wanting to become a cop
 

Just curious if anyone has any 1st or 2nd hand experience with what comes along with becoming a police officer. I went to borders and checked out the exam book, plenty of physical and basic mental stuff, but there is also a screening process with a polygraph.


Im a recovering drug addict, never been arrested, and to be honest when to rehab. I wanted to know if any of this stuff will give me trouble in getting accepted. any info would be appreciated

Re: wanting to become a cop
 

Most of the cops in my small town growing up were big into coke.

So I'm guessing that its not an instant DQ. Not sure if you wan't to be around that type of environment.


What state you in? Looking for town or state police?

Re: wanting to become a cop
 

My buddy has been trying to become a cop for the last 4 years. You have to do a lot of volunteer work. You also want to have lots of experience in dealing with people it helps greatly if you were in a position of authority.

There is the physical component obviously.

As for the polygraph, I think you'll be ok if you're not currently doing drugs. It probably depends if you're in a small town or a big city. Big city is likely to be a lot more stringent.

Re: wanting to become a cop
 

You'll prolly be OK if it's a local/small town cop but Federal or State law enforcement w/documented drug problem & rehab...may be a problem.

Re: wanting to become a cop
 

Depends on the agency you'd be applying to. You'd probably have more luck in smaller town type areas but I can't say for sure.

Gotta be able to get into it though for what it is. I was a criminal justice major and intended to go into law enforcement. Did a two month internship with the state capitol's CID/county detectives. Had an absolute ball for those two months, went back to school and completely changed my focus from law enforcement to business analysis.

Cops are for the most part great guys/girls, but you've gotta realize that for the most part these are people that see the worst side of people as their profession. In my two months, I:
- Oversaw two autopsies, one being a guy who either blew his head off or had his head blown off by his g/f playing a f**ked up sex game.
- Collected evidence implicating a man accused of having multiple sexual partners in their early teens at his house.
- Oversaw a house being stormed by CRT (like SWAT) to clear it after they'd picked up a guy who had multiple machine guns who threw his g/f out of his house yelling that she should get the cops cause he's gonna kill 'em all.
- Participated in a "street-walker" raid where they went rounding up dozens of the $20 hookers.

Etc. When you see so much ugliness, you take one a very cynical view of the world. You're not seeing the good in people anymore, you're wondering about the worst in people. It's like that with every cop I've ever known, and I've known and am still friends with quite a few.

Good luck to you!

- C -

Re: wanting to become a cop
 

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What state you in? Looking for town or state police?

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nj ... looking to get into local police, just an option though not my only direction

Re: wanting to become a cop
 

Why become a cop....get beat up when you were in grade school? Need for revenge?

Re: wanting to become a cop
 

No expert here, but your chance for success prolly depends on whether you're applying to become good cop or bad cop.

Re: wanting to become a cop
 

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Im a recovering drug addict, never been arrested, and to be honest when to rehab. I wanted to know if any of this stuff will give me trouble in getting accepted. any info would be appreciated

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This will be the toughest part about getting into law enforcement. I have a buddy who has applied for jobs in several police/sheriff departments, and he is getting grilled because he said he smoked weed several years ago.

Like was posted above me, the psychological evaluation is going to weigh heavily on whether you will be considered for any more tests. You see a lot of [censored] when you're on the streets, and then you begin to realize why cops are the way they are.

Another major factor in how a department will decide on hiring you, is how well you can control a situation. Just think about how you would handle a domestic dispute. You need to be able to get the drunk redneck wife beater plus his drunk redneck wife to STFU without touching/threatening them, and without sounding like a total pussy.

Re: wanting to become a cop
 

If I was a big-time coke dealer I would get you hooked again and blackmail you for inside info in exchange for drugs.