TIPS

I withdrew from 2 departments before I got to test for them because I could not get the days off. (I'm in academy). Is this gonna look bad putting it on applications or will they not care? Do I have to put it on applications even though I never tested for them?

Hey yall, gonna keep this short and simple, I have a ride along coming up in a few days that’s from 6pm to 6am. My question is, how do you prepare for a night shift? Do you guys sleep late and wake up in the afternoon? Do you sleep early wake up in the afternoon? Do you guys keep the sleep schedule the same?

Thanks in advance

I am strongly considering going into law enforcement, however I’m having the hardest time finding the info to get into the academy or even what it takes as a brand new start. I have only found the process for post graduates to get hired or for laterals. What do I do to get into the academy?

Howdy folks,

State of Indiana to be clear;

Pulled up on a call for service for a car in a parking lot, guy was slumped at the wheel. Knocked on the window. Acting weird, asked for consent to search the car. He gave consent to search the car, partner found a baggy with a white powdery substance (field tested to cocaine). Prior to field testing it, guy was acting weird still, detained and cuffed. Asked for consent to search his person but he didn’t say yes. In the heat of the moment, I did indeed end up searching him and going into his pockets. Ended up taking out a cigarette pack from his pockets, put him in the squad, opened the cigarette pack and found a baggy of fentanyl (it was tested at station).

Im fairly new to LEO work so I was under the impression of doing search incident to arrest. My captain and the Officer in charge for the shift said its a violation, but not something I should he too worried about because I had an actual excuse, not just violating dudes rights for the fun of it. What do you all think? He was on parole for sex charges but we didn’t know the conditions of the parole if it allows us to search him.

I know the fentanyl will probably get thrown out, but im assuming the cocaine charge will stay? Ill be extremely lucky if he pleads guilty to everything and doesn’t bring it to court. Especially for the fentanyl charge.

TIA

I am located in Arkansas. I have my Medical Marijuana Card. I do not have my concealed carry permit but I have no felonies or criminal background. The only thing on my record is a Misdemeanor DUl, which permits me to carry a gun here. I guess that's still considered a criminal charge but that's all l have on me. Let's say I carry to the dispensary to get my medication and leave it in the stapled bag with the receipt until I get home. I throw it in the glove box and don't touch it until l'm home. I carry a legal, Gucci Glock 19 AIWB (in my name), in a custom Kydex holster. Im not just throwing it in my waistband or pocket. Let's say I get pulled over and let LEO immediately know that I have a firearm AIWB while keeping my arms on the wheel. Let say I either let him know my MMJ is in the glove box, he sees it, or a search leads to it (that's all I would have). What would happen? I know every law enforcement officer has discretion.. but what would most likely happen? The last thing I want is to get nailed with a class Y. Also curious to what would happen if I carried my small THC pen and MMJ card on person along with my CCW. I do not want to break any laws, but leaving one or the other at home makes me uncomfortable. However, if that's what I gotta do that's what I gotta do. Thank you for your service.

i own a discord server, last night we had a person submit an anonymous confession saying "I'm not sure how to word this or who to go to but I've given up on life. I'm sorry to all those I hurt. I'm sorry I couldn't fit in,with yall. I'm sorry for everything. and last of all I'm sorry for what I'm about to do. i wish you all a lovely night'

long story short I got confirmation on who the individual was, I want to do a welfare check on him as this is not something I could see him doing for "attention" or bluffing on.. he's just not that kind of person. all I know is his first name, the fact that he's in Texas, that he runs an auto shop, what he looks like, and that he has access to firearms.

does anyone know how I can go about this? TIA

My uncle is a retired correctional officer ( and in his agency one of the few few Asians, and a rare Vietnamese American ). He had a a lot of thoughts about police/law enforcement reform, since the George Floyd Protests in 2020. Here are his thoughts.

Cultural Sensitivity practices : He agrees with this in principle. However, he says, the best way to encourage cultural sensitivity, is to actually hire people who look like the communities they serve. The percentage for example of Asian American Law Enforcement Officers is very low despite, Asian Americans being a very fast growing population. Even as a correctional officer he said, he was a rarity. He says we need more peace officers who speak Spanish, Russian, and all of these languages.

Academy Training/Length and College Education. : He points out that the common training regimen length that is portrayed by the media doesn't show the full picture.

