How to Become a Police Officer: A Quick Guide

• Author: Audrey Stoffle
• Expert Reviewer: William Prince

If you are interested in becoming a police officer, you will need to learn about the requirements for becoming one and the process you will need to follow. How to Become a Police Officer provides important information for prospective cops, including the comprehensive steps for becoming a police officer* and the specific requirements of each state and major US city. We also offer information on the best educational paths leading to a law enforcement career, the various career possibilities within policing, extensive salary information, expert law enforcement advice, and a jobs tool to find police jobs in your area.

According to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data, there are nearly 900,000 police and sheriff’s patrol officers, criminal investigators, detectives, and first-line supervisors of police and detectives in the US.^1,2,3 Below you will find a step-by-step, practical guide for becoming a police officer to help you along, no matter where you are on your journey.

Table of Contents

• Steps for Becoming a Police Officer
• Law Enforcement Salary and Outlook
• State Police Officer Requirements
• City Police Officer Requirements

Steps for Becoming a Police Officer

In addition to the usual application process that one would expect of any job, applicants for cop positions are also subject to written, physical, and psychological tests, an extensive background investigation, a polygraph examination, and multiple interviews. Although the process varies somewhat from agency to agency, certain key steps are typically involved, and the purpose of this guide is to identify and to explain those steps so that aspiring police officers will have a better understanding of what it will take to enter their chosen career field.

1. Learn the desired traits of a police officer.

Police expert Neal C. Griffin says that professional police officers exhibit the “Five I’s”: integrity, intellect, industry, initiative, and impact.⁴ As a result, departments want to hire officers who are honest and will not cross ethical lines, who are smart enough to do one of the most complicated jobs in the world, who are not afraid of hard work, who are able to think independently and take charge, and who will make a positive impression on people. Officers must be level-headed at all times, even under acute stress, and they must have the requisite human relations skills to deal with all kinds of people in an infinite range of circumstances.

Any young person who is interested in becoming a law enforcement officer should participate in a Police Explorer program if a nearby department has one. These programs, which are open to kids in high school, provide participants with an experience that will look good on an application for a police job. Given that the most common minimum age required of police applicants is 21, aspiring officers will need to make good use of their time between high school and attaining that age. Departments always look for intelligent, well-educated recruits, so college is an excellent choice.

2. Research the basic requirements of police departments you are considering.

US police agencies utilize a hiring process that involves a series of steps that take place over weeks or months and is focused on both weeding out undesirable candidates and identifying the recruits who possess the most desirable traits. While there are exceptions, in order to be considered for a typical position, a candidate must be a US citizen, 21 years of age, and hold a valid driver’s license. Though there is some variation in educational requirements, the typical department requires a minimum of a high school diploma or GED. It has become more common for police departments to require recruits to have some college credit before applying. Some departments, however, do allow exceptions to college requirements for those with military service or prior law enforcement experience. Check with the PD to which you are interested in applying to learn specific details.

That said, a two- or four-year degree in criminal justice or a related field will definitely give an applicant an edge in getting hired and may qualify for educational incentive pay once hired. Many departments give hiring preference to veterans, so military service in any specialty, but especially in the military police sector, is a big plus. Some departments will hire communications personnel as young as eighteen, and experience as a dispatcher can be an advantage in getting hired as an officer. Attending a Citizen Police Academy or participating in a ride-along program may also be helpful. At the very least, any of the above options will give a person enough of a taste of police work to know whether or not it is a viable career option for him or her.

There are a few police agencies that accept applications on an ongoing basis, but most departments do not. Normally recruits may apply only pursuant to the posting of a specific job announcement. Many applicants limit their job searches to one or two local agencies, but a wider search is more likely to be fruitful. Most departments of any size now have websites with recruiting sections, and potential applicants can periodically check the sites of departments where they are most interested in working to see when a selection process will open. Some allow for e-mail subscriptions to track job announcements, and Google Alerts can also help keep track of current openings. Moreover, there are a number of websites whose express purpose is to help people find jobs. They include:

• Discover Policing – The official job board of the International Association of Chiefs of Police
• Police One – Search for and find police and law enforcement jobs anywhere in the country.

3. Consider common disqualifiers.

Any felony conviction, including deferred adjudication, is an automatic disqualifier, as is a less-than-honorable discharge from the military, any pattern of criminal activity, a history of drug addiction, and (in most cases) gang membership. Most misdemeanors, drunk driving, and excessive traffic citations or accidents will probably sabotage an application, too.

