Depends where you go what the qualifications are and what the pay is. I spent 29 years a deputy sheriff on the California central coast. We had a hard time recruitment quality people. With Silicon Valley next door, there are agencies over there that pay 20-30% more than we could.
That limited our applicant pool off the bat. Then there is the hiring process: Standard civil service application, written exam, physical agility test (should be mandatory yearly throughout one’s career - don’t get me started), oral panel interview, background investigation, psychological screening, medical exam.
Once hired, training begins. A 25-week academy, two weeks of orientation (computer systems, policies, departmental firearms qualification, intro to all our stations and facilities), and then field training.
Field training consists of three five-week phases, each with a different Field Training Officer. Anofficer can be remediated at any phase, but never pushed forward early. After completing Phase 3, there is two weeks of checkout with the first FTO in plainclothes acting solely as an evaluator. Throughout field training, there are daily evaluations (33 areas evaluated with a checkbox 1-7 - Unacceptable- Outstanding - format plus a written eval), weekly evals and phase reviews with the training officers and sergeant,
If the trainee passes, he completes his one-year probationary period with monthly evals and a written development plan.
There is a fairly high washout rate. Of every 100 applicants, about 10 at he most will be offered a job. The testing process removes a lot of people initially due to substandard written communication skills, lack of physical fitness and failing the oral interview. The background gets a lot, too. Criminal history, bad credit (bad money management historically is a risk factor for corruption), and poor work history eliminate a lot of people.
Of the 10 who are hired, only eight will make it through the academy. Of the eight graduates, only six or seven will complete field training. Of those seven, within five years two of them will have transferred to higher-paying departments or moved to another part of the state with a much lower cost of living. The five remaining will see one of their compadres leave law enforcement altogether within their first five years. Another will be medically retired from on-the-job injuries before he hits the 10-year mark (spinal and knee injuries are the most common). So, after 10 years, three of the 100 people who took the test are still around.
Officers get ongoing training throughout their careers. California requires something like 24 hours a year, although most places exceed it. Our patrol deputies have a monthly 10-hour training day, plus there specialized schools available that run anywhere from three days to two weeks.
I have learned that not everywhere has the same standards and training. Apparently there are still places in the country where hiring is much easier, they don’t go to an academy until they’ve already worked a year and then the academy is maybe half of what they’d get on the west coast.
Sorry to ramble. I figgered that maybe it would be enlightening to see what the hiring and training is like for us.
