How To Become A Police Officer
A career in the police force offers a healthy salary and plenty of opportunity for progression, but, equally, it regularly demands anti-social hours and is a potentially stressful profession.
As the Institute For Apprenticeships says:
‘Being a police constable * is a physically and intellectually demanding occupation, requiring high levels of emotional intelligence, strong behavioural interpretation skills , and an ability to analyse and resolve rapidly evolving events.
‘Police constables have a unique employment status, as every police constable is a warranted officer, making autonomous lawful decisions including taking away an individuals liberty if required.
‘Police constables exercise wide-ranging powers to maintain the peace and uphold the law across complex and diverse communities. They must justify and personally account for their actions through differing legal frameworks including courts, while also under the close scrutiny of the public’.
* ‘Police constable’ refers to a rank that virtually all police officers will start as. ‘Police officer’ refers to all ranks from police constable to chief constable of a county constabulary. With there being such a wide range of roles within the policing profession, there’s plenty of scope for career progression.
Skip ahead:
What does a police officer do?
As a police officer you’ll carry out a wide range of tasks, such as:
Find out more in our Police Officer job profile.
How to become a police officer
Police Officer Resume: Profile Title
Your profile title is an important section of your police resume. It communicates important career-centric information about your work-life such as:
- Your official designation .
- Your functional industry and level of seniority in your functional industry.
To perfectly compose your profile title, write it in the font size of 14-16 points in your law enforcement resume.
Hiration Pro Tip: Do not exaggerate your profile title. This might lead to a potential dismissal of your job application as it will be seen as a deliberate attempt to cheat a recruiter to get a job that you’re not qualified for.
Would you like to find out blunders like these that you could be potentially making in your resume?
If you do, use our Resume Review Service. Brought to you by the best of AI, our AI-powered Resume Review gives you a detailed account of the flaws that you’re making with suitable suggestions to reverse it.
Given below is a law enforcement resume sample that we have composed using our Online Resume Builder. It endorses the perfect profile title for your police resume.
Write A Standout Resume Summary
A resume summary is the standard way to begin a resume. Its a three- to four-sentence paragraph explaining why youre the perfect candidate for the job.
When you write your resume summary, highlight the policing skills, experience, and qualifications that make you a good fit for the next rank or role youre aiming for. Heres an example of a police resume summary:
A 5-year veteran of the Albuquerque Police Department, serving 3 years as a patrol officer and on the gang unit before being promoted to Sergeant in 2020. A resident of Albuquerque for 30 years+ and committed to developing as a leader both in the community and police force.
This resume sample provides information on this police sergeants years of experience, specialty , and goals.
Moving beyond the ranks of patrol officer is all about displaying leadership skills. If you plan to move up in the ranks, take some law enforcementfocused leadership courses online or in-person.
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Target Your Police Officer Job Description And Skills Sections
What skills should you put in a police officer resume?
- Worked as security guard in a large, high-volume hotel.
- Monitored security camera equipment for signs of problems.
- Warned guests of infractions to rules.
- Maintained knowledge of hotel security policies and procedures.
That last police officer resume is criminal. It doesnt show the asked-for law enforcement skills!
But even if you worked in an unrelated field, you can prove skills like communication and problem solving.
Expert Hint: A study in the journal Policing shows high stress levels are a significant threat to police officer health. If you engage in self-care like working out or running, list it in your resume for police officer jobs.
The ResumeLab builder is more than looks. Get specific content to boost your chances of getting the job. Add job descriptions, bullet points, and skills. Easy. Improve your resume in our resume builder now.
Nail it all with a splash of color, choose a clean font, highlight your skills in just a few clicks. Youre the perfect candidate and well prove it. Use the ResumeLab builder now.
Planning For Your Next Career: How To Create A Resume That Works
An effective resume will translate your law enforcement skills into terms the civilian world understands
You are about to retire from law enforcement and are planning your next career. Having a resume that translates your law enforcement skills into the civilian world could make the difference between whether or not you get the job.
In this episode of LEO Round Table, host Chip DeBlock asks his guests to share tips on how to prepare a resume for your working life after law enforcement.
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Police Officer Resume: Certifications
This section ideally communicates the following information:
- Certification course name
- Name of the institute of affiliation
- Location of the institute of affiliation
- Enrolment and completion date of the course
Arrange these points in the below format:
| | |
The certifications section is really helpful for those professionals who are writing an entry level police officer resume.
