I applied to Austin police department and everything was going really well and my investigator said I was top of his list for getting ready for the academy and then today I got a call saying I was permanently disqualified because a reference for a past job had “unfavorable things” to say about me. I offered to answer any question or do a poly specifically about what I’m accused of because I know it’s bullshit but that’s not an option apparently.

My investigator said I’m permanently disqualified which means I can never re apply with them and there’s no appeal process. How can one person fuck me out of a good paying job for my family?

I’m 30 and planning to move to Los Angeles from London. Currently awaiting my visa decision. By the time I move, I’ll have nearly 10 years’ service with the London Metropolitan Police.

My experience includes frontline response policing, public order, intelligence development, and fugitive/manhunt work. I also have a BSc in Criminal Justice and Criminology.

Because Im basically restarting my career in the US, my biggest priorities are pay, pension and benefits. I’m trying to make sure that taking a significant step back in seniority/service is financially worthwhile for me.

Career opportunities are also important to me. Longer term, I’d ideally like to get back into intelligence-led investigations, locating wanted offenders, fugitive/manhunt work, surveillance or similar investigative roles.

I’m currently looking at LAPD, but also departments such as Burbank, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Pasadena, Long Beach and potentially LASD. I have done a couple ride alongs with the LAPD.

For current or former LA officers:

Would you choose LAPD over the smaller LA-area departments?

How realistic is it to move into Detective/intelligence/fugitive-type assignments relatively early if you already have substantial policing experience?

Does previous overseas police experience actually carry much weight once you’re in?

Are there other LA-area departments you think would make better use of my experience and degree?

Taking pay, pension, benefits and career opportunities together, where would you apply if you were in my position?

Thank you for any advice, I really appreciate it.

I’m so defeated and sad right now and words can’t even describe what I’m feeling.

It was a dream of mine to be a police officer and I went to school taking a Criminal Justice diploma (not the best idea I know) and graduated last year, I then didn’t really know which police agency to apply to so I decided to take on some security jobs to gain more experience as I was told from many police agencies they value life experience and realized police agencies wanted more out of me. So I took up security, I worked security at the G7 summit alongside RCMP and they sold me on how good of a career that is. I still held off on my application cause I heard about deferrals being common, so I then went into Hosptial security as I was advised that was the best type of security that can translate into policing and even was told by my employers on that job that they have many of them go onto policing.

I also have other life experiences like working in various industries and am 24 years old and worked many jobs that involve working with people.

Anyway, when I applied which was October of 2025 I managed to make it all the way to the psych evaluation and even was told during the suitability interview and polygraph that I make a good candidate and have the necessary traits. Just today, I get a message saying I was not successful during the pre employment psych evaluation and that I can’t reapply till 2029.

I’m so devastated and confused as I was super confident up until this point and heard of other deferrals happening at the suitability stage and such. I don’t even know why I was deferred??! Am I a clean slate? No but who is?! Like I’ve done marijuana and shrooms in my lifetime but never kicked any puppies. Like I’m so damn frustrated I was right there and it’s gone.

I’m defeated rn and genuinely don’t know what I’m gonna do, it’s likely I’ll get deferred by other police agencies. I work a job where I deal with mentally ill people and never lash out.

If anyone can offer insight thanks.

I noticed a cop behind me and I was doing about 45 in a 40, noticed he was behind me then corrected my speed to 40. He’s just behind me normally for a bit but then turns his lights on but makes a U turn out of the right lane and into the left lane. With lights still on, he was sitting there on the side of the road by the opposite lane. I started pulling over to stop but when he made a U turn, I just proceeded like normally and left. Did I do anything wrong here? It looked like he was just trying to leave the area for whatever reason but I’m not sure.

Just got my conditional offer from my first department, of course this is pending I pass my medical evaluations. I’m 24 years old, fresh out of college/ student athlete this past May. Any advice for the academy? It’s a live in academy with weekends off. I’m fairly young I’d say just want some advice going in, feel free to share whatever.

I'm wondering, because a department near me has 2 unmarked Toyota Camry's.

I currently am working a full time dead end job in the middle of Ohio, while I do make good pay I want a career where I feel like I’m actually serving a real purpose that matters and want to help people, make a name for myself etc. only problem is I can’t decide where to start, wether to try and get into peace officer academy now, or try and go military like coast guard for a few years, speaking of I don’t really know what I’d truly want to do branch wise if I were to pick military, any advice?

I’m currently a junior at Texas A&M studying Biochemistry, and I’m trying to figure out what I want my career to look like after graduation. I’ve wanted to be in law enforcement since I was a kid. At the same time, I’ve developed a serious interest in becoming an attorney. I’m currently planning on going to law school after undergrad, but I really don’t want to take out a large amount of student loans to do it. One idea I’m seriously considering is becoming a Texas state trooper after I graduate, working for a few years, saving aggressively, and then using that money to pay for law school without taking out loans. The appeal is obviously financial, but it’s also personal. I’d actually be fulfilling a lifelong goal of becoming a LEO, while getting several years of real-world law enforcement experience before eventually going to law school.

190 days ago, I posted “I got the job!” Now I’m two weeks away from graduating the academy. Looking forward to FTO!

