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My son is a senior student in High school now. We had filled some financial assistance forms because we want to make sure he will be able to have secondary education. Though, my son has not decided yet what collage he wanted to attend or what subject to choose.
Thus, I got really surprised one day when my son came from school and declared he wanted to start law enforcement training. His best friend's father was a police officer and my son has been secretly interested in this job for years.
Unfortunately I didn't know anything about law enforcement training so I needed to get more information about it. This is why I invited my son's friend and his parents for dinner. That way we could talk with the police officer and find out where is the best place to get law enforcement training.
It was interesting to learn there are so many specialty areas to look into. The father of my son’s best friend had started with an eighteen month course of law enforcement training in a college. After his course the only job he could get with that qualification was as a patrol officer.
From the law enforcement training he completed he had learnt the basic techniques of being a police officer including weapons training. However, to become a detective a more advanced training was required - a four year college degree. He took a part time job as a patrol officer and started a four year criminal justice program at the university which would enable him to get better jobs once he graduated.
He also added that in the past police officers could go with the eighteen month course of law enforcement training but as nowadays the crimes are more complex it is recommended that all officers have a four year degree in addition to the law enforcement training.
My son was listening to his best friend's father very carefully and remembered the information he gave us. My son also conducted further research. First of all, he needed to decide if he would start the law enforcement training immediately and then take the college courses, or the opposite - first college then the law enforcement training. He set up a meeting with he local sheriff to discuss this.
The sheriff advised him to take the basic law enforcement training first because with it he could work part time while being at college. He could have flexible shifts as police officers are needed 24 hours a day seven days a week, so he wouldn't need to cut classes because of work.
Another reason why it is better to start with the law enforcement training is because after you complete it and start working and studying same time you will have work experience which will help you decide what area you want to concentrate on.
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