4. Apply to become a police officer.

The application process for cops consists of more than just completing an application. Getting hired as a police officer usually means you have been vigorously vetted in a multi-step process. While this process varies with each police department, you can typically expect some combination of the following:

The Application

When an agency posts an announcement, it may want a preliminary online application, to be followed later by the most extensive paper application that most people will ever see in their lives, or it may ask for the latter right away. Either way, the application may precede the written examination, or in some cases, applicants submit their applications when they report for the entrance exam.

The Entrance Examination

Virtually every department is going to administer a written test, often called a “civil service exam,” very early in the process. It is one of the cheaper tests to give, and it allows agencies to weed out sub-standard applicants immediately. Most of these tests measure applicants’ verbal skills, much like the verbal section of standardized tests such as the SAT and ACT, and some may include job-related questions as well—e.g., map reading, observation and recall, and report writing. Some may also include questions that assess recruits’ maturity and integrity. Never underestimate the importance of verbal skills to cops. An officer will spend much of his or her career communicating, both orally and in writing. From talking with citizens and suspects to writing reports to testifying in court, officers must communicate constantly, and they must be able to do so effectively. In fact, strong verbal skills are arguably the most important trait of a good officer. Regardless of the format it takes and the skills that it measures, the written test generally provides the first ranking of candidates in a list commonly known as the eligibility roster.

The Physical Abilities Test (PAT)

Sometimes called a “physical agility test” or “physical fitness test,” this may occur on the same day as the written test, or the department may schedule it separately. PATs vary greatly from agency to agency, but they are designed to measure a recruit’s general health and fitness. Recruits may be required to run a moderate distance, perhaps a quarter mile, for speed, or a department may prefer to measure recruits’ endurance with a run from one to two miles that they must complete within a maximum allotment of time.

A test may include climbing a fence, dragging a weighted dummy, running an obstacle course, and even pushing a patrol car. Although this line of work may rarely require an officer to be physically fit, circumstances may arise quickly at any given time in which an officer’s physical fitness may be crucial to catching a criminal or defending the officer and perhaps others from danger. In rare instances, an officer’s physical fitness is genuinely a life-or-death matter. For these reasons, the physical ability test is an important screening tool and permits the refining of candidates’ ranking.

The Oral Board

This initial interview is unlike any job interview that most people will ever have. It will take place before a “board” of three or more officers of different ranks, and it is generally designed to put the recruit under a great deal of psychological pressure and then to see how well he or she thinks under stress. The members of the board will ask some routine job interview questions, but they will also present various scenarios and ask the recruit what his or her choice of action would be. In many cases, there is no clear right or wrong answer, and the board is not looking for one particular answer. Sometimes, the board simply wants to make the applicant squirm and to see if he or she rattles easily.

In some cases, the oral board will take place after the background investigation, and the members of the board may be armed with a minor skeleton that the background investigator managed to exhume from the applicant’s closet. This serves a two-fold purpose: (1) By asking the applicant an open-ended question and giving him or her the opportunity to “come clean” about a minor transgression, the board is able to assess the recruit’s honesty, and (2) by revealing a fact that only the applicant and perhaps one or two confidants had knowledge of, it applies even great pressure to the subject sitting before the board. It may seem a little sneaky or even cruel, but it is a valuable tool that allows the department to assess its candidates more thoroughly. Policing is among the most stressful of all occupations, and if one cannot handle the pressure of the oral board, he or she is certainly not equipped to deal with the ubiquitous and intense pressure of this work.

The Background Investigation

In today’s litigious society, companies are concerned about the potential for civil litigation if they say too much about a former employee in a request for employment verification. Most employers who are conducting background investigations on applicants simply accept this limitation, but clearly, police departments need to know far more about the people whom they are considering for employment. Departments are highly concerned with an applicant’s integrity and overall reliability, so they must know about attendance, punctuality, and discipline, just to name a few key characteristics. Therefore, when a police department is conducting a background investigation of a prospective officer, the investigator will often go out to each former employer, sit down with the applicant’s personnel file, and then proceed to go through the file with a fine-toothed comb. The investigator may contact some of the applicant’s former bosses, college professors, school teachers, ministers, neighbors, spouse(s) and other family members, friends, and even landlords.

