Expert: Jason Grabill - 11/13/2005

Question
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Followup To
Question -
Mr Grabill,
  Hello, hey, hi, howdy, whichever of these you prefer. My name is Andrew, I am nearing eighteen, and in that point of highschool where everyone scrambles around to find colleges, scholorships, and at least the GENERAL direction of where they want their life to go.

 Personaly, I had thought for quite along time that I would join the Army after highschool, and attempt to enter their flight school to be trained in flying their helicoptors. Then, after my term in the service I would use those skills to do something in civilian life. If I wasnt going to do that, I had expected to go to a college and get a pilots lisence, work with an Airport for a while and eventualy go charter.

  Needless to say, Things change, and well flying will be a dream I will always have and will fufill some day, I no longer wish to give up all aspects of my free life by joining the army or stay in/pay for an ungodly amount of schooling just to become a pilot for an airliner where vetren pilots are finding themselves out of work.

 One thing I have always played around with, was a police officer. About half a year or so, when I started having doubts about the military way, I started to look into police a little more. Recently, as I am trying to finalize a college/career route, I have found myself much more interested in policing then I have in any other of my possible choices. It seems to fufill almost all of the things I considered important in a job and most of the reasons I was considering joining the military for. Its a job that makes a diffrence in someones life, a Physical job requiring you to use and keep your body in shape, and a career I know will always be valued by at least some, and never completly outsourced :-D

 I geuss my question is, If I truely do decide to go to law enforcment (Ever since I was a kid I've been interested in SWAT/K-9 units and read up on them all I could) what would I do from this point? I intend to go to college, but I've read some answers on this site that say going for Criminal Justice is not as good as it sounds and I should focus more on english courses. How true is this? What courses/classes should I take? I think I am pretty well off for the physical side of policing, I'm an avid Cross Country/Track runner, the only thing I may have to focus on is some more upper body strength. And although I'm very interested in SWAT/K-9 I dont want to get to far ahead of myself and ask about them, however, I do have a question concerning police helicoptor pilots. Are the men/Women who fly these from the Department? How exactly are they trained in for this, meaning, do they have the piloting ability before they sign up for the policing or do they learn it well in the department?

I'm going to find some way that I can try to get into contact with a police officer in my town soon, but im not entirely sure how to do that. Untill then, any help you could give me would be VERY much appreciated.


Thanks in advance,
Andrew


(please excuse any spelling errors, I was in a bit of a rush when I typed this ;) )
Answer -
Andrew:

 Yes, go for the English/journalism courses, you'll write more reports than you will ever use any other tool at your disposal.  College isn't a bad thing, many departments require it, but try to get a degree in something non law enforcement related, so that if you leave police work, or rather, when you leave, you'll have something else to fall back on later in life.

  Police helo pilots are usually (but not always, it depends on the agency) recruited from former military pilots with combat experience.  In the late 80's/90's, these were dwindling, and some departments recruited from within, but with the current wars ongoing, there is no shortage of combat helo pilots to recruit from.  Even if you had civilian pilot experience, the prior military folks will have an edge when it comes to this.

 If you want to get into contact with a local officer, simply go to the local police agency (city, county or state) and ask to do a "ride along" with an officer.  They are usually more than happy to oblige.  Explain that you are considering a career in law enforcement.  

Best of luck!

Jason






Thank you very much for your response, I do however have one more quick question.

About the college courses, I understand it is smart to say take an english class or something not directly related to law enforcment, but my question is, wouldn't someone with a degree in something like criminal Justice have a better chance of being hired then someone with a degree in english/journalism? Say, if a department had two applicants being considered, everything about the two identical except one had a degree in criminal justice, and the other in something like english/writing. Wouldnt they choose the one with a CJ degree?

Thanks in advance
-Andrew

Answer
Andrew:

 No.  Anyone, and I do mean darn near anyone, can get a CJ degree.  Not to disparage those who've worked hard and gotten one, but it's one of the most common degree's out there.  Personally?  I'd hire the guy with the English degree before I'd hire the CJ degree guy (or girl).  All the things the CJ degree gets you, you get in the police academy anyway.  

  Agencies that require a college degree usually don't care what kind of degree it is.  No extra points are given for those who have the CJ.  

  Again, none of this is to put down those who have a degree in CJ;  just being realistic.  The English (or whatever) major will be of more use in law enforcement, in the long run.  If you really feel you have to have it, minor in CJ and major in something else.

Best Regards,

Jason