Unit 6: Drug Recognition and Evidence

The Selection Process: Review

There are very few civil service exams which are like those for law enforcement officers. Most civil service exams require a person to know the job thoroughly before applying. The civil service exams for engineers, social workers, building inspectors, nurses, teachers, etc. all require the person to know the job before taking the civil service exam. But usually people with no advance technical training are eligible to apply for law enforcement officer positions. They are expected to learn the job after they are hired. However, in practice people who have some advance knowledge of law enforcement ideas and language have an advantage in taking the civil service tests for law enforcement positions, and prep courses have proven effective in raising test scores.

There have been dramatic changes in the law enforcement officer selection process in recent years.

Today there is less emphasis on physical characteristics. Age, physical strength, height and weight were important factors in the selection process in the past. But today’s selection process usually focuses more on factors like education, mental abilities, physical health, mental health, ability to get along with a boss and other people, and a stable past job history.

Even the written tests have changed dramatically. They are much longer and more difficult than they were in the past. Older tests were mostly tests of practical judgment or common sense with some questions on reading comprehension, grammar, and arithmetic. But most law enforcement officer exams today try to test a variety of specific mental skills related to law enforcement work. Recent tests also have many more reading comprehension questions than older tests, since the law enforcement officer must be able to grasp such written materials as training manuals, legal bulletins, policy statements, and procedure manuals.

Applying for Positions. To start with, you need to know when to apply for law enforcement officer positions. Very few law enforcement agencies use continuous recruitment. In other words, they do not have a continuous office for taking applications. They set up a recruiting office for several weeks when they are about to do some hiring, and then they close down the office. However, most law enforcement agencies do have a continuous personnel office, or at least one personnel officer, to keep track of other personnel matters and to plan recruitment campaigns. A telephone call to the personnel office is one way to find out if the agency is hiring now or expects to be hiring in the near future.

The process of recruiting law enforcement officers reflects the way an agency gets its budget. Law enforcement agency budgets are mostly part of the annual budgets of cities, states, and the federal government. These budgets supply money for only one year at a time. If the budget has enough money in it, money will probably be allocated for hiring law enforcement officers. This may be a last minute decision when the budget is being worked out. Then the officers must be hired during that budget period because next year’s budget may not contain money for new officers. For you, this has significant consequences. You must keep constantly informed about law enforcement officer hiring; and you must understand that, at times, even the law enforcement agency’s Personnel Office may not be able to give you any definite information. You must also be aware that if you let an opportunity pass by, you cannot be sure of when you will get the next opportunity to apply.

When a law enforcement agency is hiring new officers or agents, there will be a special application form. This application may be available from the Personnel Office of the agency itself, or it may come from a Personnel Office which serves all city, state or federal agencies. Telephone or visit the agency to find out where to get an application. Fill out the application completely and sign it. If you fail to answer any question, your application may not be valid. Probably, no one will send it back to you for correction; it will be set aside and forgotten. So, ask someone to review your application before you submit it. If you mail in the application, send it by certified mail, with return receipt. If the application is submitted in person, get a receipt for it.

After submitting an application, you might not hear from the agency for quite a while. In fact, some agencies do not contact you until about a week before the scheduled written exam. They will send you an admission ticket to take the exam, together with exact information about the time and location of the test.

If the test is only a few days away and you have had no response to your application, telephone or go to the Personnel Office for information. Have your certified mail receipt in hand. Sometimes exam admission tickets sent through the mail do get lost or delayed. Personnel Offices usually have a procedure for taking care of the problem if you have a receipt showing that you did file an application.

Documenting Your Qualifications. When you get an application, you will probably be given a list of job requirements that go with it. To prepare for the selection process, you should review the job requirements of the agency you are applying to. If you do not yet have a driver’s license, you should start working on that immediately. You should start assembling any other papers which are required, such as birth certificate, proof of U.S. citizenship, and high school diploma or college transcript.