Police interview results.

[mrrocknroll]

Originally posted by Dragonsreach
mrrocknroll : Congratulations You\'re in a Real job at last. Now all you have to do is avoid all the political correctness bullshit involved with modern policing. Best advice I can give you, Get teamed up with a 10/12 year veteran and learn from them.



@SG2009 and Alextheartist: I\'m going to be very blunt here. My father was a 30 year veteran of the Blue uniform. A Firearms Instructor and Police Marksman in the 60\'s, 70\'s and 80\'s, my best friend is a 15+ veteran, one of my Aunts was a Police Inspector and one of my nephews is a serving officer. Each and every one of them will tell you that your attitude of wanting to go in as a police marksman will rule you out.
The criteria for police Armed Response Units is SO HIGH that my friend, a former Royal Marine and the best shot I\'ve ever seen, (and I was a Class 1 Competitive Marksman, averaging 98/100) Failed the training.

And yes there is a serious need for life experience. To be brutally honest the last thing anyone needs is a teenager in a uniform with no knowledge of how to handle an aggressive Drunken Asshole on a Friday Night.
Get some understanding of real life situations, relationships and working life stresses before \"stepping up\" and it\'ll do you more good than all the text book Sociology or Criminology classes you could ever attend.


@james sequeira: James I\'ll also be blunt PCSO\'s are despised. They are \"Copping\" on the cheap and accuratley described as Cardboard Cutout Cops. They have no powers of action, arrest or restraint and are more circumscribed than an ordinary citizen. At least if I\'m threatened or attacked I can defend myself. They are a pathetic political attempt to cover up the failure of modern police forces to manage the human aspect of police work which is being buried under a mountian of Political Correctness paperwork and Statistical targets.
If you want to wear Blue \'Suck it Up\' and either apply Straight or apply to be a Special Constable.

To all of you; at 18 I could have applied to be a Police Cadet, but I had neither the experience, knowledge nor capacity to do the job. Now as a \'mature\' adult I know fine well I could deal with the crap the job throws out, but thankfully I\'m too old and too sensible, to do it.

Your totally right about the life experience that they look for. I\'m a month off 24 (the fitness test is actually 2 days before my Birthday) and I think one the reasons that I\'ve not gotten in earlier is because I didn\'t have anything to offer.
But your right in trying to get the knowledge from people of 10/12 yrs experience. All the way through my applications / interviews I\'ve been talking to my dads friend who was had 30 years experience in all different fields of policing and he\'s said the same things as you have.

But once again Id like to say thanks to everyone for their kind words and replies.

 

[DaRat]

Congratulations on passing the interview! Well done!

Sounds like just a couple of minor hoops, and you\'ll be in!

 

[BarstoolProphet]

Congratulations. Obviously we\'re all proud of you.

I applied for the police here, some years back. I passed the psych test, passed the physical test, but failed the eye test by miles. I am legally blind without my glasses, and my vision corrected after surgery still would not be good enough to qualify. So, I\'m a bit jealous, too.

 

[Sand Rat]

My Grandfather was a cop, Chief of Police and a city judge. My dat was a Public Safety Director, Chief of Police, City Administrator, and now runs a Water District here in Texas.

My mother threatened to remove certain parts of my anatomy if I went into law enforcement. lol

Having said that I still passed the entry exam for College Station PD, and the secondary exam - failed the interview as I knew more than the examiner.

 

[Swordwind]

Originally posted by sg2009
i want to go in armed police when im old enough

O rly? Know anything about guns?


Congrats mrrocknroll, give em a clip round the ear for me :beer:

 

[Legacy Account]

Hide!!

It\'s the filth!!!!

:beer:

 

[redarmy27]

Congrats! Hats off to you, Mrrocknroll!

 

[graveyman]

Here’s another congrats from across the pond. I started the process to become a cop here (L.A.) a few years ago but decided not to finish. Now I think it was for the best. My buddies from the service all pushed me to do it but I finally realized that being good with a machine gun did not mean I’d be a good cop. Especially since cops don’t get machine guns here- only the criminals do.
Sorry for rambling. Anyone, in any country, serving in the military or police has my utmost respect and gratitude.
(I just wish the police here wouldn’t treat me with disdain because I’m not one of them. It’s tough when you encounter a guy you respect for their service and they treat you like some sort of ignorant fool even though I could beat many of them senseless and shoot better)
Can I ask a few questions? What is a PCSO? Also, what is the difference between armed officers and marksmen? Also, you guys can be cops at 18?!

