The Police Oral Interview

It doesn't get much more scary then the oral interview for police applicants. This is where you'll literally sit in front of a panel of people who will interview you. It could be anywhere from 3 to 12 people (on average) from every aspect of the police department including captains, lieutenants, sergeants, officers, secretaries, citizens, etc. the idea is to mix up the panel so that there are different opinions and views on the board, not just police officers. However, their job is to see what you're made of and see how you respond to questions, trying to get to the truth. In fact, a lot of applicants are convinced that the panel "knew" they didn't want them hired from the minute they walked through the door. I can remember of one case where a police applicant got up during his police oral board interview and said "Its obvious you don't want me hired me; I could tell that the moment I walked through the door." The man walked out. What the applicant didn't realize is the panel had nothing against him, they just wanted to see how he reacted under pressure. He failed for lack of preparation, which is what this article is about. The officers that are getting hired now have taken the extra steps (like you're doing now) to prepare themselves.

So before we get into some of the psychology, let's talk about some basics to start out

Be on time - This can hurt your chances right out of the gate if you show up even a minute late. If you're not familiar with the area, drive the route before your interview date to make sure you are not late the day of. The last thing you want to do is start off on the wrong foot by saying "Sorry I'm late, I was stuck in traffic" or "Sorry I'm late, I wasn't sure how to find this place." These statements, although recommended if you are late, will signify to the panel that you didn't prepare and may not be serious.

Your clothes - Wear a business suit, period. Do not wear anything else. Not jeans, not slacks with a nice shirt tucked in, nothing. Business suit only that is conservative. Do not walk in there with a Daffy Duck tie, or a loud tie that's bright red. You want to appear business and professional on the conservative side. It doesn't have to be an expensive suit either.

Once you're at the police oral interview

When you get to the interview, its ok to say "Hello" but we recommend you don't say anything else until they ask you a question or start a conversation. When you take your seat, do not slouch, lean back, lean to the side, etc. These all send signs that you are not serious and frankly that you don't care. You could be toast just by how you sit.

When answering questions, be sure to look the person in the eye. Don't look away, or down when answering. This shows a lack of confidence and can lead the interviewer to believe you are lying. It's ok and recommended that when you answer your questions that you occasionally glance at other interviewers as well. In other words, you shouldn't be in a dead stare toward the person that asked the question, but rather look to other interviewers a bit while answering and explaining your answer as well. Under normal circumstances when you are not nervous, this is exactly how you would do it anyway and is natural.

Understanding the psychology of police oral boards

I did touch base on a few police oral board scenarios in a recent article, but let's talk about the psychology involved in police interviews. A lot of applicants don't understand what's going on once they get into the interview. They're immediately put on the defensive as they don't understand why the interviewers are talking to them the way that they are. So some of the points below are important to understand before even entering the room.

They're job is to get the truth - So how do they do that? By simply asking? Nope. They must use trick questions and psychology, for the most part, to get to the truth. When I say trick questions I mean asking you one thing in one way, then asking you a completely different question next, but later going back to the first question that's worded in a different way or even an analogy. In other words, you're asked one time "How would you handle this situation?" and later given a very similar scenario with the same question. If you answer different, you will have to explain your reasoning as to why you handled one situation different then the other even though they appear to be the same situations.

The psychology - This is the part that gets most police applicants in their police oral board interview. They haven't taken the time to prepare, but rather just jumped in. But the psychology generally goes like this: If I'm the interviewer I may want you to think that I don't like you by being the one guy on the panel that always cuts you off, or says statements like "Is that all you did?" or "Doesn't seem like much to me," for example. Its not that I don't like you, but its to see how you respond to me, how you act under pressure. Take the following example, and this is a true story. On one interview (true story), a female interviewer got an applicant to admin that he didn't think women were as strong as men and shouldn't be in law enforcement. Do you think that's the right answer? Well let's put it this way, he didn't get hired. But the way she did it was she asked him how he felt about female officers backing him up on calls, and his response set him up for failure. He answered saying "If its a fight call, I'd rather a male officer back me up." This was completely the wrong answer. His response could have been "I have no problem with it," and simply go from there. If the next question was "What if you're in a fight on a call and you know its a woman officer responding; how would you feel about that?" The applicant's response could have been "I don't care if its a man or a woman as long as they're on the ground with me fighting the bad guy." But once the applicant said what he did, he trapped himself into defending why he felt the way he did. He tried to explain upper body strength in male vs. female, which may very well be true. But he trapped himself in the beginning. The female interviewer ended up asking the applicant if he thought he could beat her *ss to give you an idea how heated it got. So the point is think about your answer before you answer it.

Conclusion

Although this article only hits a few areas, they are very important in the police oral interview. A mistake in even one of the these areas can be critical in your success. Don't be one of those guys or gals that put yourself through years of college only to screw it up when it really counts. If you want to get more information on police interviews, we also strongly recommend a Video Training Course for Police Oral Boards that we've come across. The course offers a 100% satisfaction guarantee by the author and sells for around $50 bucks. The instructor claims to have done thousands of interviews for police officers and is highly recommended by most high ranking police websites we've come across. Its worth checking out.