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I am trying to gather some data.

What does it take to become a police officer in your country/state?

I am primarily interested in the US, but would also like to see numbers from other countries as well.
Let's all assume that there are some requirements regarding the applicants' educational level and criminal record.

The actual length of education in Denmark (my country) is as follows;

Country; Denmark
State: not applicable

33 weeks of basic training at the Police Academy
22 weeks as a trainee-officer in a precinct
22 weeks at the Police Academy
22 weeks as a trainee-officer in a precinct
33 weeks at the Police Academy (including an 11 week Bachelor project)

Total: 172 weeks of training

Please, keep the post on point.
"Just the facts, mam"

Your title really threw me off, then I saw the flag, so I won't ridicule you.

"How long does it take..." would be a better way to phrase the question.

As for your question, I think the math isn't adding up right. 3 years of training? I didn't spend that long in training to become a certified weather forecaster. Plus you say 33 weeks in the Police Academy, then 22, then 33 again. How many times do they have to go to the Academy?

Edit: I'll go look up Michigan's information.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Michigan Police programs seems to encompass 16 weeks of training in the basic law enforcement standards. I can't seem to find a public record of how long On the Job Training lasts.

 djones520 wrote:
Your title really threw me off, then I saw the flag, so I won't ridicule you.

"How long does it take..." would be a better way to phrase the question.

As for your question, I think the math isn't adding up right. 3 years of training? I didn't spend that long in training to become a certified weather forecaster. Plus you say 33 weeks in the Police Academy, then 22, then 33 again. How many times do they have to go to the Academy?

Edit: I'll go look up Michigan's information.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Michigan Police programs seems to encompass 16 weeks of training in the basic law enforcement standards. I can't seem to find a public record of how long On the Job Training lasts.

You are absolutely right about the title.
I originally asked "What does it take....", but found that I wanted to focus more on the actual length instead.

Yes, it takes three years to become a Police Officer in Denmark.
I am sad to say that the website of the Danish Police Academy doesn't have an English version.
http://politiskolen.dk/uddannelsen/uddannelsesforloeb
(the word "Uger" means "Weeks" in Danish)

EDIT. Found one. https://www.politi.dk/en/About_the_police/admission/

Aspiring officers start at the academy, then spend time in a precinct with an experienced and specially educated training officer.
They then return to the academy for more training.
They then go back to the precinct for more hands-on training, and finally finish their education at the academy with a bachelor project.

Thank you for the stats.



...

More or less the same applies in Norway as in Denmark.
3 years..
I think it says a lot about the training in the US if they are considered policeofficers after 16 weeks of training. :p
Sweden might be up to 4 years if I remember correctly.

Many countries (by the looks of it including Denmark) consider becoming a police officer to be undergraduate degree level, so 3 years is not a surprise.

In England and Wales it is 2 years, but they want more people to do a foundation degree in policing at the same time, so this will push it longer, but will speed up promotion opportunities. After the 2 years officers often start working on specializing, for example to join armed response, highways or mounted units. Each of those has their own minimum length of service before you can apply and length of training.

I'll chime in for Germany. Traditionally, there were "regular" and "elevated" careers, roughly translated; the regular career has less requirements out of the school system - you need to be eligible for college education to get into elevated careers. Some states (inside the federal republic that Germany is) only do elevated career training by now for new officers.

Training and education for German police officers takes 2.5 to 3 years .

Source for this is a well-kept wikipedia page with references, I could search for details on the individual police homepages of our different states, if there's interest.

@djones520 - 16 weeks seems awfully low for a complete training process to me? Surely there are other courses or training units before an officer is cleared for full service? Maybe someone can provide data for other US states?

That 16 weeks is after completing 2-4 year degree in Criminal Justice.

 djones520 wrote:
That 16 weeks is after completing 2-4 year degree in Criminal Justice.

Ah, that makes more sense, thanks.

generally 2-3 years worth of initial college to get you started..most departments require another 2 years of college after that to be completed to be able to move up the ranks...

It seems that 3 years is ok

 djones520 wrote:
That 16 weeks is after completing 2-4 year degree in Criminal Justice.

