Expert: Chris Wagoner - 12/5/2007

Question
Commander Wagoner,
Just to give you a little background on myself,I am currently in the military with a little over a year left on my original contract. I also have my bachelor's degree in criminal justice.  At this point I am starting to look at some of the major metro police departments on the east coast and I am wondering how my credit is going to play in the application process. While i was on deployment recently, one of my student loans defaulted.  There was no real way I could deal with it at the time and consequently my credit score went down the tubes.  I am currently trying to repair this, but I doubt it will be back to where it was before by the time i start to apply for any positions.  I was curious to see how much of a factor this is going to be for a deprtment in evaluating me.  Any info and advice you have on this would be greatly appriciated.

Answer
First let me say THANK YOU! Thank you for your service. You have my heartfelt thanks and gratitude. Being former 3rd Infantry Division (Army) myself I understand some of the sacrifice you are making for the rest of us. Hoooooaaahhhhh!

OK now to your question. When you say East Coast, do you mean East coast of Florida or East Coast as in US? We need more former military people in Law Enforcement and I would like to see you come to Florida.

Your military experience will help you a lot, especially in the Police Academy (its para-military in nature, depending on where you go)and even once you get out should you be interested in SWAT/ SRT team or something along those lines.

Also your degree will be a plus. Many agencies are requiring a degree these days to get hired or promoted beyond patrol officer. And in Florida you paid extra every month for having a degree.

Let me say that we really, really, really need former military people to get into law enforcement. You have the self discipline needed and the mind set required, along of course with all the skills in firearms and physical training already instilled in them. You are a great fit. Also the GI benefits pay for the schooling!! I run the police academy in North Central Florida and love it when I get good former military people as recruits. They usually end up as my class leaders and almost always get hired by an agency before they graduate, or very shortly after it.

If you are interested in finding out more about Florida training to be a police officer you can look here for how to apply to the Academy (http://www.policecareers.org/) , and I would be happy to help you out any way I can. I recently helped a soldier and his wife get all his paperwork and things done before he even got back to the states, and when he got back, he was right into the academy. The training runs about 6 months and then you are eligible to take our State of Florida Police Officer Certification Exam, and then of course be a cop anywhere in Florida. And just a side note, my academy is rated in the top 2 or 3 in the state, out of 48 training academies for passing rate on the State Exam, you  pass our course, you will pass the state exam! And get hired.

As for your credit score and background, while they will look at it and maybe ask you about it, but your reasoning is logical and if you explain it the same way you did here you should not have any problems because of it. Did you not look into using the Soldiers and Sailors Civil Relief act while you are in the service? Go check with your base credit counselor. I think you may be able to fix your credit before you get out of the service and you would not have to worry about that after that. I used this service while I was in and it protected my credit, and helped me pay my bills off while I was in. Check it out.

Well good luck! And please consider Florida as a place to be an officer/ deputy. I have loved every minute of my 26+ years here and recommend it for anyone wanting to get into law enforcement (you don't have to mess with snow!) and we need prior military members.

Stay Safe! And again thank you for your service to our country and its people.