First off, I would like to know how long the academy is and what are the most common requirements prior to taking the academy. What does the academy primarily focus on physical or academics or a lot of both? Is there math involved? Are the drill instructors necessary? I was told by several people that the academy was 6 months but a friend of mine went on to be a cop and he said that the academy was 3 ½ months. Is it true that if I self sponsor, police departments wouldn’t be as interested then if I was sponsored? This was told to me by another on the internet but I am not sure if it’s true or if it was just said for discouraging purposes. Are Sheriff deputies police and do they follow the same laws as regular cops?
Last edited on Wed Sep 26th, 2007 10:00 am by outlaw
Generally, police academies follow one of three paradigms: 1) paramilitary model (like your video - which brings backs lots of memories) 2) college models and 3) a mixture of both. The tendency in the US is the mixed model. The use of the military model can likely be traced back to the end of world war II and a chief of police of the LAPD, Wharton. Wharton, a Marine, designed and implemented the military model of training in the mid-1940s for LAPD. This led to a nation-wide copying of "boot camp" style.
In reality, for incolcating large groups of people into a new culture, this type of "boot camp" "breaking down and building up" is the most efficient. So, you will likely see similiar behaviors in most academies. And, of course, police work is about operating under stressful conditions - if you can't think with someone yelling at you, you are probably not suited for police work.
Probably the best overview of police job requirements and the job itself can be found here:
Academies focus on both the physical and mental. The physical conditioning (running, etc.) is designed to get you in shape so that you don't hurt yourself during the actually physical training - self defense, etc. The academic part is about learning the codes, rules, regulations, law, etc. And, then, bringing the two together. Police work is about appyling the law on the "fly" Doing it in real-time. Typically, academies use scenerio based training as a means of bringing together the academic (what you learned from the books) and the physical (what you learned about self-defense and tactics) in order to test your ability as a potential police officer.
I don't know of any math courses in police academies. I think if you can make change and ALMOST balance your own check book you know enough math. I will tell you that an understanding of physics will ultimately help you - in self-defense, shooting, taking accident reports, etc. Its not like anyone is going to ask you to calculate the area of a circle, or understanding the second law of thermal dynamics, but we do live on a postive gravity planet; and, that has consequences.
Yes, the drill instructors are necessary. Again, the job is to inculcate a large group of people into a new culture; the job is about working under pressure; it is the most efficient way to work with a large group.
Academies are measured in hours, which is set by the individual POST or accrediation in the particular state. As an example, idaho requires 562 hours:
Oregon, around 900, massachuetts something like 1100. Now, a self-sponsored academy (like you go to a junior college) is going to take the mimimum amount of time because they are only interested in teaching you the basics for ANY police department in that state. But, if you went to an academy run by an agency, like the video which looks like LASO, the academy is going to be longer becuase you must have the basic information, plus they are going to want to teach you their policies, etc.
Academies can run from 3 months to 7 months, just depends.
Sponsored means the Department hired you before you went to the academy. Self-sponsor means no one has hired you, but you think you can do a good enough job to be hired. Different agencies do different things - some only look at self-sponsored - hey, you paid for the academy and took the chances you would be injuried, etc. Plus, it takes a big committment, think of being self-sponsored as one very very long interview process.
Police officers are generally municiple employees who enforce the law and keep the peace in a specific city (yea, I know, there are state police, federal police, but lets keep the concept simple). Sheriff departments generally have two responsiblities - keeping the peace and providing law enforcement in unincorporated part of a county; county areas with no city. And, they run the county jail (people convicted of misdmeanors, or awaiting trial on felony charges). So, if you are a local police officer - its the streets for you. On the other hand, if you are sheriff's deputy, you could very well start out in corrections and ultimately go out into the street.
Also, if you are hired as a sheriff's deputy with the sole purpose of working the jail (sometimes called correctional officers, or things like that), your training would be somewhat different than a police officer (or a deputy headed toward the streets). As an example, if you are going to work in the jail, but not the streets, you would learn more about immate management and less about field tactics, or you might not even have as much firearms training.
I really want to be a cop but I don't have anything on the table or them (i.e. degree, second language) and the departments receive thousands of applications from highly qualified applicants. Does the Sheriffs deputies have all the same powers and follow the same rules as the regular police?
