Police Officer Preparation & Law Enforcement Resource - Archive

...when we first come into the police station. Would they be sworn officers, civilians? Titles? Thanks.

Depends on the department and even the precinct where I worked. We used to have all sworn everywhere, then a mix of sworn and civilian at some. The sworn would just be officers, no title other than that. The civilians are clerical.

My old agency we called them "duty officers". It was either staffed by an officer on light duty (injury) or there were time a patrol officer got drafted for duty that shift.

Front desk clerk.

Officer + desk = Desk Officer. :)

Police Service Representative's are the civilians at the front desk. We also have a duty desk manned by supervisor ideally, but sometimes it's a light duty officer or if we're short on supervisors, a patrol officer gets stuck there.

Police Service Representative's are the civilians at the front desk. We also have a duty desk manned by supervisor ideally, but sometimes it's a light duty officer or if we're short on supervisors, a patrol officer gets stuck there.

We had one desk officer on graveyard and someone had to fill in on his days off or when he went on vacation. I kind of enjoyed doing it once every three or four months. All the crazies who can't sleep at night have no else to call and talk to but the police and if you have time and the right attitude, it can be fun to listen to them. We used to get at least three or four calls from them a night. One woman I particularly enjoyed was the "Rat Lady" who used to talk about all the rats in town. She was also a good source of information about all the Hollywood stars that went way beyond the tabloids. She was crazy as a loon, but harmless and entertaining if you kept the right frame of mind when talking to her.

Thanks for the terms all. What about the officer in charge of the jail/holding cells? What would his job title be?

We don't staff any of the main windows/desks with Deputy Sheriff's at my agency. All civilian personnel. If they get a phone call or a walk in that needs to report something criminal they maybe able to take the report depending on what it is. If it requires a Deputy, they call for one to respond, or send the call to dispatch to have a Deputy respond out.

And the guys in our jails are called Detention Deputies. State Law classifies them as Law Enforcement Officers, but they do not hold powers of arrest unless they go through the Law Enforcement academy. They go through a shorter Corrections Academy to be state certified as Corrections Officers/Detention Deputies.

Thanks for the terms all. What about the officer in charge of the jail/holding cells? What would his job title be?

Sheriff's department handles the jail. When the holding cells are empty, a supervisor has to check them every couple hours. When someone's inside one, the cell is constantly monitored by camera, feeding to the duty desk.

We had one desk officer on graveyard and someone had to fill in on his days off or when he went on vacation. I kind of enjoyed doing it once every three or four months. All the crazies who can't sleep at night have no else to call and talk to but the police and if you have time and the right attitude, it can be fun to listen to them. We used to get at least three or four calls from them a night. One woman I particularly enjoyed was the "Rat Lady" who used to talk about all the rats in town. She was also a good source of information about all the Hollywood stars that went way beyond the tabloids. She was crazy as a loon, but harmless and entertaining if you kept the right frame of mind when talking to her.

We have a guy (that sounds like a woman) with a boot fetish that calls us. Apparently he likes the Rocky Paratroopers the most. He called one night and I answered and told him I wear Bates and he hung up on me lol.

Police Service Representative's are the civilians at the front desk. We also have a duty desk manned by supervisor ideally, but sometimes it's a light duty officer or if we're short on supervisors, a patrol officer gets stuck there.

A supervisor never works the desk here, but on day and swing shift, there is almost always a Sgt in the precinct at any given time. Not so much on graveyard, but you don't have all the irate citizens walking in on that shift either.

We have a guy (that sounds like a woman) with a boot fetish that calls us. Apparently he likes the Rocky Paratroopers the most. He called one night and I answered and told him I wear Bates and he hung up on me lol.

Oh yeah, if you have a sense of humor, the tin foil hat crowd can be entertaining. As I said earlier, the really crazy ones can't sleep at night so graveyard is the time you get the calls.

A supervisor never works the desk here, but on day and swing shift, there is almost always a Sgt in the precinct at any given time. Not so much on graveyard, but you don't have all the irate citizens walking in on that shift either.

At my current department, it is preferred that a supervisor be at the duty desk, however, it's a good spot for a light duty officer.

At my old department, it was a desk officer, the supervisors went out.

There was a TV at the desk (desk officer behind bullet proof glass). The desk also had the CCTV feeds from the cameras all around the station. The midnight desk officer brought a playstation in and kept it in a cabinet at the desk. When a sgt's car pulled up to the back door, he'd just shove the video game back into the cabinet.

On his 2 nights off, we'd take turns working the desk. I wouldn't want to do it full time, but once in a while getting paid to sit there and play playstation most of the night wasn't bad.