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Bryan Leon
Joan Robison
ENG 101

Enforcer of Law
A public servant, a person to explain your problem, or someone who will help when you
need it at your most vulnerable point. This is a police officer in the eyes of society. The police
officer help enforces the laws within their jurisdiction. They as well help investigate crime. A
good portion of a police officer day is being a public servant and not arrest criminals as seen on
television. It takes a lot of training and definitely courage to become one. Police officer has the
highest rates of work related injuries and illnesses. Being officer is something I always wanted to
be when I was a small child. The way they help this community is amazing and hope to be part
of it one day. Though it is a rigorous process for becoming a police officer.
There are many different types of police officer you can become today. You have the
option for federal, state, and local law enforcement. Local law enforcement is generally what
people see. These are the uniformed police officers patrolling the area and ticketing people as
you see everyday. Though, handing out citations is not what police officer do most of the time.
Most of the time it is maintain order such as protecting property. A big part of policing today is
community policing. Community policing is getting with community and discussing issues that
are happen in their area. As a police you must have good communication and decision making
skill. Communication is number one in what departments are looking for. Everyday you are
talking to someone, whether its dispatch over the radio or to a citizen you encounter on the
streets. Your voice has to be confident because people can and will put you down if they have a

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feeling of weakness within you. Decision making is also a big thing to have. As an officer you
have the decision to use your firearm when it shall allow it. The use of your firearm can either
mean life or death for the police officer. Also using your firearm can be meaning of taking of
someone life and you have make sure you followed policies and steps before firing. This is all
within seconds of thinking. Being in law enforcement has a lot of benefits and pay. The starting
pay for a police recruit for LVMPD is 50,460.80 dollars a year. There are many ways you pay
can be effective. After passing the academy your pay goes up another 2,800. Then after finishing
your probation it goes up another 4,000 dollars.(LVMPD Benefit) You can receive higher pay
if your Spanish bilingual, the type of assignments that you receive within the department, what
type of degree you have can help raise your salary.
Training for become a police officer is a rigorous process many drop out because they
cannot complete it. Las Vegas metropolitan police department has a five step process before
recruits make it to the academy. Fist step is recruitment and career overview. The department
wants applicants just to explore this career option. The seconds step includes application
screening, physical fitness test, written exam, oral board interview, and a background pre
screener. A background pre-screener is an exam given to each candidate that ask about personal
history and experiences. The third step has an interview and investigation, written psychological
evaluation, oral physiological interview, polygraph examination, and medical exam and drug
test. During this phase detective are trying to find everything about you and make sure you are
mature and not lying in any circumstances. The written physiological examination has 1.170
questions and takes approximately four to six hours to complete. This can put a lot of stress on
someone. If a candidate passes all these examinations he can now be selected to be recruit if the
selection committee decides to get him. This is where stage four begins. The selection committee

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consist of different commanders with various divisions in the department. Stage five is preacademy fitness test. It is the same physical exam you took in first stage. After passing and being
selected these examinations and interviews you can know begin the academy. The academy last
around 28 weeks with 1007 hours of training and instruction. There are 16 units learn within
these 28 weeks. If you pass this, you begin to enter the field training evaluation program. This
program last 24 weeks and are evaluated by up to nine different evaluation officer. (LVMPD
Employment)
Police officer have various tools at their disposable. A standard tool belt for LVMPD
consist of a firearm, Taser, handcuff and handcuff key, bulletproof vest, OC spray (Pepper spray),
gloves, flashlight, radio, extra clips of ammunition, and baton, which are optional. These tools
are in their reach but they still have other tools, such as their vehicle, assault rifle or shotgun.
Though the most important tool as a police officer is your voice. The voice can help subdue a
subject with commands. It can help a suicidal from committing the act because of your voice.
This ties back to your communication skills. Poor communication skills will not help you with
encounters with criminals or everyday citizens as well. People will hear and think that you are
not confident and if one person cant trust one officer, that same person might not trust the whole
department.
Being a police officer a tough job to acquire with a projected growth of 5 to 7 percent
throughout 2022. This is slower then average. With department changing hiring requirements
every year to make it more rigorous to help weed out bad cops. Throughout this research I
learned a lot more then I did before of the steps becoming an officer. With this new knowledge I
know where I need to take myself. First is to continue college and finish to help be above other
candidates. My degree is already helping me with understanding the law as I am pursuing a

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degree in criminal justice. A police officer get scrutinized throughout media of their action and I
hope to help change by being the officer on the news impacting someone life in a positive way
then negative. Law enforcement is an profession that has many opportunities and I hope to be
there one day.

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Works Cited
Metro. "LVMPD Employment." LVMPD Employment. LVMPD, n.d. Web. 04 Nov. 2015.
"33-3051.01." O*NET OnLine. National Center for O*NET Development, n.d. Web. 9
Nov. 2015.
"Police and Detective Summary." U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. U.S. Bureau of
Labor Statistics, 8 Jan. 2015. Web. 04 Nov. 2015.