In other words, if you are writing an entry level police officer resume, the certifications section can help. Someone who has relevant certifications almost always gets picked over someone who doesn’t.
So if you have done relevant certifications that complement your target job, list them down in this section.
If you are just beginning your career, are looking for your first job, don’t lose heart.
Do the relevant certifications and list them down in your resume!
Is this too vague? Would you like to learn more?
Mentioned below is a police officer resume sample illustrating the perfect certifications section for your resume for police officer.
Police Officer Resume: Education
The education section of your resume for police officer communicates the following information:
- Name of the school/university you have attended.
- Name of the courses you have pursued.
- The location of your school/university.
- Enrolment and graduation dates.
While your educational background might not bring momentum changes to your job application, it will enhance your chances of getting shortlisted if you have relevant degrees as opposed to someone who doesn’t.
To learn more about this section, read Hiration’s 2020 Guide on how to list education on your resume.
In the meanwhile, feel free to use Hiration’s Online Resume Builder to write an impeccable police officer skills resume.
It comes with 100+ design templates and 25+ content templates that you can easily modify to suit your professional endeavors.
We have attached a sample police resume below. It illustrates what the perfect education section of your resume for a police officer should ideally look like.
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What Makes A Great Police Officer Resume: Key Takeaways
- Choose a resume layout that sends the right message across and fits your current career situation
- Create a resume header that shows your desired job title, and easy to find contact numbers
- Be specific about your experience, accomplishments and future goals in your summary
- Feature detailed metrics and specific examples that show the impact you made in your previous roles when describing your experience
- List soft skills backed by examples
- Add all of your technical skills and certifications that you have and match the job description
- Show off a dash of personality in your resume that will demonstrate your culture fit and the right mix of hard and soft skills.
Highlight Your Professional Experience Using Numbers And Action Verbs
Being a police officer involves working in tough environments. Underneath each job position listed in your professional experience, list a few key activities and achievements that give hiring managers a better idea of your experience as a police officer.
In your work history, avoid writing bullet points that only identify the basic job functions of a police officer, and instead focus on putting specific achievements on your resume that show how capable you are.
For example, saying: Issued tickets to violators of local laws doesnt tell the reader anything more about you as a police officer than they would have already expected, so its a waste of valuable space on your resume.
Here are more action verbs that are useful for police officers to fit into their resumes:
- Supervised
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What Are Career Goals
Career goals are targets. Things, positions, situations related to your professional life that you have set your mind on achieving. They can be short-term, like getting a promotion or certification, or they can be long-term, like running your own successful business or being an executive at your dream company.
Can I Have Long Hair In The Police
10.2 Male officers/staff in uniform, on operational duty, should keep their hair neatly trimmed not covering the ears and, unless this relates to their religious or cultural beliefs, worn above the collar. Long hair must be secured in such a way that it is off the collar and cannot be grabbed or pulled.
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Police Officer Skills In The Workplace
Here are some helpful tips on how to demonstrate your skills as a police officer in the workplace:
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Research community events and crime data. Taking the time to learn more about what’s happening in your community and the times of crime that occur allows you to enhance your vigilance throughout your shift. This is also useful, as members of the public may ask you questions about local events and how to get there.
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Practice active listening when speaking to members of the public. Active listening helps the speaker feel valued, and it also encourages you to think about what the other person says. It also encourages you to ask clarifying questions and take notes. This is especially helpful when interviewing victims or witnesses at crime scenes as you can gather important information that may lead to an arrest.
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Look for ways to help your partner. Teamwork is an essential skill for police officers as they work with a partner and other officers on a daily basis. Therefore, think about how you can make your partner’s job easier and what you can do to support them. This can help you build strong professional relationships that ultimately support your daily productivity.
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Police Officer Resume: How To Make Yours More Creative & Stand Out
When you send your resume to a potential employer, chances are it’s the fiftieth one they’ve seen that day. That’s why you need to make your Police Officer resume stand out for the right reasons. That means showing your personality, not just your professional experience. Employers are far more likely to remember a candidate who seems like a genuine person and not a robot. Do this by including your passions , share your favorite books, or even what your usual day looks like.
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What Looks Good On A Resume For Police Officer
What looks good on a resume for police officer? Ideally, you should list all your previous experience as a police officer, including where youve served and the duties you have performed. Be sure to include your police academy certification and any other criminal or legal qualifications in your police officer resume.
