I’ve heard from a LEO who transferred agencies because he felt like he never really fit in. He said his FTO and one of his supervisors treated him pretty poorly, and he also mentioned that there were a lot of cliques within the department. It got me wondering how common that actually is. From my perspective, I would not to take it personal and focus on doing the job. Every workplace has personalities that don’t mesh, so I feel like I’d just put my feelings aside and keep moving. At the same time, I know law enforcement is different from a typical job because you’re relying on the people around you in high
stress and sometimes dangerous situations.

is it possible to succeed even if you don’t really “fit in” socially? Also, are cliques really a thing, or does it just depend on the agency?

Im want to try and get better benefits for our FTOs. We used to have better than we do now but this new leadership made it to only $100 a month and 2 hours of leave a week for the time you have a trainee. I do not think this is sufficient for what FTOs are required to do. So... if you have a department of 200 to 300 sworn officers, what do your FTOs get?

I know workplace dating happens everywhere, but I'm curious if law enforcement culture treats it differently because of the nature of the job.

Any experiences working with them?

Answers from anywhere welcome, but especially SC.

Hey guys, my GF just got on with the local police. She needs a good set of boots to get her through academy, does anyone have a good set to look at? Thanks!

I am in the process of immigrating to the US with my wife and we plan to settle in southside Chicago.

I am thinking ahead of a field I would like to work in and I have been coming back to the idea of getting into law enforcement/ police work.

I am looking for some advice for those who may be in this field/ advice on a pathway into it for me.

I have spent my 20’s working for various business and corporations and have held management roles for the past 5 years. I feel as if I am not cut out for the business life and feel like I am gaining nothing from it. Business and corporations play you for a pawn and I would like to be part of a group/ team where the work I do is having a positive effect and that is why I am thinking of police work. I feel it is a field where the work I do is genuinely appreciated and has a positive result (if that makes sense.)

For context, I am 29 yrs, male, Irish. I keep physically fit and often run half marathons and enjoy training hard and pushing myself.

Any advice is welcome, thanks :)

I took my PAT with WCSO and passed. Wanted to have my PAT results to send to other departments, but I’m having trouble finding out how. Lots of dead ends. Any advice or guidance?

I’m a 5’0” 31 year old female that just graduated the academy and now I’m looking for a job. I have my application in at the busiest agency in my area.

I did amazing academically (got an award for it) and had the biggest gap between my standards for running and what I actually ran (got an award for it). Passed all the physical training, certifications, firearms etc etc

Let’s be completely realistic. That’s just the academy and that doesn’t actually mean I’m going to make it in this career.

I need someone to be completely honest with me: am I in over my head with this? I honestly think I’m being delusional.

I stopped going to the gym and I don’t run as much as I used to. I don’t know if I should apply to more agencies. I just don’t know what the future is going to look like if I take that chance. I could completely ruin things for myself.

I’m tiny, I’m a girl, my brain is sometimes stupid and I felt like I was playing pretend in the academy.

I think I just need someone to agree with me or give some perspective. The person I thought I was going to be is not the person I became.

I hear all the fake scary stories of psychotic people calling 911 claiming they need help let’s say in the middle of the woods or off some sketch country road for example. Their intentions are to lure the cop on purpose by calling 911. Has this or something similar ever happened while you were on duty? Are there always more than one officers sent when super sketchy calls are received, if any? Can’t help but think of this every once in awhile

I used to work in insurance claims and we had a "bizarro file" for all the claims that were really weird, nonsensical, or couldn't be categorized.

Do law enforcement departments have around-the-office or over-the-radio names for calls/cases/files that are too "weird" to fall under normal definitions?

Hi!

I made it to the second round of interviews for the records department, and it says it's going to be a 2-part process, a 30-minute interview followed by a practical computer skills test.

Does anyone have any advice for what they may ask, or what to know for the practical computer skills test? Should I brush up on basic excel?
(Probably, nonetheless.)

Thanks!

Hey I’m a 23 year old male from California and I’ve been thinking about becoming a police officer here in socal. Specifically county sheriff depts and border patrol.

My work history:

For almost the past 3 years I’ve been working 911 BLS/AlS as an EMT for my local ambulance company. I was originally planning on becoming a paramedic and then going Fire. But I had failed paramedic school twice and now I’m rethinking my career choices.

I feel like having been a first responder I am capable on having scene confidence, as well as good communication skills having to work with both Fire and PD.

Reason for wanting to be a cop.

