Interested in Opinions on my Background

[jsc]

I've read a few other posts where people pretty much have their backgrounds rated by current LEOs on RealPolice so I've decided to post a little of mine to get a general idea. I've already posted a thread in the Ask-A-Cop forum regarding my juvenile history but I will reiterate it briefly.

I'm currently 22 years old, living in Arizona, applying for an agency that is around 500 officers in size. I've went through 9 jobs since age 16, I have 43 college credits, and 2 arrests on my juvenile record. My adult record has been clean, minus 2 traffic tickets that were very minor.

As far as my arrest record goes, and I have posted this in my previous thread, I was arrested for vandalism at age 15, later formally charged in juvenile court with Burglary 2nd Degree, with my juvenile record being expunged at age 18. I, however, was not CONVICTED, and only found this out recently after doing hours of research and getting some great responses on this forum. At age 17, I was arrested but not charged for "juvenile harrassment" when I got into an argument with my parents, which resulted in me losing my temper and pushing a chair about three feet, which after my parents called 911. This may fall under domestic violence in my state but I am uncertain of whether it is or not.

I have never touched any illegal narcotics and I haven't taken drugs that weren't prescribed to me. I have never instigated a fight and I've never participated in physical violence. I had a bought of depression after high school and saw a few psychologists but I was never diagnosed or declared insane, clinically depressed, or suicidal.

I have a credit score of 720, and I've never been in debt. My work record is a little "broken" but I haven't held a career level job. My longest job lasted about 1 year and 4 months. Between 2009-2010, I was unfortunately unemployed after being laid off after the company I worked for filed for bankruptcy. However, while applying for jobs, I attended Summer and Fall semesters at my college to keep myself busy. I've only been fired once, when I was 17 at a retail cashier job for "poor customer service." I was never formally written up by an employer or disciplined for my behavior. The same goes for my behavior in high school/college. In addition to my work record, I have volunteered 53 hours of time at a humane society.

A really icky detail is I was disqualified by one department because I failed to make copies of my applications. My dates and information were a tad different each time and I know that my current potential agency is going to look into that during my background. That was a year ago and since then I have gathered every piece of paper regarding my past that I can find to make every future application completely detailed, not to mention accurate. I'd like to add that I have never lied on any previous applications. They just had inconsistencies.

In closing, I am aware that it isn't the greatest background but I have witnessed first hand how fast people can "grow up" and become better people based off of the mistakes they made. In all honesty, I'm interested in law enforcement for the "brotherhood" aspect of it. Out of my 9 minuscule jobs, there was never a feeling of trust or reliance on co-workers. Although I was motivated at those 9 jobs, I've never felt like I was doing anything truly good for people or myself, regardless of how customer service oriented those jobs were. On the flip side, simply going to a physical test for my chosen department brought out a different side of me, one willing to motivate another applicant to get 50 sit-ups, and not 40.

Anyway, I invite any LEOs here to go hard on me and give me your straight up opinion. It actually helps more than discourages me. Thank you for your time.

-Jason

[Kimble]

You can have people on here give you opinions all day long, but truth is none of us are probably looking to hire you. If you meet the qualifications for a department you're interested in working for, apply. That's the only way to get hired, and department standards vary (so one person's opinion on here - or several people's opinion on here - don't speak for every police agency in the US).

[retdetsgt]

At age 17, I was arrested but not charged for "juvenile harrassment" when I got into an argument with my parents, which resulted in me losing my temper and pushing a chair about three feet, which after my parents called 911. This may fall under domestic violence in my state but I am uncertain of whether it is or not.

Your parents called the police on you for pushing a chair? Sorry, but that doesn't compute.

[jsc]

You can have people on here give you opinions all day long, but truth is none of us are probably looking to hire you. If you meet the qualifications for a department you're interested in working for, apply. That's the only way to get hired, and department standards vary (so one person's opinion on here - or several people's opinion on here - don't speak for every police agency in the US).

Thank you for an honest answer. I am aware that different departments have different standards but after reading my post again, I pretty much came to the same conclusion that you posted. It's frustrating that I changed a lot and have had a solid adult record so far but the juvenile issues aren't going to go away, even if I put 10 more years between them and who I am now.

Your parents called the police on you for pushing a chair? Sorry, but that doesn't compute.

I apologize for not going into detail on that. There are other circumstances regarding the situation, most notably the fact that at that point of my adolescence, I was physically larger than my dad and I assume that my parents were afraid that I might physically assault them, not to mention that was the first time I had acted in such a way in front of them so therefore, they called the police.