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HOW TO QUALIFY
Each city or town, each county, each state, and each federal agency sets its own standards for the law
enforcement officers it employs. The only requirements that all federal and almost all state and local
jurisdictions have in common are United States citizenship and a high school education.
Beyond these two basics are many variations. Some jobs require an associate's or bachelor's degree;
others require graduate or professional degrees. Some require specific training or expertise. For some
positions, a certain number of years of experience in a related field is necessary.
Not only do education and experience requirements vary, medical and physical requirements differ as
well. Some law enforcement positions may be filled by the handicapped; others require perfect vision and
excellent hearing. Some law enforcement positions require demonstration of physical strength, agility,
and endurance; others do not.
For some law enforcement positions, you must pass a written examination before you can be admitted
to the training program. For many federal positions, not only those with the Treasury Department,
this exam will be the Treasury Enforcement Agent Examination. Other federal agencies devise their
own exams or require none at all. Most state and local law enforcement agencies have developed their
own exams.
All these requirements lead the applicant to qualify for training, not for the job itself. All law
enforcement agencies offer some sort of training to new recruits. This training may be given in a formal
school setting or may consist of on-the-job training in the form of an apprenticeship. The training period
is always followed by a period of supervised probation, generally ranging from one to three years. Only
after the new law enforcement officer has successfully completed training and has worked effectively
through this probationary period will he or she receive a permanent appointment to the force.
Because of the variations, we will go through the positions one by one as we did in the preceding
section, detailing the requirements, training, and probationary period for each.
Important Note: If you are a veteran of the United States Armed Forces, be sure to make this fact
known. Veterans receive some form of employment preference when they apply for any government
position--local, state, or federal. The veteran's preference sometimes takes the form of points added to
the examination score. For some positions, the maximum age of entry is raised by the number of years
served. Service-connected disability, if it is not disqualifying for the job, can add still more weight to the
application. Even if your experience in the Armed Forces was such that it cannot be counted toward the
experience requirements of the position, be sure you get credit for the very fact of that service.
Local Positions
POLICE OFFICER
Entry requirements for Police Officers vary to a certain degree among police agencies throughout the
country. As a rule, however, applicants must be U.S. citizens between the ages of 20 and 35 at the time of
appointment to service. Time served in the military is usually deducted from a candidate's chronological
age in meeting the upper age requirement. Most police agencies require completion of high school or its
equivalent as the educational minimum, although some insist on completion of a specified number of
college credits and, in some instances, a college degree. Secondary and postsecondary courses helpful in
preparing for police work include government, English, psychology, sociology, American history,
physics, and foreign languages. In addition, more than 1,000 junior colleges, colleges, and universities
offer programs in police science or criminal justice. The vast majority of police agencies in the United
