Taking Time off from Police Dept. to join the reserves

[studentcj]

how common is it to see a police officer who is currently working for a police department to take time off to join the reserves. I know there is a federal law protecting such a person from losing their job, but I'm wondering is it common to do so

[Citicop]

I know plenty of cops who are in the reserves, but they were all there when they got hired.

I don't know a single one who got hired as a police officer and THEN joined the reserves.

-Citicop.

[greg72982]

I work with a guy now who has recently decided to join the Air Force Reserves so he gets the veterans preference. He was a cop first...

[Cat_Doc]

I know plenty of cops who are in the reserves, but they were all there when they got hired.

I don't know a single one who got hired as a police officer and THEN joined the reserves.

-Citicop.

Same here. At least of dozen of them are overseas right now after being activated.

The agency is pretty spread out, so there might have been some that enlisted after being hired, but I don't know of any.

[Joeyd6]

It's a no-go in the NYPD. You need permission first and gues what.....they don't give permission.

[MP_Steve]

I work with a guy now who has recently decided to join the Air Force Reserves so he gets the veterans preference. He was a cop first...

That must be a local thing.

At least for federal veteran's preference, you need to have served on continuous active duty for 3 years with an honorable discharge (5 pt), or in the case of reserve and national guard, called to active duty and served 180 days, or be a recipient of a campaign badge (5 pt) or disability rating/purple heart regardless of time served (10 pt).

At least I'm pretty sure that's accurate. Sorry for the late reply. I don’t get on here too much anymore.

[retdetsgt]

That must be a local thing.

At least for federal veteran's preference, you need to have served on continuous active duty for 3 years with an honorable discharge (5 pt), or in the case of reserve and national guard, called to active duty and served 180 days, or be a recipient of a campaign badge (5 pt) or disability rating/purple heart regardless of time served (10 pt).

At least I'm pretty sure that's accurate. Sorry for the late reply. I don’t get on here too much anymore.

For us, it used to be a minimum of 18 months continuous active duty before getting veteran's points. Regular service gets you 5 points that can only be used one time. Twenty five or more percent disability gets you 10 points that can be used over and over. With our testing procedures for promotions, that 10 points will get you at the top of the list as long as you pass the test at all.

I joined the Army NG after I became a cop. I was talked into it by several guy who had been in for years. At the time, they had a "try one" for former active duty people where you could join for only one year. One was enough for me.

[greg72982]

I was recently told he will need to put in two years before he will get the points. You get ten points here and if you make the top three of the list they must hire you, but it's probably that way everywhere...

[retdetsgt]

I was recently told he will need to put in two years before he will get the points. You get ten points here and if you make the top three of the list they must hire you, but it's probably that way everywhere...

Two years in the reserves or guard gets you 10 points!

I believe in giving veterans a helping hand, but that's ridiculous. So is 10 points for just serving IMO.

[greg72982]

Two years in the reserves or guard gets you 10 points!

I believe in giving veterans a helping hand, but that's ridiculous. So is 10 points for just serving IMO.

AFAIK yes, why do you think full time jobs here are so competitive for those without it? Personally I love when depts. want 60 credits or a Bachelor's degree. Works in my favor as most military guys dont have that, especially the Bachelor's.

It's nothing against military people, but I dont think you should get points just because you are in the military either. That was designed for people in combat. Of course now you have alot of guys getting out of Iraq and Afghanistan so the points are much more valid.

[retdetsgt]

It's nothing against military people, but I dont think you should get points just because you are in the military either. That was designed for people in combat.

No, it was designed for people who took time out of their lives to serve in the military. It's a nice incentive for people to give something back to their country, they don't need to be in combat.

The key to me is, took time out of their lives, not spent the time as weekend warriors. If they were activated for long enough to get the proper amount of active duty in, fine. But weekends and a two week summer camp don't cut it for me.

[jbadoef0607]

The key to me is, took time out of their lives, not spent the time as weekend warriors. If they were activated for long enough to get the proper amount of active duty in, fine. But weekends and a two week summer camp don't cut it for me.

With much respect, I do have to make a couple of points here.
I have been a member of the National Guard for nearly 8 years, and although my unit is considered the best in the state, unfortunately, there are units out there who still put a bad taste in people's mouths about the guard and still call us "weekend warrior's" or my personal favorite, "wannabe boyscout's".

The interesting thing about Guardsmen is that we live literally and figuratively dual lives, we have our civilian life where we work, go to school, take care of our families and so on, but then when we put that uniform on its game on, we train to fight and hone our skills so when we are deployed (twice in my instance) we can make it back home safely to our families. But that is the case with my unit, and as I already stated, there are those out there who do actively do what they can to make sure they don't get deployed, and thankfully my state CSM has a way of dealing with those unit commanders and/or individuals.

Now for the Veterans Preference Points. Every application I've seen, especially for LEO positions, in the veterans points section is states if you've served for more than 180 days active duty and/or received a campaign badge, OR served less than 180 days and was discharged for a disability, OR served less than 90 days for a combat related disability. The latter giving 10 points, whereas the rest are only 5.

From what I've gathered, these points are ONLY for those who have served active duty, both on deployment and/or full time status, reserve or no reserve, they are used to identify those who have raised their hand to serve and protect their country.

Now to answer the primary question of this thread.

I have known several LEO's who have joined the guard, at least two I have served in combat with, and ALL of them have been excellent soldiers, NCO's and Officers, all but one have earned the respect of all of us and the upper leadership. And each one of them I have asked why they joined the the Guard, each of them said its because they wanted to serve their country. It was amazing some of the stuff their departments sent in the care packages for us overseas and the amount of support they gave us, the escort home from returning on this last deployment was absolutely amazing.

Anyways, I hope this answers the question and sorry for the long post, just wanted to make sure everyone was clear that not ALL NG units are a bunch of dog piles and wannabe soldiers, that there are units who distinguished themselves as either equal too or sometimes superior to active duty units of a similar specialty. My unit got recognized as the bench mark for Active Duty and all units Iraq-wide to follow, and we are a NG unit, it speaks to the quality of soldiers that my brothers are.

So I do openly encourage ANY LEO's who are interested in being in the reserves to please do so! again, they have made some excellent soldiers and amazing leaders. And any unit who has a LEO as a soldier, I can be pretty confident that they would be a welcome addition.