There's often continuing education courses, and for many agencies 3-4 month long post academy field training program. Of course, one might wonder about the lack of Pre Academy requirements. In many agencies, the minimum is a high school diploma. But he says doesn't show the true story. He says that at least in Northern California, a college graduate is far more competitive in hiring than a high school graduate in addition to any languages one can speak.

He says, but there's another catch. Where the Police agency is located. He points out that people who do get college degrees, often don't work in the inner city police departments, they go out into the suburbs, where it has become basically white collar work. He says, for state level agencies, like the California Highway Patrol or even correctional agencies like CDCR, they can afford to be more selective or picky compared to small town USA. Mandating a college degree would ironically, make diversity worse in his view, the model of having incentives he believes is better.

He does not approve of deputy sheriff gangs, he sees it as stupid and immature.

He defends the Paramilitary structure of many academies because he points out that, at least in the correctional officer world, there is a hightened level of alertness that any peace officer has to be prepared for, and he does not see that happening in a less paramilitaristic environment. Of course, he admits that community policing has to be emphasized, but once again, he says, both in the police and correctional world, not enough people of color are being hired.

As a Vietnamese Immigrant who came to the US when he was 18, my uncle does not approve of so called military police culture, that he saw in both the policing and correctional worlds. He says, just respect the person in front of you, and they will show it back. He does not believe Military culture is appropriate for civilian law enforcement.

I have one issue preventing me from applying. How am I supposed to survive? If the academy is from 7-5 M to F, I obviously can’t work. That leaves me with Saturday and Sunday to work and I don’t believe that’s enough to sustain me and my child. How did you get by?

Where I live it is extremely competitive 4-500 applicants for 2-3 spots in most places. How many departments should I apply to? I just started the academy 2 weeks ago and I applied to 2 places so far. Would it be okay to do 5 at once?

Anyone here who lives in florida who is knowledgeable of these two agencies? Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office (formerly Miami-dade police) vs the Miami City Police Department.

I live out of state and will probably have to choose between the two to apply. If I lived in state I would obviously apply to both. I heard the miami PD will be recruiting this February and not sure if miami dade will be recruiting in the near future.

Between the two, Miami Dade Sheriff looks like its alot bigger, with more stations, and more officers, also seems like an older agency with lots of tradition.

If I had to choose, I am leaning towards thinking the miami dade department looks like the more prestigious organization but maybe anyone here can comment?

Maybe anyone can compare some of the pros and cons of each department?

One of the most important decisions regarding my choice is which department is the best for me in terms of my goal of working in a gang unit. I am curious if Miami Dade's jurisdiction has more areas related to gang activity vs Miami cities jurisdiction map. I personally do not live in southern florida and am not knowledgeable on the most crime ridden areas of the city with gang violence.

I work at McDonald’s currently while job searching and a guy came in tonight at the drive through and threatened to shoot me while in the drive through. He then came to the window and he opened his car door saying he’s going to fuck me and my manager up (caught on my phones camera) and said we need to serve him or we’ll be sorry. He then pulled off and came inside where he yelled some more and then left. PD was called and a deputy came out and looked at footage and got a pic of his car the of the guy however the plate # was unreadable. Will anything else be done or is it more of a just call if we see him again?

What’s the proper way to behave? I plan on asking plenty of questions about the job itself, not much outside of that. Is there any advice you’d give that wouldn’t be common knowledge? For what it’s worth, I’ve never been on one before.

Also, was told to dress “business casual” are slacks and a polo okay? Or should I wear a button up. I was told specifically no jeans

Pretty certain I’m getting DQ’d due to dates being a little off where I lived at… Hate my self, but when you’ve moved dozens of times from short term leases, to stays with friends, getting accurate dates over 15 -20 years is insane. Remembering all that stuff, and if you incorrectly get dates off you’re automatically unfavorable. This process is rough, but I’ll Keep at it.

Hello! So I have been selected to move forward for a position with my local sheriffs office park ranger division. So my concern is, the questions about illegal drug use like marijuana and cocaine etc and taking unprescribed medication like Xanax etc. if i have smoked marijuana when I was younger, and I answer yes to the question, will it DQ me? Should I say no? Getting pretty phsyced out about some of the questions they are asking on the forms, and I can only assume a lie detector test will be conducted with the same questions. Any help or insight is appreciated thanks!

Looking for some honest advice from those in the field about making the switch to policing.

I’ve been working in banking in Toronto for the past two years after finishing a business degree. While I’m grateful for the money, I don’t find the work fulfilling and have always been drawn to policing.

