Duty Station

[Tweeder]

As a federal law enforcement officer, are there any agencies that will let you know where your duty station will be before the academy? I have already been stationed all over the place during the past four years while I was in the military and I really don't want to move all over again. Right now I am living back home in Los Angeles, CA. Is there any way I could be guaranteed to be stationed somewhere around here?

[Switchback]

No agency will garuntee anything. A few agencies will tell you where you are being hired to, though. The USMS and ATF are the 2 biggies that come to mind. I am sure that many of the smaller agencies will tellyou the location that you are being hired into. Most of the bigger agencies will not tell you until you are more than halfway through the academy.

[eff-bee-eye]

Yeah, with us you find out the 6th week (out of 17) where you will be going for your first office.

[bob95321]

With the Border Patrol, during the hiring process I was asked what section of the southern border I would prefer.

When they finally called with a job offer, that was when they named the duty station to which I would be assigned.

They went on to say that if I wanted the position, I needed to report there in one week and would be transported from there to the Border Patrol Academy. Of course, you then had to pass the academy and two additional tests over Spanish and Immigration Law over the next 10 months to keep the job.

As I said above, when I joined, the only duty stations open to trainees were on the southern border. However they recently sent some trainees to the northern border and it is my understanding that now there is a hiring freeze in place until the end of the fiscal year.

I was also told by an IRS agent recruiter recently that their job locations were named before entering their training academy.

If you read any of my other posts, you can probably figure out why I am interested in the answer to this question also.

[Group9]

Not in DEA. You won't have any inkling until you are actually in the academy and you get your assignment. Some agencies will let you apply for slots in certain cities, others will let you apply for slots in regions. It just depends on which agency you are applying to.

[canter5503]

The Secret Service will inform you of your duty station prior to training.

[UC Pope]

United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement informs you of your duty station when you are given a final offer.

[Sleuth]

In most of the Treasury (and now Homeland Security) investigative agencies, you are hired for a 'slot', which is a position in a specific field office. There has been a policy that you can not work in the city you come from, but that may have changed.
Border Patrol makes you report in first, because they had so many, mostly from back East, who passed the Academy, but then decide Eagle Pass or Marfa (or Tecate) was NOT where they would live, and quit.

[tunlrat]

Back in the legacy US Customs Service as an Inspector or Canine, if you were able to catch the HR people in their US Customs HQ offices in DC, they would read off a list of ports of entry nationwide that were available. The hardest part was (and probably still is) catching these guys at their desks because of course they never seemed to answer their lines and you end up playing one way phone tag w/ their voice mail boxes...(hint--call them early in the work day & forget about calling after lunch!)

[MORA Ranger]

With most National Park Service jobs, you apply to the specific park you want to work at.

[bob95321]

Dear Sleuth,

Whatever reason could one find for not wanting to live in Eagle Pass?

(in)Sincerely,
bob