 

[mrrocknroll]

Thanks dude,
Ok, over here we need to be 18 and a half to apply to the police, idea is that your be 19 be the time you join, if your lucky enough.
PCSO - Police Community Support Officer, basically its a policeman without the powers of a police officer, like they can\'t arrest people, chase people in cars, can\'t carry anything like batons etc. Sounds odd doesn\'t it, over here they are called paper police cause of the lack of powers they have. But the idea of them is to walk the streets and make sure everything is as it should be, and when someone needs arresting they call in the big boys.
As for marks man and armed officers, I\'m not 100% sure on this, but I believe that the armed officers are usually Riot geared, wear the body armour and carry items required for assaults, also I believe they ride the horses. Marks man would be people who carry the guns and are used in terrorist kinda situations. But as I said I\'m not 100% sure on that, its not the kinda thing that interests me in the job and I doubt I\'d want to do it anyway.

 

[graveyman]

Thanks for the clarification. It sounds like marksman is like our SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics). That\'s definitely one of the most prestigious units for our police. That is one unit I would have loved to be on. Building/room clearing was my favorite part of the military. But for terrorist or hostage situations, I thought you guys got to use the S.A.S.? Those guys are bad ass!

 

[mrrocknroll]

S.A.S (Special air service, Army unit) and S.B.S (Special Boat Service, Royal Navy) are military units and have no real power inside the UK unless needed in certain situations that require they special skills.
Yes they do kick ass, my mate who was in the army for 18 years told me how hard it is to get in to the S.A.S, the training is emence and what is required of them is even more emence when they go in to combat, my hat goes off to the lads in that unit, the things they\'ve pulled off in their long established history (dating back to WW2) is rather unbelievable, even more so since I\'m told there\'s only 1 recorded failed mission (Bravo 2 0).

On topic, getting in to the armed officers / marksman isn\'t top of my list, when we start the training we begin a years training in a college where we\'re required to learn all the powers that we can use, the law it self and how to handle situations, also in that time they monitor your fitness and push you to better your over all strengh and fitness. At some point in the training your sent to a police station where you work along side an existing policeman for like a month or something before going back to the college and learning the rest of what ever they will teach.
Once the training is done your posted at a station where you work the beat for 2 years (minimum requirement) inc paperworks etc. Then I believe your allowed to progress in other areas gradually getting to things like dog handlers, Air port monitoring (a must if you want to become a riot officer) and other such things. But there\'s no point in viewing these options yet, I want to pass the training first :moon:

 

[graveyman]

Sorry for getting off topic, I can go on forever about U.S and British Spec Ops.

It sounds like you\'re really driven to get this so I\'m sure you\'ll have no problems!
Congrats again!

 

[mrrocknroll]

hehe ty mate.
I too have a soft spot for military past and present, and as I said a mate of mine was in the forces for 18 years so me and him at work spend hours talking about ancient battles / empires / modern day military.

 

[redarmy27]

I bet you were extatic when you found out. What did your family do?

My uncle here in the states was the captain of the K-9 unit and taskforce for the St. Paul Area of Minnesota. It was pretty intense to see him in action. It\'s amazing how much training law enforcement goes through, both in the classroom and physically.

Well I hope everything goes well for you.

And just for a fun moment, a scene from \"Hot Fuzz\": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Hv9QwD4S-E&NR=1

 

[DaN]

some tips;

* Don\'t treat PCSOs or Specials with disdain(Which I\'m sure you wouldn\'t) as a lot of them are using their postings as a stepping stone for the regular service.

* Volunteer for training days! Ask to go out with dog units, the helicopter, etc

And especially: If the PSU unit has a training day - see if you can participate as a \"Rioter\" GREAT FUN

 

[lizcam]

It\'s a little late and all but WOOHOO!!!!!!!!!!! Congrats!