Expert: William Payne - 4/14/2007

Question
QUESTION: Hello, I am moving to South Carolina sometime soon and I have decided that I want to become a police officer. I was wondering if you could tell me what the process is to becoming an officer in South Carolina? Such as the requirements, educational background and etc.
ANSWER: Cassandra,

Thanks for the question.

In South Carolina you must meet certain requirements to become a police officer. These include, but are not limited to:

Minimum age of 21
SC drivers license
No convictions of drunk driving within past 10 years
No convictions of any crimes of moral turpitude
Good credit rating
Not under court ordered Order of Protection

If you go to the Web Site WWW.SCCJA.org it will give you all the details for South Carolina requirements.

Some, but not all agencies in South Carolina require some type of advanced degree before being considered for hiring.

South Carolina has a centralized academy for the entire state. You must be hired by a law enforcement agency before you may attend the academy.

The Web Site I gave you also has links to many of the police agencies in South Carolina, so you can peruse them and see what the different requirements are for the different agencies.

Good Luck!

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

QUESTION: One more question for you...what classifys as a law enforcement agency? Would it be like security work or something? I've been researching on the area I'm going to be in for law enforcement agencies, and I'm not getting any results.

Answer
Cassandra,

In the simplest form, security companies are private organizations that are contracted out to perform limited law enforcement duties within a certain property.

Law enforcement agencies are public entities that are paid by your tax dollars to perform law enforcement duties.

Security officers and law enforcement officers perform a lot of the same duties, but overall, they are quite different.

Thanks again!