Police Officer Preparation & Law Enforcement Resource - Archive

The short story is, I was hired by a police department in Nov. 2008. After making a few mistakes in the FTO program, my training was extended. The main concern was a few officer safety issues, which by the end of the regular FTO were corrected. The extension was because of my driving ( I tend to brake late :-/ ) how I parked the patrol vehicle when arriving on scene / driving past the address. I was asked to resign in March 2009 due to the above issues. I admit to these mistakes and am honest with myself and every agency I've applied to. (I also kind of feel like a few of the higher up's just didn't like me much, so that helped the push to get me out, but I can't say for sure.)

I've had several interviews, but no luck getting anywhere past that part in the process. I've had a few tell me the issue lies with being asked to resign from a police department. I had one background done, I was 4th on the hiring list, and did not pass the background because of what this department had to say about me. I have an interview in another state (12 hour drive) in a couple weeks. The investigator interviewing me already informed me on the phone that it doesn't look good, but I'm not about to give up on my dreams. My question is what is the best way to flip this around and show it was a learning experience. And that I'm not going to make those same mistakes.

Any help or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Beats me. I suspect you're getting DQ'd based on what your former FTO's and/or supervisors are telling your prospective agency. I had a trainee that I wrote bad evaluations on and he was either terminated or asked to resign, I'm not sure which. But I was asked for several years about him by agencies he applied to. I just told them my experience with him. I had no way of knowing if he matured in the meantime or not, he may have. But I could only tell them what he was like at the time I worked for him. I don't think he ever got another LE job. I imagine that may be what you're facing and I have no idea how you can get around it.

Well, here's what a couple of our recent washouts did. They got dropped out of PTO (our version of FTO) for some of the reasons you were dropped among others.

They got hired by a local college PD, pretty small campus, but they're cops. I know at least one of them plans on putting a couple years in, then trying to apply with other PDs/SOs. Whether or not he gets hired, I guess that's all in how much he improves with the experience at the school. He may not get hired, and spend his career where he is. But it may work.

Honestly, you may want to look at the same track. Once you're labeled as "useless" by a department, you are not going to get jobs at the departments everyone wants to work at. You're going to have to have some proof that you're not the same guy who got dropped. The only real way to do that is to apply to those departments that don't pay as well, or are tiny and don't get a lot of applicants. If you get hired (still a long shot), put in some years doing stellar work, then you may get another look by a "choice" department.