Thinking about PA state police

[Heater528]

Hey i have a question to anyone who went through the PA state police process, is the process as difficult as i have been hearing. I applied to take the May test and talked to a few state troopers who all said that they were gratefull they made it in but as of late they have been hearing alot of bad stories about the process. They also stated that if i make it through all the steps that i would more than likely have a problem during the psych evalution, because the PA state police red flag younger applicants to test them on their maturity before letting them into the academy, also that alot of applicants fail the psych and are never given a reason then come back the following test and make it through everything with no problems ? I may be looking alittle to far into the future because i have not even taken the written as of yet but these troopers stories have me alittle on edge because of my age.

[Stump]

All PDs around here want to make sure the applicant is mature, responsible, and intelligent to make it. Stereotypically the younger the person, the less maturity they have. I don't see why they would red flag an application, because it is the results that matter. As long as you aren't a badge bunny or power monger, just concentrate on how to handle things like an adult.

[mcsap]

WHat have you got to lose ?? TAKE the test. The worst that could happen is you don't make the grade. Then , thry again next time.

I took tests for 2 years before I got hired , 2 offers on the SAME day ! One from PSP and the other from where I am now.

[911]

Prepare to be told that you are lower than recruits and shouldn't be there. Prepare to be yelled at, and watched while you fill in paperwork. If you make a mistake, they will yell at you and tell you to start again. Don't even bother showing up if you are not in shape for the physical. They want to see if you can handle a tiny amount of pressure, before the real fun starts at the academy. The PSP have a proud tradition and do not like to drop standards, so they don't.

[mrtwist27]

If you don't get hired the first time you apply don't worry. A few weeks ago I was talking to an officer and he told me its taking an average of 5 applications to get hired on in the psp

[HamptonTravels5]

Originally posted by 911
Prepare to be told that you are lower than recruits and shouldn't be there.

What in the world? Okay, I have a question and it might seem offensive, but it's an honest question and I just want to understand a little better. What is so special about the state police that they would make the chance for hiring nearly impossible? In my effort to try to know all that a state trooper does, it seems that his or her main job is highway patrol. Other cities or towns and counties have their own police or sheriff departments, so it's not as if the state police is really needed anywhere else but on the highways or interstates. In New York City, I've only seen a state police about two times in my lifetime here because the NYPD have its own highway patrol division.

I understand that the state police do have special divisions like scuba and stuff like that, and I'm not saying that there is no need for state police, far be from it. They have an important part to play...at least on the highways, but I'm wondering if there is something else about the state police that would seem so special that they would make it hard for others to get on the force. From what I've learned, besides highway patrol, state police pretty much does everything else that regular, local authorities do.

I'm asking this because I heard that the New York State police academy was a nightmare too. (By the way, the NYS police are hiring. Go to www.troopers.state.ny.us. The examination is scheduled for March but the application deadline is Feburary 1st.) I'm getting the idea that state police academies are tougher than regular police academies. Well, anybody is welcome to shed some light on this. I hope I didn't offend anyone, but I'm just honestly trying to find this stuff out :-) I'm sorry if I did offend anybody.

[phuzz01]

I'll take a shot at it, Hampton. Many state troopers have to work alone out in the middle of nowhere, with no backup for a long, long ways. This means that they have to be in top physical and mental shape to handle any situation they get into, and to work well under high-pressure situations. You used the example of the NYPD. Well, in any given one square mile, how many NYPD officers are there? Tons! And they usually work in pairs.

In addition to that, for some reason state police agencies get a higher number of applicants than other agencies. When Mass. gave their last test in June '02, they had 16,500 applicants! This is for an academy class of 150 spots (when they actually get around to running one). So, they have to weed people out somehow.

[HamptonTravels5]

Thank you, Phuzz, for your response. It makes more sense now as why getting into the state police is so hard. As in the case with Mass., I could see how tough the hiring process has to be so only a handful could be hired out of thousands and thousands of applicants.

You're right about the NYPD. They're like roaches, they're everywhere :-) Now they are in the yellow taxi cabs. You can't get away from them.

[Stump]

I'm in NY too, and work with the troopers. I can understand that you don't ever see them because they usually do stay out of NYC. Most of the counties in NY have troopers taking regular calls as well as highway calls. In fact, I've been told my county is the only county that has troopers working ONLY highway.
NYS academy is extremely challenging, and too much for a lot of people. There is so much interest in being a state cop, that they have a huge pool to choose from - in other words, they can afford to be picky. They do so much "important" work - guarding the bigwigs, etc, that they are screened much more thoroughly.
A lot of the bigger departments have scuba, k9, etc, so the troopers aren't unique in that aspect.
Troopers can step in everywhere in the state and enforce laws.
Have you heard that new initiative from Gov. Pataki? He's sending hundreds of troopers to different areas of the state for more police presence. This is to help with the areas with skyrocketing crime rates. My county is one of them. Specially assigned troopers will come in and patrol the streets of my county doing proactive policing. This is one of the special things that troopers do.
I hope that helped just a little. I know I couldn't give you definitive answers, but just a small insight.

[HamptonTravels5]

Oh, no, Stump-alicious, your info was good also. I was just wondering why in the world it was so hard to get into the state police and now I could see why. I guess one of the biggest stresses of being a trooper would be being out in one of those middle-of-nowhere towns in upstate NY (like Cuba or one of those other towns hidden behind the mountains) where you won't have back-up for miles. Man, that must be one of the toughest situations to be in where you are alone at night in places like that and no one for miles to give you a hand.

Yes, I have heard about what Pataki wanted to do. He wanted to send about 300 troopers to different places in the state. There's a place in NJ that wanted to get the troopers to patrol the streets too because it was high crime.

In NYC, again, we don't have troopers coming in to patrol the highways because the NYPD have their own division for that. And even though the five boroughs that make up NYC are actually five counties, we don't have a sheriff offices. The NYPD controls everything. There is a sheriff office...but it's not what you think it is. So, until I lived in a small town in Texas for a while, I didn't know anything about troopers, and barely anything about sheriffs, deputies, and constables because we didn't have any of that in NYC. But I'm still learning :-)

[Heater528]

Does anyone know how the PA state police academy is ?

[mummer43]

Does anyone know how the PA state police academy is ?

I recently went through the whole PSP process and didn't make it. It's a long drawn out process and in my opinion, it's not too difficult if you're in decent shape and don't lie on the polygraph. They mess with you little bit when you take the physical and the poly, but they are just trying to weed people out. From the time I took the test to the time the academy started was about 10 months, so be prepared to wait.

You usually receive your written test results within a month. I know the oral test is scheduled for around March 8th and they take the top 500 from the written. After that, you go to the academy to fill out the polygraph questionnaire and then to Ft. Indiantown Gap for the physical test. This is all in one day and they are very millitary like with you, I guess to give you taste of the academy. To get to the physical/polygraph you have to be in the top 300. If you pass everything from there, you're guaranteed a spot in the academy.

The academy is 28 weeks long and is VERY demanding. If you're young, you may not be mature enough to handle it. They do everything they can to get you to quit. That being said, it's a great job with great benefits and I'm really hoping to get hired there.

I just took the test again 2 weeks ago and I'm waiting for the results. Last time I scored high enough to rank me 32nd out of 5,000 applicants and hopefully I did that well again.

Give it a shot, you have nothing to lose.