Despite some controversy surrounding the use of credit reports in the selection process, many departments will also obtain the applicant’s credit report because they believe that creditworthiness is another measure of personal integrity and that someone in a weak financial position might be more vulnerable to bribery. If an applicant has been a party to a lawsuit, including divorce, the investigator will likely obtain those legal records. Competition for police jobs is high, and a department can ill afford to ignore any red flag indicating that a particular officer may be a bad risk. The investigation will be extremely comprehensive and thorough in every respect, and the department will learn virtually everything there is to know about each applicant who remains in consideration at this stage. The department then uses this knowledge to further whittle down the list of potential new hires, and in most agencies today, this information is also used as the basis for the polygraph examination.

The Polygraph Examination

It is impossible to overstate the importance of integrity in police work, and most departments will utilize the polygraph to assess the honesty of applicants who make it this far in the hiring process. The department may have its own in-house polygrapher, or it may contract with someone outside the agency. In either case, this is a time-consuming and expensive test, which is why it comes late in the process. A good polygraph examination will include an extensive review of the recruit’s application materials and background investigation results, a thorough interview with the applicant, formulation of control and relevant questions, and ultimately the examination itself. This will take several hours to complete and is a crucial stage in the process. Make no mistake about it— departments want to hire honest people who will become honest cops. If the polygrapher’s expert opinion is that an applicant has lied, even about something relatively trivial, the department will remove that individual’s name from the eligibility roster.

The Psychological and Physical Examinations

The psychological and physical tests often occur at or about the same time in the process and typically very near the end due to the expense involved. Sometimes they are even scheduled on the same day, with one taking place in the morning and the other in the afternoon. A psychologist will administer and score a written test, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) for instance, and will then interview the applicant. Based on the written test and interview, the psychologist will then advise the department on the recruit’s suitability for employment.

Physical examinations vary a great deal in thoroughness and depend to a large extent on the financial means of the agency. Some may give a cursory examination much like the typical high school sports physical, while others may include a treadmill stress test and echocardiogram to assess the health of the applicant’s heart. The exam will usually include blood tests and urinalysis to test both for potential health problems and for illegal drug use. Most departments have a height-weight requirement as well, and some applicants are removed from consideration at this stage for being overweight. Departments’ specific height-weight requirements are often quite different, and some are stricter than others. Anyone who is interested in becoming a cop should be sure that he or she is healthy and not overweight, and since most departments publish their requirements, there is really no excuse for getting this far along in the process and having an issue with weight.

The Executive Interview

Immediately preceding the department’s final selections, there will usually be another interview. It some departments this interview may be conducted by a high-ranking officer in the department, possibly even the Chief of Police. This “chief’s interview” is quite common in small- to mid-sized agencies. As this is the department’s last opportunity to assess its best candidates before hiring them, very few people make it to this stage of the process. If an applicant makes it this far, he or she has a good chance of being hired, but it is not certain. For instance, if a department has five openings, it might bring in the top ten candidates on the eligibility roster for the executive or chief’s interview. Clearly, not everyone interviewed can be hired, but also, this stage is very subjective. Police personnel consider themselves to be a family or at least a team, and issues of demeanor, appearance, and “fit” are important to hiring authorities. This is true with most jobs when it comes to final interviews, but it is arguably even more crucial in police work. At the end of this step, the department selects its newest member(s).

5. Attend a police academy.

Police hiring programs will include a police academy component for prospective officers who have passed the previous hiring steps. Most law enforcement departments have their own academy, which must be certified by the state’s Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) commission to meet professional training and safety standards. Recruits attend the academy for 12 to 24 weeks before going out into the field. Recruits will usually draw a salary during this period. Academy courses may cover topics such as criminal law, community policing, firearms training, and investigation and defensive tactics.

6. Receive field training.

Whether or not a department has its own academy, virtually all departments have some type of official field training program. For a period of three to six months typically and sometimes as long as a year, the department will assign a new officer to a field training officer (FTO) who administers the prescribed training to the trainee. Depending on the agency, the FTO might be a sergeant or master officer, or perhaps simply a senior officer who has demonstrated the necessary skills and willingness to train rookies. FTOs have some discretion in how to train their new hires, but most will start out with verbal instruction and modeling and then will eventually assume the role of observer. When the rookie officer meets the department’s required criteria and receives the endorsement of the FTO, he or she will be a full-fledged cop. In many agencies, that will mean graduating to solo patrol of an assigned beat. Whether working alone or with a partner, this new officer will soon discover that the process of training never ends. It will, in fact, continue throughout the officer’s career in police work. Aside from the ongoing training that departments and licensing commissions require, an officer will literally learn something new every day. Policing is an extremely complex job, and becoming a cop is not a destination. It is a journey that lasts as long as the officer wears the badge.

