St. Pete academy..

[Nat]

My husband has gone through the hiring process for St. Pete Police and in now just waiting to find out if he will be hired or not..he was told he would know by the end of this month..? I am leaving July 18th for BCT in Ft. Jackson SC. So my question is IF he is hired and starts the academy will he be able to attend my boot camp graduation? I have heard that he will not be able to take ANY time off during an academy..Is this true?

[CincyCop]

Time off during a Law Enforcement academy is contingent upon many things...what the time off is regarding, the length of the time off, can missed syllabus items be made up at a later date/time, etc. Your boot camp graduation is pretty important imho and would most likely seem to require two to three days off maximum on his part (fairly close geographic proximity)...and if your graduation is on a weekend and his academy is a 8-5, M-F schedule, minimal if any time off may be required. Just my opinion, he should address this issue after he is in the academy (hired) and not on the first day...heck, he may be starting the academy after you have graduated in which case it would be a non-issue.

The City of Cincinnati Police Academy allowed me to take a week off due to the death of my mother back in 2004. I would think that a military graduation of an immediate family member would rank pretty high regarding time off...but I may be wrong. I guess it depends on the specific academy's policies.

Also, have fun in boot...and thank you for your beginning service to our country.

[1depd]

Think long and hard about working for St Pete. If your husband does decide to work there, just remember most of the agencies in the county are run better and have a more pro-LEO attitude than St Pete. When I worked in the area they had the easiest hiring process, but they were the most screwed up agency. We had a difficult time working with them because their policies were so far out of the norm and pro-dirt bag, when compared to other agencies in the county. Kenneth City, the SO, Pinellas Park, Largo, and Clearwater all worked together seamlessly, but when it came time to work with St Pete it was screwed up. It literally got to the point we wouldn't work joint ops with them (even DUI checkpoints), because they insisted things be done their way, which was ineffective for all but the law abiding citizens. It was a good place to get your foot in the door, if you couldn't afford to go the academy, but I wouldn't stay for much longer than necessary. The St Pete officers we did encounter, due to crimes bleeding over into the other's jurisdiction, were great, but the management was horrible. Granted this was several years ago, and thing might have changed, but from the stories I hear from friends still in the area, it hasn't.