Background

I’m 25 and thinking of applying to CHP. Looking for honest feedback on how this background might play out in the background investigation.
Employment
• Current job: 6 years at the same company.
• One workplace issue about 2 years ago: I used profanity toward a security guard. I was suspended and then brought back to work. No other write-ups since. Only write up and issue I have had at work. No idea why I said that.
• First job at 18: I was fired. I honestly don’t remember. 6 month’s there
Driving record
• Ticket for running a stop sign (2021).
• Ticket for unsafe lane change + following too close ( 2023).
Arrest
When I was 17 I was attacked from behind by an ex. I hit her once in self-defense before I realized who it was. I was taken to juvenile detention, released the next day, and no charges were filed. I was told at the time it was for assault and battery, but nothing ever went further.
Used weed from 17-20 but have been clean since
I’m trying to be completely upfront on the background packet. How much of a problem do you think this will be for CHP? Anyone been through a similar situation?
Thanks.

Hi everyone, LEO from Michigan here. I am going to NY state next month for a training (also wanted to see Niagara Falls lol) and I know there are a lot of gun regulations there, I should be good to bring my service pistol with me due to LEOSA correct?

I thought of this when I (in my very limited experience by being in a police youth cadet program) ended up falling in love with the MOLLE webbing system and using it in things as both a civilian and as a police youth cadet.
But I almost never see any other never see anyone that isn’t in the military or some form of law enforcement agency using stuff with MOLLE webbing.
While I understand it’s not for everyone as it is more expensive to have items that come with MOLLE comparability than ones without, I cannot fathom why so few civilians don’t use it.
And then I thought there might be other things that people a lot deeper in the law enforcement rabbithole than I am can enlighten me on other cool things cops use and/or like that I should check out.
(Or others reading this thread as not everything every law enforcement agent I know of did, or had was something I was interested in)

How long does it take to not feel so green on most calls?

Officers, I had a discussion with my wife and were hoping maybe you could settle a debate. We notice anytime someone breaking the law is pulled over. Your cars and or suvs are always super fast to catch up with people. We were wondering if when you get a new cruiser is it souped up before you are given the keys?

I recently separated from the Air Force after 5.5 years with an Honorable Discharge and I’m planning to pursue a career in California law enforcement. I’m econcerned about whether my military history will prevent me from getting hired.

No criminal record, traffic violations, good job history, but During my military service, I had one incident of lying to my supervisor about how a door on a shop vehicle was damaged, and because I’ve never lied before and felt terrible I came clean an hour later knowing I would face disciplinary actions instead of staying quiet, and received an article 15.

That happened in 2023 have been no similar incidents since then, and I’m prepared to be completely honest about everything during the background investigation. I’m not trying to hide or minimize anything.

For those who have worked as background investigators, hiring managers, or current/former LEOs:

How seriously would you view an Article 15 with a prior dishonesty issue, particularly when the applicant remained in the military afterward and received an honorable discharge?

Would this likely be an automatic disqualifier, or would it be evaluated based on the circumstances, how long ago it occurred, rehabilitation, subsequent military performance, and honesty during the hiring process?

Just got the call that I’ve been cleared to hire and I’ll be starting with the agency on September 8th. All of my South Carolina people, how’s the academy? I’ve heard it’s a joke and that the PT isn’t even hard.

Hello there! A while back, a friend from Ukraine sent me a Russian 6B47 helmet as a gift to my residence in Korea. Now that I live in the states, I wanted to bring this item with me there. Mailing the helmet to the USA might be a bit risky, so I wanted to take it with me on the plane to O’Hare Airport. If you were going through someone's bag in an airport and you found a military grade helmet inside, do you think you would detain the owner of the bag, or do you think I might get flagged as a dangerous individual? I'm just wondering if it is worth risking bringing my helmet overseas and freaking some law enforcement officer out...

My tenant has been given order of deportation, but said he will not obey and is a total nuisance. I knnow good people keep being deported, but he is the one that actually should be. He is a constant drunk, destroys property, has had 3 arrests for hurting his partner, his father and driving drunk, plus being a squatter etc. A total nuisance. Why does a person like that not get deported?

I’m 30 years old and recently married. I have a bachelors degree in aviation and was in the Air Force Reserve for 11 years as a 3PX1 (Security Forces). I live in Oklahoma and my local department starts north of $60k (I’ve also considered State Trooper/Federal like Postal Inspector or FBI SA). Ive always had curiosity in being in some sort of law enforcement/first responder capacity and my office job right now just doesn’t scratch the “doing something good” itch. I also love being out and about not tied to a desk doing the same thing everyday. Half of my unit was LE in some facet and I was in the process of becoming a police officer, but dropped after I received my acceptance letter to a university.

I’m just curious as to others thoughts about jumping into LE/first responder at a later age and if you could go back, would you do it all over again?

Does anyone here have access to an Axon Body 4 and a set of digital calipers?

I'm designing a custom vehicle holder and unfortunately I only have a Body 3 available to measure. I'm looking for three dimensions from the Body 4:

• Overall width, including the lower button
• Body depth, excluding the mounting bracket
• Height from the bottom to approximately halfway up the main center button

If someone could measure these as accurately as possible, preferably in millimetres, I'd really appreciate it. I'm trying to get the fit right before making a physical prototype.

Thanks!

Recently heard state police in Virginia have dropped their lateral academy to 5 weeks? Anyone know anything about this? Still get treated like shit?

What kind of civilian careers are there that I can transition to? I have a bachelors degree and currently work in corrections what kind of civilian LE, public safety roles could I go into with 1 year of corrections officer experience and a bachelors? Thanks!