Expert: Jack Toomey - 4/30/2009

Question
QUESTION: Hi my name is Chris Martino and I attend Mallard Creek high school in Charlotte,NC. I want to take a career in criminal justic and also become a SWAT officer. I was wondering if you could help me find out where is the right place to get a job.

ANSWER: Chris,

I get a ton of questions from high school students about SWAT.  I think that many of them are getting their ideas from watching television.  Let me make this clear.  NOTHING that you see on tv is realstic.  SWAT does not operate in real life like you see on tv.  In fact on most departments a SWAT position is a part-time position.  SWAT officers are uniformed officers who patrol until a SWAT situation is called.

Anyway it is not mandatory that you have a criminal justice degree.  In fact you will learn very little about real police work in a college classroom.  You might want to talk to your counseler about that choice.  What is important is that you get a degree that you can fall back on in the event that you are not hired by a police department.  Only about 10 - 15% of people applying for police departments are actually hired.

After college you will apply to the department of your choice.  Assuming that you make it through the hiring process which can take a long time you will go to the police academy and upon graduation you will be assigned to a patrol shift.  For the next several, maybe seven to ten years, you will be a uniformed officer and then when there is an opening in the SWAT unit you might be eligible for consideration based on your performance.  A lot of kids that I talk to are under the impression that you go straight from college to SWAT.  That is not the case.

I hope that this answers your question.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks for the information and i would like to would it help me better to get a job in the police force if i have a military back ground?

Answer
Having served in the military would certainly not hurt you but it might not help you.  What you should understand that not everyone has the apptitude to become a police officer.  It doesn't matter if you are tall, strong, male, smart, or can run 40 yards in 4 seconds.  There are tests, interviews, more tests, background investigations, etc, that all determine if an applicant has the apptitude to be a police officer.

I am not trying to talk you out of it but I think that your best plan would be to attend college and after graduation see if you feel the same way about becoming a police officer.  A lot changes between the age of 16 and 22.