I far as I can tell having a degree in Criminal Justice or Law Enforcement (or other related topics) is not required, but is considered a great plus upon application.

http://education-portal.com/requirements_to_become_a_police_officer.html

"Completing an associate or bachelor's degree program in criminal justice, law enforcement or a related discipline can be helpful in obtaining a job as a police officer. While not required by many departments, applicants may find formal education advantageous when vying for officer positions."

http://www.joinlapd.com/qualifications.html

"Education
Graduation from a U.S. high school, G.E.D. or equivalent from a U.S. institution, or a California High School Proficiency Examination (CHSPE) certificate is required.

A two-year or a four-year college degree from an accredited U.S. or foreign institution may be substituted for the high school requirement."

http://www.nypdrecruit.com/faq/exam-employment

"On or before the day of hire, candidates must have successfully completed either:
Sixty (60) college credits with a 2.0 G.P.A. from an accredited college or university, or
Two (2) years of full-time, active military service in the United States Armed Forces with an honorable discharge and have a high school's diploma or its equivalent."

I am well aware of the fact that standards differ based on the state.

To become an NYPD officer requires at least an associate's degree, and then takes about 9 months of training - so a little less than 3 years. It varies wildly by venue, of course.

 Ouze wrote:
To become an NYPD officer requires at least an associate's degree, and then takes about 9 months of training - so a little less than 3 years. It varies wildly by venue, of course.

To echo, and add onto this, keep in mind that as the economy continues as it is, and more and more police departments (city, county sheriffs, State Patrol, etc) are cutting back on officers, it becomes a more and more competitive market to gain entry into the field. As such, its becomes almost a "requirement" to have higher education than one would have needed in the past.

For Minnesota you need to be POST certified before you can be hired on (for the most part, some will hire you before POST, but you aren't licensed and can't be a police officer).

To be post certified you need a minimum 2 year associates (most go the law enforcement degree route). Part of that 2 year degree is generally includes a year of skills (the academy portion). You also need to be EMR certified to be eligible for POST, but generally that is one of your classes for the degree.

Of the people who take the POST test, only about 50% pass (which is sad, because a monkey should be able to pass it).

Due to the amount of people going through skills, to get hired you either need a bachelors degree, prior military, know someone, or work in Minneapolis/St Paul (pass).

Once you get hired you start your field training portion. It depends on the department but it generally lasts for a year, but you can get let loose sooner. My buddy only had his FT for about 8-9 months before they needed him on the street on his own. I know the Highway Patrol is 1 year, generally in a location opposite of where you live (so if you are from the cities, you go far north in the middle of no where and vice versa). At any of the field training they can fire you for any reason they want.

I am almost finished with a 2 year in CJ, just need skills for my 2 year LEO, Skills is a lottery based entrance and I didn't get in, so I am going for EMS.

It's also important that you not be too smart.

I wish I could have worked that into a joke, but I think the actual facts of the case are pretty funny / tragic as they stand.

For Ohio, you need to attend the state certified academy. Takes approximately 6 months to complete and then you can be officially hired by a police force.

From what i remember from my mum going through a few years ago i think its 2-3years of training or so before your basically just a standard cop.

In the US, the requirements vary by state.

At a minimum, however, you must be a US citizen, must be at least 18 years of age, must have a high school diploma or GED, possess a valid driver's license and be able to pass certain fitness requirements.

Most areas require at least a 2 year degree in Criminal Justice. The average police academy curriculum is some 420 hours total.

I know a guy who became a police officer after a year in the academy, though he already had the degree.

 Psienesis wrote:
In the US, the requirements vary by state.

At a minimum, however, you must be a US citizen, must be at least 18 years of age, must have a high school diploma or GED, possess a valid driver's license and be able to pass certain fitness requirements.

Most areas require at least a 2 year degree in Criminal Justice. The average police academy curriculum is some 420 hours total.

I know a guy who became a police officer after a year in the academy, though he already had the degree.

Every police department I've seen requirements for has a minimum age of 21, rather than 18. Which departs hire people at 18? Not being snarky, I'm genuinely curious if any exist.

You need some sort of degree here in California, not sure exactly what the specific requirements are, and the Police Academy is 6 months of pretty intensive training, then you have to complete a few more months of ride-alongs with a training officer. If you have any sort of drug problems or prior criminal record, including juvenile offenses, you're basically automatically disqualified. It's also pretty competitive just to get a slot to go to the academy. If you don't have, say, prior military service or something similar, it can be hard just to get accepted. It's quite a bit more difficult to get a job as a police officer here than for your average college grad in most industries, from what I've seen.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
It's also pretty interesting listening about their training exercises. They have a bunch to cover a large range of situations, from domestic violence cases to random stops to active shooters and ambushes. It's hard to appreciate how nuanced police protocol and related laws can be until an officer runs through a scenario and explains what the various options are and why they choose particular courses of action.

