Expert: Jack Toomey - 9/19/2009

Question
QUESTION: Hi Jack, I am British Police Officer, hoping to make it over to the states and continue my career in law enforcement. My question is what is the process to being hired, What it is my understanding at the moment is that you have to get a POST certificate, apply to a police force if accepted , in my position be sponsored and then go to the prospective academy for that police force. is this correct, I do realize that the states is a very big place and rules may differ. Also would you recommend me to write to prospective departments asking if they are willing to hire me via sponsorship etc. Do you know how much a police dept would assist in gaining a work permit. Many thanks for your time

ANSWER: Tony,

Before I go into the details are you aware that you have to be a United States citizen in order to be a sworn police officer in this country?

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

QUESTION: Jack than you for relpying so quick, to answer your question, yes I am aware and happy to become a us citizen, my partner is moving over there as she has family there too , so as you can gather I want to follow her over. I do know some places you don't need to be citizen but it does not bother me I just want to be there , so I am happy with all the advice you have on the process and any thing else .
Many thanks
Tony

Answer
Tony,

The only state that I know of where you don't have to be a citizen is in the state of California so if you know of any other states please let me know.

You probably already know this but we do not have a national police force in the United States like you do in the UK.  Thus the hiring standards, terminology, and even the training is different from department to department and there are tens of thousands of police departments from the smallest three man departments in rural areas to the largest department which is the New York City PD.  I am not familiar with the term P.O.S.T so that must be a term that is unique to one state or more than a few states.  

The procedure as I know it is that you apply for a job at a police department just like you would apply for a job at a grocery store.  Most applicants wash out during the initial stages of the procedure because they simply do not have the aptitude to become a police officer.  Assuming that one is hired they attend the police academy that is run by the department that hires you.  I have become aware that in some parts of the country there are private police academies where the applicant pays his own tuition and upon graduation has to seek out employment without any guarantee that they will ever get a job.  I'd be very careful about that type of situation.

I have never heard of someone writing to a department asking for a sponsorship or anything to do with a work permit.  I guess that is because I only know one state where you don't have to be a citizen and those questions would be a moot point.  So I guess that I have not helped you a lot but its probably because I have only worked for one police department and I am basing my answer on my own experiences.