Police Academy Adventures

[nightmare69]

I'm not goin to be 1st in my class but I am going to do my best and graduate with my head held high. I now don't mind starting on the bottom and working my way up. This county will badge me in as a deputy even though I may start in the jail. My local county would not badge me in until there was a opening, that is a no go for me. I think working the jail will give me some great experience and then later after a year or so I can move to patrol if I wish.

I do hope they can work with me on this whole hiring process. The polygraph is just one of the many steps to get hired. There is no way I can take off from class to miss, if I did it would put me over the limit and I would be kicked out of the academy. I called a buddy who is a supervisor and he called the chief so hopefully they can work something out, if not then I will have to respectfully decline and call them after I graduate. The academy is my number 1 and I will not miss class period.

[srothstein]

Good decision for now, but you need to see how much you can work with the school and the agency. You might have to miss a few classes along the way to get the job. In most cases, the agency does not have too much flexibility on appointments with polygraphs and some doctors and psychiatrists. They are all independent contractors who set their own hours and may only work regular business hours.

Try working the scheduling out for an 8:00 a.m. appointment time where you go right to the academy from the exam. Or, maybe a 4:00 p.m. and reverse it. Either way, you may only lose two hours of class time, which should be negligible for the weekly exams.

The work with the school part is to let you know that they have not quite told you the truth. TCOLE has NO rules on attendance or making up time. There are a lot of myths out there on TCOLE rules and many of them concern training requirements. The truth is that the training provider is the sole determinant of what is required for successful completion of training. Now, this may be irrelevant since the rules have been made and told to you already and these rules are within the authority of the provider. But, it does give you a way to talk to the training coordinator if you need a break.

I recommend you see how you can minimize the missed classes and try for the one department. Working with them on that will help show your determination to complete the training and your interest in and desire for that agency.

[Wodathunkit]

Nightmare,

I left the planet for a few weeks as we were moving and I just tonight got to your thread. Hang in there, I will be praying for your successful completion of the Academy and that God grants you the perfect job. Don't waiver on your commitment to finish. Don't panic about getting rapidly employed.

To other Leo's tracking his progress, what would be a good graduation gift I could send him? What does every new officer need? Please PM me so it can be a surprise!

Thanks,

Matt grubbs

[nightmare69]

Nightmare,

I left the planet for a few weeks as we were moving and I just tonight got to your thread. Hang in there, I will be praying for your successful completion of the Academy and that God grants you the perfect job. Don't waiver on your commitment to finish. Don't panic about getting rapidly employed.

To other Leo's tracking his progress, what would be a good graduation gift I could send him? What does every new officer need? Please PM me so it can be a surprise!

Thanks,

Matt grubbs

Thanks all for the advice. I'm going to see what the county says when they call back today. Do not worry about getting me any type of graduation gift. Just getting to walk across the stage and get my TCOLE license will be more than enough.

[Excaliber]

Stressing out here. Got a call from the county I applied with and turned in my app and took some aptitude test for them last week. Only reason I was able to schedule the test for morning was we were doing night patrol that day and didn't have to be at the academy till 1pm. Fast forward to today had a message from said county and they want to schedule me for my polygraph. No problem except they can only do it during business hours. This is a problem cause Im in school from 8-5 M-F, I told them that I cannot miss class unless its an emergency.

She told me that we cannot move forward until I take my polygraph test. I explained my situation and said one of the reasons I applied there was a few of your employees told me that they would work with us around our schedule so we didn't have to miss any class. She is supposed to speak to the lieutenant and call me back tomorrow. I know of 3 others who have, or are going to apply and I doubt they are willing to miss class either.

You can only miss 35hrs and still make that up, miss 36hrs and you are kicked out. TCOLE says you have to make up time minute for minute, problem is the night classes are on something totally different and you are sitting there basically being punished for missing class. Whatever lecture or topic was covered if you missed it its gone forever, you will never have a chance to make up that topic. This becomes a problem when taking the weekly test, if you miss a good portion of the test I doubt you will pass. We have 1 guy who has missed 32hrs from taking test/interviews with 2 departments. He misses and another 4hrs and he is gone. You have to attend class to get that TCOLE peace officers license, you keep missing class or flunk out all those interviews are redundant.

I think I did the right thing and stood my ground letting them know that the academy is my #1 priority. I hope they will work with me cause I told them I will meet them at 3am or any other time other than during the academy even though I really need a job once I get out asap. Going to this academy has been fun but a massive inconvenience cause it takes up the entire business day. Ive had a lot of personal matters that I had to put on hold and other business to attend to that Ive been unavailable. Just needed to vent guys but what would you do if the county calls back tomorrow and says they can only do the polygraph test during the day forcing me to miss a minimum 4hrs or half a day?

