Preparing For The Police Interview

Understanding the police oral board is crucial to your success, but how you prepare for it is even more important. Many people seeking to become police officers don't take the necessary steps to prepare for the police interview. They get their criminal justice degree and start applying for police departments, not realizing they've only become "qualified" to apply. To prepare for the police interview, you need to understand how they work. The main goal of the police interview is to screen out bad applicants. How do they do this? They use tactics to see if you're honest, to see how you handle yourself under pressure, if you have common sense, if you're a good person, etc, etc. But failure to understand the tactics used can take a perfectly qualified applicant and put them on a no-call list in a matter of a 15 minute interview. Don't be one of those people.

Let's start with some basics

I would hope that most people know to only wear a business suit to their police oral board. But I say it because it never ceases to amaze me that there is always a few guys that come in with dress pants and a polo shirt for example, assuming it is acceptable. It is not! What you wear to your police oral board interview tells the panel how serious you are before you even open your mouth. If you come in with a pair of jeans and t-shirt, you might as well not even come as you're already on the no-call list. Only wear business attire, no exceptions.

What type of suit should you wear?

Your suit should be conservative only. No Ronald McDonald ties, no fancy jewelry, no fancy multi-colored under shirts, etc. Plain Jane conservative. Black or dark blue suit for instance.

Studying for the police interview

You should plan and anticipate questions, and actually practice how you answer them in a mirror. You would be surprised how often you would come to a stop, not knowing how to answer the question while being fluent. Take for instance "Why do you want to become a police officer?" Do you know how you would answer this question? It's the most basic question, but yet it's one of most difficult to answer. In fact, take a second and answer it out loud right now as you would if you were sitting in your police oral board. What would be your answer?

No one is suggesting that you become a perfect speaker, or a politician. The point is by answering your questions in a mirror, you actually a learn a lot of what you don't know how to answer. I've done this in the past, and would literally be at a stand still on some questions because I wasn't prepared to answer them.

What are some of the questions you should anticipate?

A lot of questions you will be asked are scenario based, like "How would you handle discovering that your partner has been stealing?" or "What would you do if you stopped your mother for speeding?" etc, etc. Having a somewhat prepared response, but sincere, is very important so that you're not caught off guard. Of course you won't be able to pinpoint each question, but you'll at least have an idea of what to expect and be prepared for them.

Be Honest

Whatever you do, do not lie in your interview. Questions in your police interview are designed to see if you're lying by asking similar questions later in the interview for instance to catch you off guard. It is pointless to try to fool these guys as this is their job, and they are professionals. Consider them human lie detectors.