the Police Interview

Most law enforcement agencies include an oral interview with candidates before final selection. It might be called the Structured Interview, Oral Board, Chief’s Interview or Panel Interview as it usually involves more than one interviewer. Regardless of what it is called, any face-to-face job interview is an opportunity that can make or break your final acceptance.

The Police Interview is used to test a candidate's verbal skills and get an idea of the candidate's overall reasoning abilities and common sense. As with any job interview, the initial impression you leave with the board members will be crucial in determining your final ranking on the eligibility list.

The Police Interview is usually held at department headquarters. Some agencies conduct personal interview at your home. It can include one of more members and may consist of active officers, sergeants, lieutenants, even captains, and a member of human resources or a member of the business community.

Preparing for the Police Oral Board

Step one in your preparation is to learn as much as possible about the organization. Start with the agency website. Get a feel for the community, news and events and agency departments. Get a copy of the annual report. The annual report is chock-full of information about the budgets, crime statistics, calls for service, arrests made, citizen concerns, etc. By reading a few pages you can learn more about the agency than most of its officers will know.

Next go to the agency website. Scour the website. Go into every nook and cranny to unfold the department's mission statement, the chief's vision, community law enforcement policy, crime analysis, criminal investigations, traffic enforcement, dispatch center and traffic safety program, to name a few.

Talk to department members. Pick their brain. What's a typical day, swing and graveyard shift like? What types of calls do they encounter most frequently? Is the city mostly residential? Are there many businesses? How many 'hot spots' such as 7-11's, banks and schools are there? What is the diversity of the department? Knowing some of these things will give you valuable points of reference when answering oral board questions.

If your police department offers it, make sure you do a Ride Along.

"Tell Us About Yourself"

There's no crystal ball to tell you what questions you'll be fielding in your interview, but here is the number one example:

"So, Tell us about yourself?"

This isn't a question at all—this is your opportunity for your "second first impression."

If you did well with the initial introduction at the opening of the interview, this is your chance to cap that great start with a great finish. If you haven't prepared a rock-solid answer, you'll be in for a long, uphill battle for the rest of the interview.

The interviewer does not want to know about your favorite sports teams, music or food groups. The interviewer wants to know about the "you" that wants to be on their law enforcement team - the "Professional You."

Your answer must showcase the attributes you possess that relate to law enforcement work: your education and intelligence, your confident enthusiasm and dedication to goals, your perseverance and reliability.

Keep your answer brief (90-120 seconds), well-defined (make your point and move on) and easy to follow.

Police Interview Questions

Situational Judgement Questions

There are typically two parts to the police oral board. The first part examines your personality and why you would make a good police officer. The second part of the oral board involves scenario type questions that test your judgment and problem-solving capabilities.

Here is a typical example question that might be asked at an Oral Board: "A fellow officer calls for assistance on a family dispute that is getting out of control. Upon your arrival to the house you see the requesting officer struggling with a male subject on the floor. The male subject is on top of the officer attempting to punch him in the face. What are you going to do, and why?"

The Police Oral Board is one part of the hiring process where you CAN significantly improve your performance by getting prepared. Sgt. George Godoy's "Mastering the Police Interview" is the highest rated law enforcement interviewing prep course on the market.

You will learn valuable insights about the following:

• What You Need to Know Before the Interview

• The Most Important 5 Minutes

• How to Sell Yourself

• What Interviewers are Looking for

• The Single Most Important Quality you can Show

• Handling Negatives

• Winning Responses

• Knowing Your Priorities

Here is a link to Sgt. Godoy's Mastering the Police Interview course.

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If you are applying for a position in law enforcement, you will need to prepare to pass a wide variety of tests including the: Police Written Exam, Polygraph, Psych Exam and Oral Interview. Learn why PoliceExam911 by Sgt. George Godoy has earned the highest customer satisfaction ratings as measured by ShopperApproved™.

Sgt. Godoy also offers a wide variety of of 5-star prep courses for specific topics like Mastering the Polygraph, the Psych Exam, the Oral Interview and more. Visit his store here.