A good fit with an agency means that both your needs and theirs get reasonably met. If they're pressing you to miss class to take their polygraph in a hurry, it suggests they are more concerned with an immediate need to fill slots and less concerned with how that may impact your foundational education and your career.

I'd take that as a potential warning sign that the agency may not be attentive to the legitimate needs of its officers. You can't form a legitimate judgment on that one small piece of information, but it's a caution that should be remembered as future contacts either confirm or refute that read.

[WildBill]

A good fit with an agency means that both your needs and theirs get reasonably met. If they're pressing you to miss class to take their polygraph in a hurry, it suggests they are more concerned with an immediate need to fill slots and less concerned with how that may impact your foundational education and your career.

I'd take that as a potential warning sign that the agency may not be attentive to the legitimate needs of its officers. You can't form a legitimate judgment on that one small piece of information, but it's a caution that should be remembered as future contacts either confirm or refute that read.

[nightmare69]

A good fit with an agency means that both your needs and theirs get reasonably met. If they're pressing you to miss class to take their polygraph in a hurry, it suggests they are more concerned with an immediate need to fill slots and less concerned with how that may impact your foundational education and your career.

I'd take that as a potential warning sign that the agency may not be attentive to the legitimate needs of its officers. You can't form a legitimate judgment on that one small piece of information, but it's a caution that should be remembered as future contacts either confirm or refute that read.

They were never pressing me to take my poly just letting me know that we cannot move forward until I do take it. Good news is next Thursday we come into class in the afternoon for night driving so I was able to schedule my polygraph that morning.

I worried about being nervous and having a false positive or something. Im just going to be as honest as I can and that should do the trick.

[WildBill]

I worried about being nervous and having a false positive or something. Im just going to be as honest as I can and that should do the trick.

It's good that you are worried and nervous. That shows you have a conscience. A good examiner will be able to tell the difference between nervousness versus deception.

Once, I took a polygraph test. By the end of the session there was a pool of sweat on the table top underneath my hand. I passed.

[nightmare69]

I was told there is a questionnaire that you fill out prior to taking the polygraph. If that is the case I should have a good idea what Im might be asked. They said its takes normally 2hrs to get through the entire process.

[WildBill]

I was told there is a questionnaire that you fill out prior to taking the polygraph. If that is the case I should have a good idea what Im might be asked. They said its takes normally 2hrs to get through the entire process.

The examiner will use the questionnaire to frame his questions. You may think you have a good idea what you might be asked, but you might be surprised.

[SQLGeek]

I was told there is a questionnaire that you fill out prior to taking the polygraph. If that is the case I should have a good idea what Im might be asked. They said its takes normally 2hrs to get through the entire process.

That sounds about right. Good luck, I absolutely hated the polygraph and with a good reason. There's a lot I could say about that but won't until after you're done with yours.

[nightmare69]

I research everything and when doing so about the polygraph you cannot help but come across ways to beat the test. I'm sure I'll be asked about that but I'm not going to use any tactics to try to fool the machine.

This week we are driving and today we did radar out on the highway. We had a lot of people slowing down.

[gigag04]

Taken and passed 3. Stressful as all get out all 3 times, and the experience gets worse each time.

It's designed to catch intentional, premeditated, deceit. That's it.

Don't google anymore, it will just make it harder.

Usually a poly consists of a pre-poly disclosure packet. You and the polygraph go through your answers together bad you'll have a chance to clarify any items.

Then he asks you the test questions he selected...about 10 yes or no questions, while you're not hooked up.

Then he hooks you up and let's you calm down.

Then you run through the questions 3 times with a break inbetween.


That's it.

[Keith B]

One tip, don't over-think your answers. Just answer them truthfully and don't read too much into the questions. Stay consistent and answer them honestly and you should do fine.

[nightmare69]

Having a blast driving, we got done early on the shalom course and they let us do it again as fast as we wanted to go. I found out drifting when turning around is frowned upon at the academy, sure was fun though. Only problem is they was us to use the "shuffle" technique when driving and it just feels unnatural. You hold your hands at 4 and 8 o clock and it forces you to make small adjustments when driving. This becomes a problem going fast on the shalom course. The instructors wanted to show us up and got behind the wheel and they did not use the shuffle technique that they rammed down our throats and got on to us when they could see our hands. Oh well still was a fun day and tomorrow should be a blast as well.