD.

A brief background about me...

I graduated with a Bachelor's of Science degree in Criminal Justice in 2006. I have thought about working in all kinds of levels of law enforcement, but within the last year, have decided to work on the local level for a while. After meeting my girlfriend (and later proposing to her), I have decided that the midwest is where I would like to make a life for myself.

I have been interested in law enforcement since before I can remember. I was introduced to a police cadet/explorer program in my hometown which opened up many doors for me. It was this program and the men I worked with who molded my understanding and dreams of law enforcement.

Within the last year, I have applied and tested with about 8 agencies. I was never turned down from one of them, but I withdrew from many of the processes because of one reason or another (usually location, pay, benefits, etc...). This week, I finished up testing with my department of choice and am expecting a call from them next week for a formal offer. I will certainly be writing about that more often.

I hope this proves helpful to many. Please feel free to email me with ANY questions you may have. I will be more than happy to help.

Also, check out my main blog HERE!