I’m in good shape, train MMA regularly, and have been around firearms my whole life. I know the job is demanding, and I want to get a realistic sense of how competitive my profile would be, especially in Canada. I'm also concerned at 24 I'm far too young.

One concern I have is balancing the application process with full-time work. For those who’ve gone through it, how much time did you need to take off for interviews, medicals, background checks, etc.? Any advice on managing that while keeping a steady job?

Appreciate any insights—thanks in advance.

I have a 2nd car that I dragged my feet on registering, totally my fault, but trying to figure out where to go from here.

My registration expired in July 24, I've paid all registration and late fees, but it needs a smog test. The issue is my car needs to complete enough drive cycles to be eligible for a smog test (already failed because of this and have rechecked 3 times) I keep getting told I just need to drive it more.

Here's the kicker, in 4 days my car will be 6 months expired which I believe means it can be impounded if I'm pulled over. But I need to drive my car in order to be able to register it? I'm not eligible for a temporary operating permit as it's more than 2 months post expiration. As far as I can tell my only option is to keep driving it and roll the dice hoping that an officer would be reasonable in understanding the situation, but I don't know how realistic that is. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

So I recently went from night shift to day turn for 6 months, just a more try it out to see if I like it and then I go back to night shift. I know all the guys on day turn, I know how they are, but I'm having some issues. Every time I go out and start looking for stuff when we don't have calls and such I get like an attitude when I stop cars for something that they wouldn't do. Like for an example I just did a traffic stop a few moments ago cuz the guy had one brake light well in my state you need two. I stop people with one brake light as more of a hey just so you know you only have one if that one burns out you're kind of screwed. Well when my partner showed up to back me up, I told him the reason for the stop and he just bent down, looked through the window and gave me this look of like really what the fuck. And it's not just for this type of stuff it's for a lot of things that I stop for. Mind you I have 13 years on the job so it's not like I'm green or anything I just like doing traffic. The guys I work with that work on day turn they like to be reactive more so and just respond to calls. They tell me all the time oh no big deal just do your thing and get into it if you want and we'll back you, but when I make stops they give me an attitude. I don't know if I should just say fuck it and not worry about it or bring it up to them. Thoughts?

My friend was pulled over for speeding 30MPH+ over the speed limit. He said the cops didn’t give him a ticket, just a “caring” ticket. I’ve never heard of this before lol? I told him he probably misheard the cop and it was a careless driving ticket maybe? He was convinced it was a “caring” ticket though and already threw it away.

Hi yall gonna keep this short and simple. I had always read that if you have certain “specifications” it would help with the process of getting selected. My question is does having a gun license/permit help with getting selected? What about if you have a class 4 drivers license? Or even air break endorsement? Do things like air break endorsement that aren’t really related to driving a police car still give you an advantage in the process?

Thanks in advance

I tried slipping off my ankle monitor with a plastic bag and some lube, but my feet is hella big so when the monitor came off it broke the strap abit and it notified the authorities who gave me a new one. Gonna do it again, any ideas how I can better get it off without cutting or damaging it?

Your choice of interpreting the question

I hope this is allowed, but I'm looking to chat with an RCMP member (preferably small town western Canada, but wherever is fine) about the career. I'm an older (late 30s) potential applicant weighing pros and cons of applying vs sticking it out in my current career. If you're willing to chat, please let me know.

Edit:

Here's my situation. I'm a relatively old potential applicant. I'm in my late 30s. I'm currently securely employed in an industrial job. Aside from being shift work, my current job isn't very physically taxing. Most days are fairly uneventful, but there are days of high mental stress scattered throughout. I reliably make between $200000 and $250000 per year and have a decent retirement savings built up. The problem is I feel like I've hit a wall and I'm bored with my employment. As for my family, I have two young children, a spouse, and we live in the same city/area as all of our immediate family.

I've always been interested in joining the RCMP. I see it as an exciting, adventurous, respected career where I would get to help people. I'm not at all expecting it to be all fun and games, but I'm expecting opportunities to help people and to deal with different situations every day. My initial question is: am I romanticizing the RCMP? If I were to apply and make it through, I would expect to be posted in a small town in Western Canada. Is being an RCMP Officer in a small town an exciting and rewarding career, even for someone that would be approaching 40 when they begin their career?

Hello Leo,

I took my evaluation a little less than a week ago. Which included an interview with a psychologist. The department I have applied for conducted my home visit interview today and the background investigator still hasn’t received my report. How long does it take for the report to be given to the department? It’s the only hold up for the next portion of my hiring process.

