Took written test 7 months ago, passed it, but still waiting.

[OddArt]

I took written test for Philadelphia Police Department but I'm still on step one.

No physical, medical, polygraph, etc as of yet.

Hopefully the ball will get rolling again early in the new year but I'm doubtful.

I'm #2000 (estimate) on their "list". They just got through the first thousand this month.


If this was a small town, I know there would be less competition....

[phillyfed]

First thing is that the Mayor's office just released that the city is looking at a $141 million budget deficit for the new fiscal year starting in July. Who knows how this will effect hiring. I just took a physical agility test last weekend which is new because of the poor recruits that were going to the academy. And Philadelphia no longer uses a polygraph for pre-employment.

[HamptonTravels5]

I took the written test for the NYPD last June and didn't hear from them until November, and all they told me was my grade and my waiting list number. Nearly six months just to tell me that? But, one thing I realized that the bigger the city, the more people there will be who would apply. Also, I understood that the city actually graded the test, not the police department, which may be the same case for Philadelphia too. One reason it may take so long is that there may not be many people to grade the tests and those people probably have other priorities to deal with. Like in Richmond, VA, there is only ONE guy to deal with the background investigation and the poor guy has tons of applications to look at, and since he's a detective, you know that he would have other things to think about too.

I don't know where there is the more competition, in the big cities or small cities. Take Gainesville, Florida, having a population of about 100,000 plus, a squirty little town compared to NYC and Philly. They have about 270ish cops, and when I applied there for the written, physical, and oral board examines, there were only about 10 applicants who were there and about five, including me, became finalists. But, I was rejected. Oh, for shame! :-) I'm not sure why and the letter they sent me was vague on their decision, but I think that state resident preferences was involved, but I don't know. However, departments can have preference (Washington D.C. gives residents priority and you have to sign a contact stating that you understand that).

Think about this, too. I may be wrong on this, but I think that smaller towns are a little tougher to get into than the larger towns. Smaller-town PD's may require a little more in the application process than larger towns. And since smaller towns are not as dangerous and crowded as metropolitans, there would be less reason for cops to leave, especially if they could have their own take-home car :-)

But I will say that it doesn't take as long for the hiring process to finish up in smaller towns as it takes in larger towns. In Gainesville, FL, it takes up to about four to six weeks for you to know if you're hired or not. But in Newport News, VA, it could take up to about a year, and the town is not even 200,000 in population. So, I don't know where the competition really is, but my only advise is to apply to other places. There is a police fair in Parsippany, NJ on Jan. 10th where you could apply to a number of police positions from many states. Registration is about $20. Call 1-866-308-TEST or visit jobs4police.net for more info. It's something to look into.

[OddArt]

Originally posted by HamptonTravels5
I took the written test for the NYPD last June and didn't hear from them until November, and all they told me was my grade and my waiting list number. Nearly six months just to tell me that? But, one thing I realized that the bigger the city, the more people there will be who would apply. Also, I understood that the city actually graded the test, not the police department, which may be the same case for Philadelphia too. One reason it may take so long is that there may not be many people to grade the tests and those people probably have other priorities to deal with. Like in Richmond, VA, there is only ONE guy to deal with the background investigation and the poor guy has tons of applications to look at, and since he's a detective, you know that he would have other things to think about too.

I don't know where there is the more competition, in the big cities or small cities. Take Gainesville, Florida, having a population of about 100,000 plus, a squirty little town compared to NYC and Philly. They have about 270ish cops, and when I applied there for the written, physical, and oral board examines, there were only about 10 applicants who were there and about five, including me, became finalists. But, I was rejected. Oh, for shame! :-) I'm not sure why and the letter they sent me was vague on their decision, but I think that state resident preferences was involved, but I don't know. However, departments can have preference (Washington D.C. gives residents priority and you have to sign a contact stating that you understand that).

Think about this, too. I may be wrong on this, but I think that smaller towns are a little tougher to get into than the larger towns. Smaller-town PD's may require a little more in the application process than larger towns. And since smaller towns are not as dangerous and crowded as metropolitans, there would be less reason for cops to leave, especially if they could have their own take-home car :-)

But I will say that it doesn't take as long for the hiring process to finish up in smaller towns as it takes in larger towns. In Gainesville, FL, it takes up to about four to six weeks for you to know if you're hired or not. But in Newport News, VA, it could take up to about a year, and the town is not even 200,000 in population. So, I don't know where the competition really is, but my only advise is to apply to other places. There is a police fair in Parsippany, NJ on Jan. 10th where you could apply to a number of police positions from many states. Registration is about $20. Call 1-866-308-TEST or visit jobs4police.net for more info. It's something to look into.

Thanks so much for this well written post. I will check out that job fair.

[Darin]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by HamptonTravels5
[B] But in Newport News, VA, it could take up to about a year, and the town is not even 200,000 in population.


I always thought Newport News was much bigger than that.

[HamptonTravels5]

Nope, Newport News is a little biddy town of 180,000 plus. It looks like to be the fourth largest city in the Hampton Roads area.
Virginia Beach (430,000 plus) is the largest (actually, the largest city in Virginia), Norfolk is second (240,000 plus), and Chesapeake (200,000 plus) is third. By the way, if anybody care about what Virginia PD is hiring, here is a link to a number of police departments: www.glasgowfirstaid.org/frames.html. The music to this site is pretty cool. Of course, if there is a link that won't work...go to GOOGLE.

OddArt, glad to help :-)

[Darin]

Man I thought those areas were more populated than that. Those must be just city limits population. I live in Roanoke which has a population aproaching 100,000 and if you include surrounding areas its near 150,000 or so. Hmmm go figure...;)

[HamptonTravels5]

Yep, just the city limits, man. Nobody cares about the counties, full of a bunch of city-wannabes....just kidding! Roanoke, huh? You're on the other side of the state, buddy, in the backwoods and the swamps and mountains. Everybody is on the eastside, you know :-)

[Darin]

Originally posted by HamptonTravels5
Yep, just the city limits, man. Nobody cares about the counties, full of a bunch of city-wannabes....just kidding! Roanoke, huh? You're on the other side of the state, buddy, in the backwoods and the swamps and mountains. Everybody is on the eastside, you know :-)

No swamps here. Mountains and backwoods maybe ;) but no swamps. But I like it ;)