 Hordini wrote:

 Psienesis wrote:
In the US, the requirements vary by state.

At a minimum, however, you must be a US citizen, must be at least 18 years of age, must have a high school diploma or GED, possess a valid driver's license and be able to pass certain fitness requirements.

Most areas require at least a 2 year degree in Criminal Justice. The average police academy curriculum is some 420 hours total.

I know a guy who became a police officer after a year in the academy, though he already had the degree.

Every police department I've seen requirements for has a minimum age of 21, rather than 18. Which departs hire people at 18? Not being snarky, I'm genuinely curious if any exist.

Without really any specific knowledge and I haven't looked at the states, but I imagine the southern states are willing to take younger then 21. They will also have the.... loosest educational requirements. Speaking very broadly.

Huh... I did not know that much training goes into being a police officer. I'm not sure what to think when you compare that to the fact that a 18 year old right out of high school can easily be in the military and considered completely trained within 6 months of talking to a recruiter.

 dementedwombat wrote:
Huh... I did not know that much training goes into being a police officer. I'm not sure what to think when you compare that to the fact that a 18 year old right out of high school can easily be in the military and considered completely trained within 6 months of talking to a recruiter.

Well, I am appalled how little training the average police officer in the US apparently gets.

Steelmage99 wrote:

 dementedwombat wrote:
Huh... I did not know that much training goes into being a police officer. I'm not sure what to think when you compare that to the fact that a 18 year old right out of high school can easily be in the military and considered completely trained within 6 months of talking to a recruiter.

Well, I am appalled how little training the average police officer in the US apparently gets.

Would you feel better if police academies only accepted recruits who were former Special Forces with a minimum of a PHD, plus ten years work experience as a police officer?

 DarkLink wrote:

Steelmage99 wrote:

 dementedwombat wrote:
Huh... I did not know that much training goes into being a police officer. I'm not sure what to think when you compare that to the fact that a 18 year old right out of high school can easily be in the military and considered completely trained within 6 months of talking to a recruiter.

Well, I am appalled how little training the average police officer in the US apparently gets.

Would you feel better if police academies only accepted recruits who were former Special Forces with a minimum of a PHD, plus ten years work experience as a police officer?

Not to mention, from a few of my own "Blue" friends. that with the monthly/annual training requirements they are actually out on patrol or doing "police work" type things around, or under what many would consider a part-time job every week? (it's obviously broken up where they are not patrolling or whatever for entire days/weeks, but if you were to average the time they spend in training to time in actual work, they can spend less than 30 hours per week in the field)

And that's after they've gone through any Acadamy, LE/Criminal Justice degree, etc.

You have to separate training though
"Book" knowledge gain over time and experience gain over time

Steelmage99 wrote:

 dementedwombat wrote:
Huh... I did not know that much training goes into being a police officer. I'm not sure what to think when you compare that to the fact that a 18 year old right out of high school can easily be in the military and considered completely trained within 6 months of talking to a recruiter.

Well, I am appalled how little training the average police officer in the US apparently gets.

Did you read the previous posts about a lot of new officers having associates or bachelor's degrees? If you include that as part of the training pipeline, that increases the total training time to several years.

Keep in mind that a lot of police officers have a significant amount of ongoing training, including field training, and officers who don't start with some kind of degree might get one later, especially if they want to be promoted.

At what age can a civilian begin the police training program in Denmark?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
In addition, looking at the Danish police academy information, at least for the first module it seems like the training hours usually go from 8:00-15:30? American police academies tend to have significantly longer hours and a lot of them (particularly state highway patrol academies) are even live-in, with long hours and training seven days a week in a military-type environment for six months.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And you mention a bachelor project. Do Danish police officers receive a bachelor's degree when they graduate the police academy, or do you mean something else by that?

 Jihadin wrote:
You have to separate training though
"Book" knowledge gain over time and experience gain over time

Precisely. Again, from my Blue friends, much of this additional training that eats up their time throughout the year is VERY similar to how the DoD does as well.


By this, I mean, mandatory "EO" type stuff, sexual harassment, "safety", range qualification, etc.