Thank you in advance!

I understand these things are case by case, and there are many factors, but generally speaking if you make a traffic stop on someone who doesn't appear to be under the influence or appear to be using drugs, but they have an arrest record from years ago, are you likely to change your process at all? or even mention it? Will you just conduct the traffic stop as you would with anyone else? or are you more likely to dig further, question them, or consider calling a k9 in search of probable cause? I'm sure if you pull someone over with in arrest record, and they're clearly so high that they're nodding out and can't speak coherantly, or can't keep their eyes open, or they have drug paraphanilia in plain view already granting you probably cause, or you smell drugs, you're likely to take the stop further... But what if the one and only thing that would be considered a bit of a red flag is just a prior array record? Curious on your thoughts.

I am in the middle of writing a story where a scene involves a delicate hostage situation involving a Politician. A negotiator was able to establish a line of communication and the assailants only gave one demand and that was they want them to send in a news reporter to give them an interview in an attempt to get their message out. They promise if the demand is made with no strings attached the reporter will be left unarmed and released after the interview and they have been given a short time frame to set this up or they will harm one of their hostages, and they have already killed one hostage after they saw a SWAT team try to get in but back away due to the door being rigged with IEDs. So my question is, obviously a hostage is down so their getting together a Tier 1 unit to go in and take them out yada yada operation Nimrod type deal, how realistic is it that the SWAT teams would allow a news reporter to enter the crime scene to do the interview as a way to distract the men so they can get their guys inside unseen? I am aware this whole thing seems like a stretch regardless but I want to know if its still a plausible situation they could do so long as a reporter would be willing to do it. If it sounds just totally ridiculous and not something they would ever consider I will just do some re writes I am not too worried about strict realism I want to write some fun fantasy and turn my eye to certain inaccuracies but these sort of broad stroke things and overall attitude and methods used by police and military I wanna get right.

Applied to Beverly Hills and am wondering if anyone knows anything about the department?

Currently an applicant going thru a few processes. What are common disqualifiers, red flags, something that puts your attention on them? I know the basics like credit, traffic history, not notating this or that. Is there anything that you guys see that’s a common reason to disqualify? I submitted all my booklets, made sure to contact courts, confirm traffic tickets, dates, employer dates, etc. just a random thought I have while I have anxiety of going thru this silent background process. I tried my best for my booklet to be easy peasy and not put any more work for them to have to dig or ask questions.

Hello all. I am currently in the process of applying to some local law enforcement agencies in Tennessee. I have a question regarding a crime I was charged with many years ago.

Back in 2010, I was charged with petty theft for attempting to shoplift an item from Walmart. Obviously this was many years ago, I was a dumb kid in a small town, etc etc. However, this charge has been fully expunged, and I have all the paperwork associated with the expungement. My question is: many agencies here in Tennessee seem to have a code, perhaps a statewide code, when it comes to hiring someone with a theft charge. The same question is asked on almost every application, whether or not you have been charged with any sort of crime relating to theft. Simply put, can I answer NO to this question? Legally, the charge should no longer exist, however I’m not sure if some agencies will still be able to see this charge, perhaps with a higher level background check or what not.

Obviously many of these agencies also require a polygraph, and I would obviously answer yes if asked directly about a charge such as this, and then proceed to explain the expungement. This charge has unfortunately been a barrier for me in obtaining a law enforcement position, and simply being able to answer NO to this question would be a weight lifted off my shoulders. Sorry for the long, drawn out rant. Any input would be greatly appreciated, thank you!

Looking to get some advice I’ve done a firefighter board interview before but I’m sure this is different. Also if someone is experienced in hiring I’d love to do a mock interview either over the phone or zoom would be fine.

Let me know thank you!

TW / attempted suicide

My boyfriend recently attempted suicide on Monday. I was the one who had to call 988 to send someone to his house, and the last time I heard any communication from his family was that same day when he was transported to the hospital.

Since then, every time I tried calling the hospital, when the line was transferred to his room, nobody picked up. I heard he was discharged on Wednesday night, and i still have heard nothing. I’m extremely worried about him, as I know he’s very mentally ill and this isn’t the first time he tried to take his own life. I have no idea where he is, or if he’s even alive. I have absolutely zero way of contacting his family, as they never gave me any info when we first talked.

Should I call a non-emergency line to his house? Or simply just wait, and hope that his family somehow gets back to me?

Most importantly, will the police contact me on how it went?

Also, we’re both 16.