Questions about becoming a Police Officer in Mesa, AZ?

Question

Okay so I am 20, I'll be 21 in April and I have been thinking very hard about becoming a police officer. I am wondering what the police camp is like, and what I need to do in order to get accepted to the camp etc. What sort of things to new officers do on the job, pay rate. training, do I need college classes? Not sure that it matters but I have a High School Diploma for graduating in 2007. Thanks

Answer 1

You should attend college first if possible. It will truly benefit you. There are usually several steps involved when it comes to becoming a police officer. The first step is checking with the department to determine what their minimum qualifications required are, and to determine if you meet them. The second step is completing an application. The hiring process will often vary from one department to another. Visit the websites of the departments that you are interested in. If you still have questions, simply call the department. They will connect you with someone that will answer your questions. Check out http://www.peaceofficerjobs.com for excellent information and advice about becoming a police officer. Visit http://www.cityofmesa.org/pdjobs/por.asp... for details on how to become an officer with the Mesa Police Department.

Answer 2

Becoming a police officer is extremely competitive. It's strongly adviseable you enroll in Administration of Justice classes at your nearest community college, and talk to the nearest police department about their Explorer Program.  Police academy is no different than military booth camp. It's a psychological process to condition you to take orders without question, and to foster teamwork value in your mind. When one recruit f**ks up, the entire team suffers for his mistakes.  This is to ingrain the value of looking out for the interest of your fellow officers, even if it means sacrificing your life to save others.  

I'm in California in the Los Angeles area. Here, we have Rio Hondo College in Whittier, which offers a police academy program for any student who wants to get POST certified (Police Officer Standard of Training).  Once you've received your POST certification, any city police department can hire you.  Call around all the colleges in Arizona, and see if anyone offers police academy POST certification training.  If you can't get hired on immediately as a high school graduate, your options are to either earn an Administration of Justice certificate from a community college, or pay the fees and sign up for a police academy training program, to earn your POST certification.  If you go for the latter, you better start working out daily;  run maybe an hour a day, then follow up with lifting weights to build up upper body strength.  There's a 6-foot wall you need to get over on the agility test, and its painted with high-gloss finish, which makes it slippery. A lot of people fail the physical agility test because of this 6-foot wall.  

Edit► another option is their police reserve program, where you can train to be a police officer on the weekends, while keeping your job on the weekdays.  After you've completed all the hours, you're eligible to be hired as a police officer.  The military is another option.  They offer Law Enforcement Specialist.  Beware of recruiters offering you "Security Specialist,"  which is really security guard work. Security Specialist is not the same as LE specialist.  In security, you do extremely boring jobs, like making sure the plane doesn't come to life, and take off on it's own; or standing at the main gate, checking everyone's identification card.  In military LE, you do everything a civilian LE does.