Hi
My 18 yo wants to join the Police. He has PR.
My understanding is he needs to do some form of training first and then when the Police recruit, he can apply?
My question is does he gain by going to a Police College (expensive) or can he do the same certificate by doing the Law and enforcement course at Community college. It is all very confusing!

Hi

Have you taken a look at the Halifax Regional recruiting requirements?
http://www.halifax.ca/police/recruit...ceProgram.html

Thanks PMM- I see that having a certificate doesn't hold any sway with them.Interesting!

Options

1) - Atlantic Police Academy - For municipal police etc.
2) - Regional Police eg Halifax as mentioned with internal training procedure
3) - Await Citizenship and RCMP

From a purely personal level (having the option at 18 to go to university for Computing versus Police (in the UK) ) I would urge your 18 year old to go out and see the world some more.

I'm not saying that they wouldn't be a perfectly good police officer at 18. I however went to university and then volunteered in the Special Constabulary. The person I was when I was 18 versus 27 when I volunteered were completely different. I don't think I would have been able to handle some of the situations as well if I were that bit younger. Having said that I worked along side some darn good officers that were young.

B

Thanks feralbob
We totally agree with you and have tried to persuade him to do something else first, perhaps learn a skill or trade. Unfortunately he isn't interested and he has set his heart on it. His Father and Grandfather were police officers so there must be something in the blood!

Then best of luck to him

I'd love to be able to volunteer here like the Specials back home. Alas for RCMP Auxiliary you have to be a citizen and my local force doesn't have a volunteer section.

I'm considering going to the APA so that I could volunteer - but like you say expensive.

If you don't mind "losing" him, send him out west!

Calgary, Edmonton and several others do not make you pay for your training

He's too young right now. Min age is usually 19, but there are very few successful applicants at that age. Maturity, life experience, education, and commitment to community and work experience are what recruiters seek.

I never became a member of the RCMP till i was 30 so he has lots of time and should not be put off. I'd suggest:

- volunteer experience - police related is good but not necessary - no need to overdo it, a couple hours a week is plenty

- Education - everyone assumes criminology - but police agencies don't really care what background you have, it's more to do with being articulate and well read/written. I would suggest taking English courses to improve writing skills - the entrance test is largely English based.

- Work experience - again, I wouldn't present one's self as a wannabe, doing rent a cop type jobs, it's more about demonstrating maturity and work ethic, showing up on time, no discipline problems, advancement etc. Not just going through the motions, doing things to improve how the job is done.

- Maintain - clean driving record and credit history (#1 reason 'normal' applicants are rejected)

I agree that life experience is huge - I too am a very different person now in my forties than I was at 20 - would have been way too immature to have been doing then what I'm dong now.

Good luck

my son wanted to join the police force, he is a canadian citizen but is living in Ireland, he wanted to come back to canada, but I actually put him off because of the recession. He has a good job at the moment so I did'nt want him to give it up and be stuck here. You say if he came back to Alberta he would be able to get into training for the police force free? Are they recruiting at the moment?

I know you are apolice officer, is it hard to get into the force if you are a citizen?

Alberta would offer three choices for a citizen, CPS, EPS and RCMP

Yes it is difficult to get into the police, but it largely depends on your motivation and commitment. It took me 6 years to get in. I got a degree, volunteered and worked my arse off. Having said that though, the hiring climate was very different, affirmative action was front and centre and there was not a lot of hiring going on.

Recruiters look for very specific types of applicants, as I highlighted in my above post. Many think that a good applicant is a Rambo type, muscle bound martial arts expert who can strip a gun in 5 seconds and kill a man with his bare hands, nothing could be further from the truth.

With the exception of the RCMP, police forces will take landed immigrants. There is still a fair bit of hiring going on but I suspect it will start to slow down in the next few years and will be very hard to get in again.

It's a great career, good pay, benefits, pension etc. Working conditions are better than UK forces from what I've gathered. But it's not all high speed pursuits and shootouts, in fact it almost never is. It can be very demanding work and requires a lot of personal fortitude and maturity.

there's also a lot of smaller forces, such as Lethbridge and medicine hat and the alberta sheriffs highway service (which was supposed to be the forerunner for a provincial force).

I didnt realise places like Leth and Med Hat had their own forces, I thought they relied on RCMP detatchments.

As they say you live and learn.

Perhaps I can get some advice too!

I live in rural NS and was considering the polce as a change to career option. However, when I looked on the website, it said I had to be prepared to move anywhere in Canada. I don't want to move, so I went no further with it!!

Am I looking in the wrong place?, advice would be appreciated!