What is the objective of the police? It is as follows: The purpose of the police service is to uphold the law fairly and firmly to prevent crime to pursue and bring to justice those who break the law to keep the Queens peace to protect, help and reassure the community and to be seen to do this with integrity, common sense and sound judgement.
What qualifications do I need to be a police officer? Getting a high school diploma or GED is the minimum formal education requirement for most police officers. Many law enforcement organizations may require or prefer applicants with a bachelors degree, associates degree or a certain number of postsecondary education credits.
What are the mental demands of a police officer? The pressures of law enforcement put officers at risk for high blood pressure, insomnia, increased levels of destructive stress hormones, heart problems, post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide, University at Buffalo researchers have found through a decade of studies of police officers.
What Is A Youthful Offender Charge
Youthful offender is a sentencing designation given to some defendants that are under the age of 21 and facing charges within the adult criminal justice system. Additionally, the designation allows the court to depart from the lowest permissible sentence listed on the defendants criminal punishment scoresheet.
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Use A Clear Police Officer Resume Format
Whoops!
Your resume format is sloppy. To the chief, thats as bad as stains on a uniform.
For a police officer resume that passes the glance test
- Create a single-page resume unless youve got so much experience youre basically Columbo.
- Set 1-inch margins.
- Use an 1114pt resume font like Century Gothic or Arial.
- Dont skimp on the white space.
- Write resume sections for Heading, Summary, Work Experience, Education, and Skills.
- List your jobs in reverse-chronological resume format.
- Make a PDF resume so your best features dont go MIA.
Police Officer Resume Examples That Worked In 2022
The US Bureau of Labor and Statistics projects a 5% increase in police officer jobs between 2019 and 2029. The projected increase means more police officer resumes will be submitted in the next few years than ever before.
It is also worth noting that police officer jobs require a certain level of discipline and organization as the bare minimum. Speaking of organization, your resume should demonstrate exactly that if you wish to stand a chance of being hired.
For that reason, we have created 5 police officer resume samples that will help get you hired in 2022. These resumes contain everything you need to know about getting hired as a police officer, including the key things you should mention in your resume.
Resume Examples
Why this resume works
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Police Officer Resume Objective
A police officer resume objective is only written by those professionals who are writing an entry level police officer resume.
In other words, you should only write a police officer resume objective if:
- You are an entry-level worker with no work experience.
- You have very limited work experience of fewer than three years.
- You are a fresh graduate writing an entry level police officer resume.
Instead of highlighting a shopping list of the things that you’re looking for, your police officer resume objective should emphasize on the value that you can deliver in your next organization.
In this capacity, your police officer resume objective is a sales pitch and you are the salesman selling your skills.
To learn how you can optimize this section, head right over to Hiration’s 2020 Guide on Resume Objectives.
Skills For A Police Officer
Whether currently employed as a police officer or looking to apply for a position, it’s important that you understand the unique skills that can help you succeed in your job role. Police officer skills allow law enforcement professionals to contribute to public safety within a community. By taking the time to review beneficial skills for police officers, you can maximize your job performance and stand out to employers during a job search.
In this article, we define police officer skills, review examples of skills for police officers, discuss how to improve these skills, demonstrate their use in the workplace and outline how to highlight your police officer skills.
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What Is A Police Officer Resume & Why Do You Need It
Your police officer resume is a job-specific resume for police officers.
It is the first point of contact between you and the recruiter. As such, it is your first shot at impressing the recruiter even before you meet the recruiter face-to-face.
So when you look at it objectively, your law enforcement resume has the potential to both make and break your job application.
Thus, your job before you get the job is to write an impeccable police resume.
However, your trouble doesn’t end here.
In today’s world, an impeccable police resume is one that is ATS-compliant.
ATS or the Applicant Tracking System is a hiring tool that most companies today have started using to optimize their recruitment needs.
Based on your resume, you are assigned a rank, and based on this rank, you get shortlisted. This means that the higher your rank, the higher are your chances of getting shortlisted.
Read on to learn all about curating an impeccable resume for a police officer.
While you’re at, get your existing police resume professionally reviewed by Hirations AI-powered Resume Review Service and get a detailed analysis of your resume within minutes of uploading it on our tool.
Keep an eye out on the bottom left corner of this page for our AI-powered Resume Review Service!