Police Officer Preparation & Law Enforcement Resource - Archive

Hey all, I will try to make this quick because I am anxious for opinions and advice. If you read my intro from yesterday you can skip the next few sentences. The department I applied to received nearly 1,200 applicants and after the written/phys test and oral board plus an interview over the phone for about an hour going over everything I put down on my 30 page background packet, I am in the top 5 out of 60 remaining. My question is, how much does this actually effect me? Should I allow myself to get excited because I am at such a high rank (3 people ahead of me are already Arizona POST certified) or is this really just the beginning? I am worried because I wasn't always a great person, for example in HS I was a class clown and barley got by. In the Marines I did my job well, never got in any serious trouble, 2 combat deployments, but I was very well known for being that guy that can't wait to get out (if you have served you know exactly what I mean). Also, 1 of my neighbors I don't think is too fond of my wife and I. He is a strange guy but I think he has heard us fight a few times and I worry about what he will tell the BI and also I have a dog that sometimes barks outside for 5mins until I finally let him in (dumb dog barks at the birds lol). The last dumb thing I did was steal an external hard drive from a friend of a friend about 3 years ago (worth about 40$). It was the first thing I have stolen since I was like 13 and I regret it. I've gotten 4 tickets in my life since getting my license 9 years ago (3 speeding, 1 not stopping completely at a stop sign). The thing is, the department already knows all of this and still put me ranked me top 5. Just wondering if I should throw my rank out the window and from what I said above I could still be disqualified for something mentioned above or something else silly that I don't even know about. Oh yea, Zero drug use but I have been around it and with friends when they purchased it- usually just marijuana but I was with friends twice when they did cocaine but I had no idea they did it at the time. What is your opinion? I don't care who you are, LE or wanabe like myself. Feel free.

I'd be excited. But I watched Full Metal Jacket and realize that the things that Marines get excited about aren't normal. :)

I'd be excited. But I watched Full Metal Jacket and realize that the things that Marines get excited about aren't normal. :)

hahaha good one, and thanks for the reply.

hahaha good one, and thanks for the reply.

Besides, if you really were a kid in NY - you would be a Nets, Jets and Mets fan simply because it rhymed and that made it cool. It's easy to be a Giants and Yankees fan. They win.

I really disapointed my grandfather when he took me to a Yankees game and I wanted the Tom Seaver stuff (7 seasons of 200 strikeouts) when the Yankees were playing in Shea. Did I just date myself? Sorry, pitchers and catchers have reported.

You know, the worst part about your team winning the SB is that everyone will think you are on the bandwagon. I have been a Giants/Yanks fan since I was in diapers. Yankees fan because I grew up 20 mins from the stadium, the Mets play all the way in Queens which is like 45 mins from where I grew up, so everyone I knew that lived around me was a Yanks fan, and proud of it. The Giants got very lucky this year, but deserve to title, CHAMPS. I BLEED BLUE, YANKEE AND GIANT BLUE!

I have been a Giants/Yanks fan since I was in diapers.

I didn't say it wasn't moronic, I said it was easy. Nets-Jets-Mets are the thinking boy's teams.

Don't count your chickens...

If I've learned anything over the past 6 years it's to never get your hopes up about anything in this field. Then again I'm in PA and PA sucks.

I still think the key is to not be too hungry. I took my first (and only) exam on April 1 and was hired on May 23rd. And I wasn't even sure I wanted to be a cop.....:skep:

I remember when the one of the people on the oral board asked me why I wanted the job, I didn't say that I wanted to make a difference, help people or any of that, I just said "I think I'd be pretty good at it". They asked me why and I started telling them what I thought my strong points were. They asked me what I thought my weak point was and I said I was too modest. They laughed and didn't pursue that anymore. I went from the perspective that they'd be fools not to hire me.

Years later when I sat on oral boards, I was never choked up about the people that said they wanted to be cops their whole lives. Made me wonder if they didn't have some sort of agenda to bring to the job. I also found as a FTO that the guys who were super excited about being a cop tended to burn out after about 5 years or so. The job simply didn't live up to their expectation. The people who just wanted a good job and kept that attitude tended to have long, productive careers and left highly regarded.

Well said, RetDetSgt. I have not really looked at it from that perspective. I would have loved to see their faces when you had your board with the responses you gave. I think the whole hiring process is very different now though. I can not believe a city like Tucson (not that big) received 1,200 applicants and nearly 100 were out of state. So many people want to become LEO nowadays. Luckily for me I am ranked high which only means my BI will start faster than others.

We have a lot too, but it's the score that counts in the end. The oral board obviously gave me a good score because with my written test, I was number 1 on the list with a score of 99 out of 100. I screwed up and used my veteran's points then (we can only use the 5 points once) and ended up with a score of 104.... Like everyone else, I didn't know what they were looking for, but I didn't think I should sound like I was sucking up to them and apparently that worked.

The number 2 guy was a machinist who more or less had the same attitude I did. He took a pay cut, but looked at the long term benefits including retirement when he took the job. Number 3 was Detroit cop who was just sick of Detroit and wanted to move out here.

what is your status now with TDP?