Criminal Justice Jobs – Law Enforcement – Police Officer
Police Officer Job Description
As you know, a police officer’s role is to fight crime and uphold the law, making communities a safer place. As a police officer your job will be to respond to situations both emergency and regular, where you will investigate the felony and gather evidence and talk to the people involved.
Everything you do must be documented in detailed reports so do not overlook the fact that this will be a large part of the job. These reports will be used in court when you hopefully make an arrest and you will also be expected to give evidence at court hearings to help secure a conviction.
As a police officer your area of work will usually be in the vicinity local to the department. If you work as a police officer in a major city where the crime rate is much higher, then chances are you will work on a specialized area of criminal offense such as homicide or traffic. Police officers in rural areas will generally handle all areas of law enforcement.
This is something you should bear in mind when looking into criminal justice jobs.
Police Officer Educational Requirements
The absolute minimum educational requirements you need to work as a police officer are a high school diploma although many agencies, especially in the cities, will require you to have an Associates degree in criminal justice or similar topic. If you want to work at federal level then you will more than likely need a Bachelors degree or higher. You should check with the department you want to work for to learn what their specific requirements are.
You should also continually work towards increasing your education if you want to advance your career in law enforcement. Most departments offer regular training courses with some insisting you attend before starting work as a police officer. There are numerous police academies throughout the states so again, check with the specific department you want to work for to find out what requirements they have.
Police Officer Salary
As a police officer you can expect to earn anywhere from $25k – $60k with the higher salaries being earned by the people with higher education and longer time served working as a police officer.
Police Officer Career Prospects
There are a multitude of career opportunities for police officers. You could:
- Look to progress into more advanced roles such as detective or crime scene investigator.
- Look to progress to working at federal level such as in the DEA or FBI
- Look to progress to working for a larger, more authoritative department e.g. if you work for a rural department you might want to progress to working for a department in the city.
