Entry Level Police Officers

Police

Entry Level Police Officer

Thank you for your interest in Bloomington Police Department’s police officer entry level hiring process. Our goal is to systematically hire the most qualified applicants, representing the broad range of cultures that comprise American society. To assist you in determining whether to pursue a career with the Bloomington Police Department, we have prepared the following orientation information.

This summary is intended to provide you a description of the organization, and its structure, resources, operations, mission, and culture. Please use this information to help determine how well you fit with our department and how well employment with this department will fulfill your career aspirations.

Click Here to download the Entry Level Police Officer Informational Packet

Some scholars claim that policing a free society is the most complex job in the world, partly because police are frequently called upon to be all things to all people. The popular culture image of a police officer does not accurately reflect the reality of policing. Perhaps investing a few hours riding with a Bloomington Police Officer would provide applicants a better understanding of the job.

Short of that, the job tasks of a police officer may generally be found in the police officer job description of the Bloomington Police Department Rules and Regulations. During field training, a probationary police officer’s primary focus includes:

1. handling a wide range of calls for service;
2. generating self-initiated activity (e.g., traffic/pedestrian stops);
3. providing enforcement activity (arrests/citations etc.);
4. maintaining public order when appropriate;
5. report writing;
6. evidence collection, preservation, storage; and
7. court room testimony.

Probationary officers are frequently challenged to perform basic job tasks under varying degrees of pressure. They may be required to safely operate a motor vehicle under emergency conditions, talk on the radio to the telecommunicator and other responding officers, plan the most efficient route of travel, assess possible threats, consider the need for additional resources and make the appropriate requests in a timely manner, develop a response strategy en route while considering officer safety strategies, and adapt immediately to changing conditions or updated information.

Clearly, police officers must be able to multi-task effectively to complete the probationary period and consistently perform the job functions of a competent, fully trained police officer. Perhaps the most problematic issue for probationary officers unfamiliar with our community is learning the geography. We cannot stress enough the importance of probationary police officers mastering street names, locations, and address numbering patterns as quickly as possible. Time spent studying local street maps would be well spent.