What qualifications do police officers need?

Answer 1

Using the Calgary Police Force standards as typical, and realizing that other jurisdictions will have specific qualifications around items such as citizenship and age, the applicant must:

Character

• Have an exemplary moral character.
• Demonstrate a high degree of personal integrity.
• Be intelligent, display sound judgment, maturity, and common sense.

Other Requirements

• 18 years of age.
• Must have Canadian Citizenship or legal permanent status prior to employment.
• Excellent health with no medical conditions that would restrict your ability to safely complete recruit training and perform all aspects of police work.
• Possess a fully licensed Class 5 driver's license [must NOT be a Graduated Driver's License] with no more than five demerit points. Out of province applicants should be sure that they possess the equivalent of this unrestricted drivers permit prior to submitting their application.
• Meet visual acuity standards.
• No criminal convictions for which a pardon has not been granted.
• No criminal charges pending before the courts.
• No criminal activity within at least three years preceding application including any detected or undetected crime and/or involvement at any level, including illegal drugs.
• Strong credit rating.
• Must be one year clear of discharge date from a bankruptcy.

Preferred Attributes

• Minimum of two years post secondary education and/or consistent employment history
• Volunteer experience in the community.
• Work experience involving a position of responsibility and trust.
• Duties that involve significant interaction with the public.
• Applied knowledge of computers, including but not limited to, MS Windows, Word, Outlook, etc, and basic typing skills.

Each police department has their own list of qualifications. Most police officers will need to have a diploma or GED and no arrests.

Answer 2

It depends on where you are. For instance, the qualifications in the city where I live used to be 2 years of college, no criminal record, and a clean driving record. If you meet those qualifications, they send you to the academy and train you for all the other stuff they want you to learn.

Answer 3

Getting a job as a police officer can be difficult because of the many tests an applicant goes through. A high school education or GED is generally required. College courses completed in criminal justice and military experience is a plus. A thorough background check is performed and applicants with multiple traffic violations, drug offenses and other criminal offenses will often be rejected. Most police officers take a series of tests before being accepted into the police academy.

These tests can include:

Civil Service testing.

Physical exams.

Lie detector tests.

Drug tests.

Personality tests.

Psychological tests.

The average age for applicants falls between the ages of 20 and 35. A series of physical tests are administered during the hiring process. This is to evaluate an applicant's strength, endurance and dexterity. Examples of the tests includes timed push ups, sit ups, a 1.5-mile run, arm and leg endurance tests, a 75-yard 'pursuit run,' and a side-step test.

Answer 4

There is no particular qualifications which you need, but having a GCSE in maths, English and science C or above can make you stand out from the other applicants. Also if i was recruiting i would look for examples of youth work, training and stuff

Answer 5

This is a difficult question to answer because people are all different and bring different skills to the police job. Ideally, an officer would be aggressive and a self-starter, able to work well alone and without direction, have good people skills, an excellent writer, able to speak well under pressure, bring a positive attitude to work every day, have good stress-relieving skills, be strong and fast, quick-witted, have lots of common sense, etc. Most of all, an officer would have to be able to remain professional at all times, no matter how abusive people get. Quick reactions are better than quick tempers. Officers have to be able to assess changing conditions rapidly and accurately, while maintaining good officer safety tactics. By no means does this cover all the characteristics needed to be a good police offcier.