How to Get a Basic Law Enforcement Training Certificate
Getting hired at a police department is a challenging task even when you are a certified law enforcement officer. It is even harder when you do not have a certification and are competing against those who already have this certification. Fortunately, there are ways to become certified so that you can effectively compete for these job openings.
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Instructions
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How to Get a Basic Law Enforcement Training Certificate
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Submit your application to various small-town police departments. These departments may have less of a pool of applicants to choose from and may be willing to hire an applicant without a certification. The department should be willing to help you receive your certification although the pay rate will probably be significantly lower than some of the larger departments.
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Remain at the police department until you are able to earn your law enforcement training certificate. If you can live on less pay, while receiving your certification, this may be a method to complete the training without having to pay for it yourself.
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Apply to larger departments. Now you have both your certification and some experience. You will be able to compete much more effectively for the jobs at the medium to larger-sized departments.
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Tips & Warnings
If you are unable to get a certificate through a police department then you should consider attending a college program which can provide you with a certification as part of earning a degree.
Some of the large metro area departments may prefer applicants with four year public safety college degrees as opposed to an applicant with a law enforcement certification from a smaller police department. Since the larger departments will put new recruits through their own version of a training academy, the hands-on training reflected by the certification is not as important to them. In fact, large police departments may prefer that applicants have not been certified by other means as they will not have to "retrain" a recruit to function differently than they have been accustomed.
This attitude is juxtaposed by a medium-size department who may heavily value an application with a certificate because this means they will not have to pay for training costs. This savings can be crucial to a department functioning on a limited budget.
