Police Officer Preparation & Law Enforcement Resource - Archive

After my associate degree, I was thinking about applying for local department to become a police officer but I changed my mind. I'm thinking about working for County jail and be a Correctional Officer and switch it to the State Police. After I get hired by the county, I wanted to continue my education since the state is willing to pay for my education to get my BA degree.

New Jersey requires 2 minimum years of experience in respectable job which can be military, police job, so I thought it would be a good idea to work as a correctional officer and switch it out to the state trooper.

Here are the questions. As I know, the State Trooper training is about 22 weeks and the local department is depending on which agency I get hired by. Is it same for the corrections? How long is the training and what kind of trainings do they do? Is the minimum requirement is lower for the correctional officers? I read some of the post on the forum section and some of the officers wrote down that he wished that he worked in jail as a correctional officer than working on the road first time he got hired. If so, can you give me some of the reason and some advices what I should do?

Thanks!. and be safe =)

I can't speak for NJ, but in Virginia the academy for State Corrections was a mere 5 weeks long when I went through. About two years later when I was going through a police academy, it was 15 weeks. Now-a-days both are longer - but corrections is nearly always shorter than police.

A correctional officer needs less training in laws and arrests and more in physical security and prisioner issues (like transports and cell extractions)

Hope that helps some - and good luck

It depends in NJ. Are you talking State DOC or County? Which County?

NJSP is not going to give any preference for Corrections versus a active Police Officer. Two different schools....two differnt jobs.

It depends in NJ. Are you talking State DOC or County? Which County?

NJSP is not going to give any preference for Corrections versus a active Police Officer. Two different schools....two differnt jobs.


To be more specific, I'm talking about Bergen county jail. Even if it's two different training and job, they both have to go through NJSP academy again... What I'm talking about is the NJSP requires 2 year full time job experience from respectable place and the correction should be perfect. If I understood wrong, please correct me.