Police officers are law enforcement officials who fulfill various responsibilities, including issuing citations and tickets for traffic violations, responding to emergency calls, arresting criminals, and investigating crimes. If you think that being a police officer is the career path for you, follow these steps.
Get Your High School Diploma or GED
Education levels among police officers vary, but the bare minimum is a high school education. You also must be at least 18 years of age before going through the requirements to become a police officer. Some areas have programs that include high school students in cadet programs designed to provide training to those individuals who have not yet completed education requirements or are not yet 18.
Consider Furthering Your Education With Law Enforcement Degrees
While it’s not a requirement to have a college education, there are some college majors and programs geared toward a career fighting crime. Many current police officers studied fields like sociology, criminology, or psychology before becoming a police officer. Having a bachelor or associate’s degree may also increase your starting salary. Additionally, some police departments will heavily encourage or require police officers to take classes or courses and acquire law enforcement degrees. Other departments require a college education.
Attend the Police Academy
Unless you work for a very small law enforcement locality, you’ll have to attend a police academy to learn the ins and outs of what police officers do. Police academies typically provide classroom instruction on different laws and citizen rights as well as ethics and guidelines. Additionally, police recruits receive hands-on training with firearms, traffic control, self-defense, and emergency response.
Go Through On-the-Job Training
After you graduate from the police academy, you’ll be required to go through a probationary period of supervised work. Probationary time periods vary, but you’ll be working with more experienced officers until it is deemed that you’re ready to work on your own as a full-fledge list. As you go through the probationary period, you’ll be evaluated and placed on a promotion list based on your work.
Work on Important Qualities
After you become a full-fledge police officer, it’s important to improve the way you work with other people. As a police officer, you’ll be working with lots of other people, so it’s not a bad idea to try and learn a second language, such as Spanish. Additional great skills to continually improve upon are communication skills, empathy, perceptiveness, leadership, and physical stamina or strength.
