Are law enforcement officers employed by the government?

Question

I am unable to get a job for the federal government (not sure about local governments). Will this prevent me from becoming a Police Officer?

Answer 1

Highway patrol officers generally for state government.  Deputy sheriffs work for the sheriff who is an elected county official.  Police officer work for the city government.  Each has their own policies about hiring.  That is 50 states, many hundreds of counties and I don't know how many towns and cities and that is just in the u.s.  I suspect that no one can tell you the policies for each of those departments.

Answer 2

It will be hard but maybe if you find a back woods department you might be able t get in. good-luck

Answer 3

If something disqualifies you from holding a federal job, then it will probably hurt you when trying to get a local/state police job.

Added:

An OTH will make it almost impossible for you to find employment in law enforcement. Most departments require a minimum of a General discharge (even those are frowned on) Maybe 10 years down the road if you keep a steady job and be a model citizen...Even then, it doesn't look so good especially since a chapter 10 is as close to a court martial as you can get.

Added: Sorry I was thinking of Chapter 15. Anyways there has to be more to the story, in my experience the Army always characterizes your service as Honorable or General when giving a hardship discharge. You either had to really s***w up at one point or was just a bad soldier all the way around. Still not the quality of person most police departments are looking for.

If you feel your discharge was unfairly given or not equal to what an average soldier would get with a similar service record, then you can always appeal it with the Review Board...It's best to have an experience attorney do this for you.

Answer 4

Need more information to answer this one. Why can you not work for the feds?

Answer 5

Depends why you can't get hired by the Feds.  All Law Officers (except for Company Police) are employed by some level of the Government.