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police officer
Hello I am a 20 year old physically fit woman. I'm very interested in becoming a police officer but I have absolutely no idea how to begin. I'm turning 21 at the end of this month and after this summer is over I would like to begin training to get a job as an officer. How do I start to go about this in the state of Pennsylvania? My brother said there's an officer school but I don't know how to contact them. I don't want to go through a normal college I want to go to a school specifically for police training. Any info you can provide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
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Forget what wiseusername posted; he/she obviously has a problem with police.
In PA as in most states there are different types of Police Officers. At the high end of the Scale is the State Police,then you have your different County Police and then the different municipal, city and village police forces. While the state mandates the law enforcement requirements each department must uphold; each of these departments have differing entrance requirements.
Usually there is some type of civil service or written exam that must be taken. If you pass the written exam you are then scheduled for an agility test followed usually by some type of oral board. If accepted for training you are then offered a preliminary offer of employment and sent for a medical exam.
Becoming a police office is a job that is sought after by many applicants so it becomes one of numbers. The more departments you apply to the better chances you have of being accepted to one. If accepted to a department you are not particularly wanting to work for take the position anyway. Train for the job ans start your career. Keep your eyes open for positions in another department and apply for them after you have a year or two on the job. It is easier to lateral to another force than it is to get the first acceptance.
Some Municipal and City departments are so small that they do not have their own academies. In this instance they select their candidates for local community college programs that are certified to offer Police Officer training. Check with your local Community College on this as well.
You will find job listings posted on the websites of the different department websites.
Good luck and be careful
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Before you go sign up, I have a few things for you to read/watch.
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-Don't talk to cops lecture-
Cops are an organization who's sole purpose is to uphold the laws. All of them. We have some very stupid laws. Some you might personally disagree with. You will still be responsible for feeding people to the prison industrial complex to keep your job like everyone else.
Congress recently ruled that officers have no obligation to help people in distress. Increasingly, police offices across the nation are becoming insular brotherhoods meant to protect their own, keep their jobs, and destroy as many lives as possible outside their own community in the process. "To protect and serve" is history.
If you become a cop, it is guaranteed you will encounter corruption. If you do not go along with it you will face repercussions from the crooked cops who feel they cannot trust you to have their back. You will be taught that cops and cop families are allies and the general public is the enemy. You will not be sufficiently trained to handle the stress of the kind of fucked up situations you encounter as a police officer, and your pay and benefits won't really cover the therapy you will end up needing.
Fifteen years ago things were different. The friendly "walk a beat" cops who are in touch with the community are dead now. You will see the world through the glass of a police cruiser and you will be a part of one of the most justifiably hated organizations in existence on US soil. You will be a representation of the power of government to abuse it's citizens for money, fun, and even by accident, and you will have to live with that.
Do something else with your life. Educate yourself on what police culture is and how pervasive it is in America. Educate yourself on the completely broken system of criminal justice in this country and the for profit prisons who drive officers to arrest and convict so that they can stay in business making money.
Once you've learned all these things for yourself with a little research, look into activist groups for police reform. Go be a part of trying to change the system so we aren't living in a police state anymore where paramilitary no knock midnight swat missions to homes where someone is guilty of misdemeanor pot possession aren't the norm.
Then maybe your grandkids can become cops and have it be a decent thing to do with your life again.
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Becoming a police officer of any of the authority will require a college degree in law enforcement.
If you want to seek a career as a police officer, I suggest looking into some college classes that train in that field.
You could also try stopping by your local police station and asking these sort of questions, Sometimes they will send their students out on training. It depends on the area and the field you are looking at.
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