Law Enforcement Salary and Outlook

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, police officers in the US earn an average salary of over $63,000 per year.⁵ The outlook for police and sheriff’s patrol officers is also positive, with an overall 7% increase in job openings expected through the year 2026, which is about the same as the average for all occupations.⁶ This equates to about 4,700 new police jobs added to the workforce every year; including replacement positions, however, an average of 49,500 annual openings are expected each year.⁶ So while the projected growth of new positions is around average at 7%, the real opportunity is in replacement hiring, where nearly 50,000 jobs are expected to be available every year during that same 10-year period.⁶ Sue Rahr, retired King County Sheriff, agrees: “There was massive police hiring done in the late 70s and early 80s. We’re all getting ready to retire…. I think this is the best time to become a cop–right now.”

While there is a wide range of income potential for cops, which is strongly correlated to the size of the department, location, and other factors, becoming an officer remains an excellent middle-class career option for those seeking job growth and security. For more information on law enforcement pay and benefits, see our Police Officer Salaries page.

State Police Officer Requirements

Each state also has its own requirements for law enforcement officers. Click on your state below to find out more about state trooper, sheriff’s deputy, and police requirements in that state.

• Select a State
• Alabama
• Alaska
• Arizona
• Arkansas
• California
• Colorado
• Connecticut
• Delaware
• Florida
• Georgia
• Hawaii
• Idaho
• Illinois
• Indiana
• Iowa
• Kansas
• Kentucky
• Louisiana
• Maine
• Maryland
• Massachusetts
• Michigan
• Minnesota
• Mississippi
• Missouri
• Montana
• Nebraska
• Nevada
• New Hampshire
• New Jersey
• New Mexico
• New York
• North Carolina
• North Dakota
• Ohio
• Oklahoma
• Oregon
• Pennsylvania
• Rhode Island
• South Carolina
• South Dakota
• Tennessee
• Texas
• Utah
• Vermont
• Virginia
• Washington
• Washington DC
• West Virginia
• Wisconsin
• Wyoming

City Police Officer Requirements

The hiring process and requirements can vary at different law enforcement agencies. Learn about requirements for becoming a police officer in the following cities:

• Select a City
• Albuquerque
• Arlington
• Atlanta
• Aurora
• Austin
• Bakersfield
• Baltimore
• Birmingham
• Boston
• Charlotte
• Chicago
• Cleveland
• Colorado Springs
• Columbus
• Dallas
• Denver
• Detroit
• El Paso
• Fort Worth
• Fresno
• Honolulu
• Houston
• Indianapolis
• Jacksonville
• Kansas City
• Las Vegas
• Long Beach
• Los Angeles
• Louisville
• Memphis
• Mesa
• Miami
• Milwaukee
• Minneapolis
• Nashville
• New Orleans
• New York City
• Oakland
• Oklahoma City
• Omaha
• Philadelphia
• Phoenix
• Portland
• Raleigh
• Sacramento
• San Antonio
• San Diego
• San Francisco
• San Jose
• Seattle
• Tampa
• Tucson
• Tulsa
• Virginia Beach
• Washington DC
• Wichita

References and Notes:
1. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wages, Detectives and Criminal Investigators: https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes333021.htm
2. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wages, Police and Sheriff’s Patrol Officers: https://www.bls.gov/OES/current/oes333051.htm
3. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wages, First-Line Supervisors of Police and Detectives:https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes331012.htm
4. Griffin, N. C. (1998). The five-I’s of police professionalism: A model for front-line leadership. Police Chief, 65, 24-31.
5. Bureau of Labor Statistics: https://www.bls.gov/ooh/Protective-Service/Police-and-detectives.htm
6. Projections Central, Long Term Occupational Projections: https://projectionscentral.org/Projections/LongTerm

*Note: Although this guide uses the terms “police,” “police officer,” and “cop” exclusively, the process described here as characteristic of municipal departments is fairly typical of county sheriffs’ offices and state agencies as well.

This guide was written by William Prince, Adjunct Instructor of Criminal Justice at Wharton County Junior College.