Requirements to Become a Police Officer

In the United States, the specific requirements to become a police officer, depends upon State government or the Federal government, which every you are applying for. The Department of police for a specified city and state will state its requirements on its official website. Some of the basic requirements to be a police officer, in the United States include the following.

• The applicant must be a United States Citizen plus, must fulfill some domicile, conditions that are stated by the police department.
• In most of the cases, the person must be an adult and in some cases, must have completed at least 20 years of age.
• The third condition is that the applicant must pass the written and physical examination, where general aptitude, EQ, IQ, height, eyesight and general fitness is checked.
• The minimum educational qualifications that are required to have a high school diploma or in some cases, a graduate-associate degree.

The requirements may also differ from department to department, and your graduate-associate degrees may also be closely related to your academic qualifications.

Academic Qualifications Required

Police departments and academies often take up recruits right out of school based upon their general aptitude, IQ and physical fitness. The educational qualifications, do not matter a lot, the only requisite being that the person must be a diploma holder. These recruits are then put through intensive training for combat and law enforcement. Often considered to be the cream of physically fit and combat capable cops, these recruits later become patrol specialists, special response teams, anti-terror squads and SWAT units, and are also generally referred to as the 'really tough guys'.

The second type of entry stream is after college education where bachelor and associate degree is used to recruit cadets. In case if you aspire to become a homicide detective or rise in a hierarchy then you can take up majors accordingly. Criminal justice, forensic sciences, chemistry, human anatomy, law enforcement, study of certain specialized technologies such as finger printing, weapons and ballistics, expertise in criminal psychology, expertise in other unique sciences such as study of certain crimes can earn you a good channel in the force. Please note that recruitment and selection procedures often tend to vary as per departments, states and also the requirement.

The Police Academy

Most police academies are set up, managed or monitored by the state governments. Federal agencies also have set up their own academies and training centers. The intensive training that involves combat, emergency preparedness, physical training, self-defense, first aid procedures and weapons training is given in such academies. In Florida for example, Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission provides this appropriate training to their recruits, or in Maryland, the Maryland Police and Correctional Training Commission is in existence. The Police training officer program is a post academy program that is implemented in some departments and is a more educational in approach.

Apart from becoming a regular cop you also have several other options such as Military Police, Troopers, Marshall Service, more specialized branches such as FBI and CIA or even transit police. The requirements differ from department to deportment, hence it is better to take a look at the official website of the department which will give you some concrete leads and guidance.