Expert: Chris Wagoner - 11/7/2007

Question
Hello Sir,

My name is William Fowler. I am 26 years old getting ready to graduate a local Police Academy in Missouri. I have two questions for you.

#1 I am looking for tips to help me stand out during the oral board interview. I have interviewed twice and finished 4th out of 40 and did not get a response back from the second interview. I have a suit, shined shoes, fresh haircut and would like to think that I am answering the questions the right way, however they don't give you much reassurance in the interview room. Whatever advice you could offer would be greatly appreciated.

#2 My driving record is not the best and I have been arrested twice. While I was in high school I got a number of speeding tickets and had them all amended. If I had to guess I would say upwards of 12-15 tickets. I had them all amended. If you pull my driving record they don't show up, but I am sure there are other ways to find out. Should I put all of these tickets on the application?

For the second part I was arrested for being involved in a fight in high school while I was a juvenile. No charges were pressed, I went to the station and went home. The second time my brother vandalized a car at a neighbors house while I still lived at home. The people pointed to our house and the cops showed up and asked to see my shoe. I gave them my shoe and they came back and arrested me. My brother later came to the station and confessed to doing it. However the arrest is still on my record and the disposition shows that it was thrown out of court. Is my record of arrest or driving record going to hinder me from getting a job in law enforcement?

Thank you for your time and I will be sure to rate your answer.

Sincerely,

William Fowler

Answer
Hi Bill, (OK to call you Bill??)

Well welcome to the law enforcement profession! I am always pleased to see young people getting into this field.

OK lets address your questions and concerns. First instead of repeating things here that have been better said elsewhere, here is a really good web page on police oral interviews and how to stand out in them. I give it to my recruits from my academy and they say it really helps. SO give it a look over, print it out and read it carefully: http://www.realpolice.net/police-oral-boards.shtml

I will tell you in addition to whats there here are a few things I can say from sitting in on oral boards as a rater myself some of the things we look for.

If the provide a pencil and paper, use it. Use it to write down the points of the questions they want you to ask. In some oral interviews I have been a part of they will purposely ask multi-part questions and see if the interviewee writes things down to keep track of the points, and then answers them in the order they were asked.

Answer questions in a chronological order. When they give you a scenario and ask you to tell them what you would do, answer from the beginning to the end and don't jump around.

Always notify your supervisor of anything that you may think of as being of that nature your boss would like to know about. And make sure you request him/her to any scene that they need to be present on. One question I remember from the boards I sat on was "You respond to a possible suicide. When you arrive it appears to be a suicide, what wold you do and who would you notify?"

Well first you treat all deaths as homicides until proven otherwise, and street cops don't make that call. First thing you would do is notify your supervisor in this case and advise him/her of what you have. And then answer the rest of the question as you would.

Also make sure you ALWAYS put the departments interest first, over all other things. The typical question of "You see another officer steal a candy bar from a store while you are there on a burglary call, what do you do?" is actually a very simple one. You would tell the officer you saw what he did, and you have no choice but to notify your supervisor immediately. You just observed a crime and you can not overlook that. And it places the department in a bad position. Most stores have cameras, and if they find out about it and you did not report it, you would also be fired along with the officer for failing to report the crime. get the idea? Other officers do not pay your rent or put food in your families mouth. You do not cover for anyone, you take care of yourself and the department. The days of cover-ups and stuff like that is gone, about 20 years ago.

As for your driving record, since you say they will not show up, I guess that the tickets were more than 7 or so years ago? If your record has been clean for more than 5 years, I would most definitely put the tickets down on applications, and then explain them in the oral interview if asked. Everyone when young makes mistakes, you realized what yours were and have changed your driving habits because you realized it was wrong and not doing you any good.

As for the arrest, since they were when you were a juvenile, I would put them down and then explain them when asked just like you explained them to me. Most departments will give you a chance to explain things that you put down that look a little strange. They also understand that juvenile records are not adult records. And as long as your not prevented by law from being a police officer, you should be OK.

I would try to look at smaller departments first, they usually have a better understanding and let you explain things on your applications more so than larger departments. Larger departments get more applicants and therefore can be more selective. Also if you get or have a degree or other schooling, that always helps, if you don't you may want to think of getting a degree, even a two year. It is a plus and always helps. Military experience also helps a lot and puts applicants above others.

Think of this from the departments point of view. If you had several applicants, and one of them had military experience (say Military Police even) and also a 2 year degree and a clean record, and then they looked at your background, who would you choose? You have to make yourself better than the next guy, and its not all in the oral board, although that really helps and is a chance to shine.

You should be able to get a job as a police officer. I suggest starting with a small department, prove yourself there, do well, get some advanced schooling, and then if you want to move to a bigger department, then I would do it after about 5 years.

I hope all that helps and answers your questions. If you have any specific ones I did not cover, fee free to ask.

Good luck!!