Police Hiring Process Essay

All companies/agencies, including police departments, have certain requirements an individual must fulfill to become an employee. For instance, the home health agency in which I am employed requires everyone to have a clean criminal and driving record, a valid driver’s license, a high school diploma or GED (if attending home health aide classes) or a current state CNA, LPN, or RN licensure, negative TB skin test (upon hire and annually), own transportation (being taken to and/or picked up from a patient’s home is prohibited by HIPPA), proof of current automobile insurance, and CPR certification. However, these requirements pertain only to home health agencies. Therefore, each company/agency, whether private or government, have their own hiring requirements. Police departments have educational, age, and vision requirements, along with smoking, prior drug use, and criminal history restrictions.

Police recruits must obtain a high school diploma or GED—post secondary degrees are preferred, but not required in most departments, be proficient in a series of testing both physical and knowledge based, attend police academy, be at least twenty-one years of age, have 20/20 vision with or without correction, and no color blindness (Dempsey & Forst, 2016). Furthermore, smoking is prohibited in or on most police department properties, an individual must be free from hard drugs, such as heroin and cocaine, for at least ten years and free from marijuana for at least five years—the amount of time may vary by department, and have no felony or domestic violence charges—some misdemeanor charges are acceptable depending on the nature of the crime and the discretion of the department (Dempsey & Forst, 2016). During one point of time, police departments also had weight and height requirements. However, that changed with the Supreme Court case Dothard vs.