Since I was a kid I always wanted to be a first responder which is a reason why I became an EMT. Like I said in my original post I failed two attempts at paramedic school, and witnessing how underpaid paramedics are for all the responsibilities they hold I became discouraged from continuing a degree in EMS. Which is why I’m now interested in the law enforcement side of things.

As bad as I know cops have it I still really like being a first responder and assisting people when they are at they are at their worst. I understand policing comes with witnessing disturbing scenes and dealing with the worst people on the streets, as well as being disrespected by the public, but at the end of the day your still a necessary asset to the public.

So should I do it?

I live in a town with a ton of roundabouts. Like more than five. As I was just out picking up my dinner I went through a couple and this question occurred to me… if you were sitting and watching traffic in an area with a roundabout and someone started going around and around it without exiting, how many times would be too many before you initiate a traffic stop? Two? Three? Ten? Let them have their fun? Just curious if it’s up to discretion or if there’s actually a law about it.

Just took the DEP police test n got a 45/55, is that bad?,good?

I am unfamiliar with the list and how fast it moves ETC, please lmk

For clarity, I don’t mean SROs assigned to a school who are part of a larger department, nor do I mean college police officers. What I’m really wondering about is an agency that is entirely dedicated to a school district like the Gwinnett county school police. The schools are closed except for the odd on campus program, which tend to be rather small. So what do these officers who are entirely dedicated to a school system, who aren’t part of a larger agency actually do during the summer?

Basically my son was an intelligence contractor in D.C. and purchased some drugs online. He took them and it killed him. We had no idea he started using. When we got to D.C. we looked over his apartment bedroom and I found the packaging material and a small amount of drugs in baggies inside the packaging. At the time I asked the narcotics detective if they could come collect the packaging material (it was all mailed by usps) and the drugs. We wanted to know if they could track down whoever sold him these drugs. I had mentioned to the detective that my son had a gaming computer (one I helped him build years early before his death) and didn't know if they could get into the computer to find out who he got the drugs from. The detective took his gaming computer and they already had his iPhone at the scene of his death. It has been since early November when he died.

When we came back to Houston with the rest of his belongings we got a call from the Detective who said that they couldn't get passed his password and that the computer was encrypted through the Microsoft Operating System. Now I know you can't get into the computer no matter what once it is encrypted and the officer said as much. He also indicated they couldn't get into his iphone but they actually work with a part of the secret service division that helps them with tech stuff like this and he thought they might be able to use a program or some such thing to pull some data off my sons iPhone. Months later after this conversation the detective called us back and said that they barely got any info off the phone. When we asked if we could get these items back he said that they were able to get "some" info off the computer, (which had my eyebrows raised over this), and that if they use this info to make arrests or charges in the future they would need to hold onto the computer and phone because the defense might possibly want to exam these items. Ok.

Then about a month or so after that phone call we got a call from the detective saying they were able to use the packaging info to track some people in the states who were involved in mailing out packages of drugs (they got them on a postal service video/camera) and they were watching them. At the time the detective said he "could" release the computer and phone to us, but was going to continue hanging on to these items. He said it could be years before we ever get these items back.

Right now I am very skeptical that they were able to get anything off my sons main hard drive if it was password protected and encrypted. Even the best computer techs I know will tell you its impossible.

Why would this detective hang on to the computer or phone if they weren't able to get much of anything off of these items? Are we being lied to here? This is kind of a low level narcotic case that we were told and the only thing they were making any headway with is the addressed and bar code info on the mailed packaging material, and that is about it.

I know each city police department probably does things differently, but I just can't understand why they would need to hang on to our sons computer like this or his phone?

I would love some insight if anyone could give it.

Hello all,

I applied to a few small, local deps in california about 4 months ago, but I was unaware of how quick the turn around was to begin physical testing. At the time I was still recovering from an injury so I decided to wait until last month to reapply to insure that I was fully healed. I have since completed the physical tests!

In between the time of my first and second application, I became more aware of the level of accuracy to be expected on the resumes and so I revised mine just to be sure. Everything was perfect with one exception. I held a job as a mechanic for 2 years and 10 months, and on my old resume I put 3 years. I quickly made the change and used this updated resume for my more recent applications. I'm hoping this won't be much of a problem, and I of course plan on disclosing it, but I have a couple questions. An important note: most of my recent applications are to new departments in larger cities, e.g., LAPD due to career opprotunities.

I would like to know when I should disclose the error. Should I email someone about it now, or wait until the background?

I'm assuming I should wait until the background, but bring it up proactively as to avoid them "discovering it", but google says to only address it if asked directly about discrepancies between the current application and the older ones. If I did that, what are the odds it would even come up? and if it did, will it hurt me more than bringing it up too soon? What do you think?