Posted: 11/18/2009 11:54:20 AM EDT
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I first entered law enforcement back in 1988 with one of the larger departments in northern Kentucky. After various adventures (and a few misadventures) I left there in 1993. After pursuing some opportunities in another state (that obviously didn't pan out... women.. ugh, I eventually moved back home to Ohio and started working in the Communications Center at my current department. That was in 1997. Over the years, I've often thought about going back into active law enforcement and due to some changes over this past year, I'm finally able to do it.
I started the ball rolling back in September and applied for the next class which begins in January. At the same time, I also applied for department sponsorship for the next class. I was accepted into the class last month and am happy to report that I recieved my approval today for departmental sponsorship (which will save me about $1100). The academy is part-time, so it'll run from January to June. We have a number of (8 or so) officers set to retire next year, so the openings will be there. So while I'm still a long way from getting back out on the street, Lord willing and the creek don't rise, the future's looking bright. Today's been a pretty good day. 
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Congrats!  Part-time* officers are eligible for 100% reimbursement of tuition, aren't they? I know P/Ters don't get credit for room/board, but with the PT academy that's an almost moot point. Up here in full-time (and moonlighting F/T land) a P/T gig is almost impossible unless you're already sworn. Which MTU are you going through? * as opposed to "reserves" or "Conservators of the Peace" which don't. |
Thanks y'all.  I'm pretty stoked. Quoted: Congrats! Part-time* officers are eligible for 100% reimbursement of tuition, aren't they? I know P/Ters don't get credit for room/board, but with the PT academy that's an almost moot point. Up here in full-time (and moonlighting F/T land) a P/T gig is almost impossible unless you're already sworn. Which MTU are you going through? * as opposed to "reserves" or "Conservators of the Peace" which don't. There are departments in Ohio that run their own academies (the larger cities, Cincinnati, Dayton etc) and Ohio State Police has their own, and the Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy runs academy classes as well. There are also numerous vocational (and other) schools that run academies through which one can get their Ohio police certification. The school-run academies are "open enrollment", so pretty much anyone can enroll in the class and get their cert, then go look for a job. I work for a university police department, and one of the benefits of working here is tuition remission for classes. The university also runs an academy at one of our branch campuses - which is where I'll be attending class. My tuition remission will cover the tuition for the class and with the department sponsorship, they'll cover all of the additional fees involved. So, I'll be going to the academy in the evenings "part-time" and then working full time here in the Comm Center. It'll be a long 6 months, but definitely worth it in the long run. I'm really looking forward to it though.
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Well, the academy started on January 4th. So far so good, although there wasn't anything terribly "heavy" as far as classwork goes.
We had our first PT assessment today. As an "old man" (40-49), the standards are pretty easy: 21 push ups, 31 sit ups and a 1.5mi run in 13:05 (The standard for the young guys is: Males age 20-29: sit-ups (1 min) 40, push-ups (1 min) 33, 1.5mi run in 11:58). My mission to smoke the youngsters in PT is going pretty well, although there are a few of them that are recently out of the .mil who are in ass-kicking shape who smoked me. I have 5 months to work on that though. 
We have to pass the PT assessment in order to take the state certification exam. Failure means having to repeat the entire academy. I was surprised at the number of guys who looked to be in pretty decent shape who couldn't finish the run. I'll probably bump this from time to time when something interesting comes around, and if anyone has any questions I'm happy to answer them. One down, 23 weeks to go! |
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Rock on brother. Old guys rule (Fellow old guy here)
Life experience has a very real role in doing police work. We deal with problems of people, having been around for several decades we have experienced many of the same problems or can at least understand them. I love having the young studs that can run faster and farther than me on my shift but older officers are an asset too. Good luck. |
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Just a quick update for anyone interested.
We're six and a half weeks in now. Classes are still going well... well, as long as we're not cancelled due to the Snowpocalypse as we've been a couple times. I need to find a day where I can go check out a fitness place here in town so that I can keep up with running. I don't have any trouble meeting the "old-guy" PT standard, but don't want to lose any ground. Push-ups and sit-ups are easy to do, running when there's 14" of snow on the ground... not so much. 
We had our first day at the range on Feb 6th. The guys that run it are a pretty good bunch of old-school street & SWAT cops. I got some old-school "street cred" during a block of instruction on revolvers when one of the instructors noted that I handled a revolver as someone who'd been trained on one would. He asked where I'd learned to handle a revolver that way, and I replied that I'd carried one for three years and that my first duty gun was a S&W Mod 686. The other instructors perked up at that and one said "That makes you an 'O.R.C' - 'Original Revolver Carrier' ". I got a kick out of it. We're supposed to actually do some shooting this coming Saturday. I'm looking forward to that. We have a pretty good bunch of kids in the class - there's four or five of them that are prior .mil who have several deployments to Iraq & A-stan under their belts. Even the non-prior service folks in the class seem to be pretty switched-on. It gives me hope for the future.
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