The Police Oral Board

The Police Oral Board is by far one of the most feared steps in becoming a police officer. Police applicants are nervous and are unsure of what to expect. In fact, this is the critical step necessary to getting hired, but failure to understand and prepare yourself properly can result in all your hard work tossed out the window. So let's look at some basics when it comes to Police Oral Boards.

First of all, understand that the panel of members on your board use specific tactics to see if you're telling the truth by testing you to see if you "tell them what they want to hear." Believe it or not, one of the worst things you can do is tell the board what you "think" they want to hear. Here's an example question and WRONG answer:

Question: Mr. Smith, let's say you were working standard patrol and made a traffic stop on one of your best friends. You got him for speeding, say 55 MPH in a 30 MPH zone. How would you handle this situation?

Your response: I would write him a ticket just like everyone else. He's not above the law. Believe it or not, this is the absolute worst answer you could give, generally speaking (The reason we say generally is because we do believe there are a few departments out there that may want that answer, but this is not the norm). This is a question designed to see if you're being honest. Your interviewers know you're not going to write your best friend a ticket, or even a family member. It just doesn't happen. You should tell the truth in this situation and explain your answer.

So what is the truth? The truth is "Sir, I would not write my friend a ticket. However, I would ask him to not put me in this situation again as I might write him a ticket next time." This is far more believable and is what your panel knows is likely going to happen in a situation like this. Far too many applicants have eliminated themselves from consideration by this simple scenario. Just tell the truth and explain your answer.

What if your senior officer stole a candy bar on a breaking and entering call?

This is not the same as the previous question as its much more serious. But how do you answer a question like this? Well here's how one applicant answered it, and it seemed reasonable to me (and he was hired by the way). When asked what he would do if he saw his training officer put a candy bar in his pocket while on a burglary call of a convenience store, he said he would take .50 cents out of his pocket and leave it on the counter for the store. The panel responded "So its ok for him to steal?" The applicant said "No, its not ok, but I don't know anything about this person. Maybe he's having a bad day, I don't know. Fifty cense out of my pocket isn't worth his career." Of course they pushed it and said "Well, what if he took money out of the drawer?" His answer was "Well changes everything; a candy bar versus something of more value, and I would ask him to put it back." But the point to all this is you have to explain your answer and your reasoning. As a police officer you will make decisions every day, sometimes in a split second. But how you explain those decisions are actually more important, or equally important, to the actual decision itself.