Typical Police Interview Questions And Answers
Are you preparing for the police oral board interview? If so, you’ll want to practice answering questions to commonly asked law enforcement interview questions. However, make sure that your answers don’t sound scripted. Don’t recite an answer word for word that you read on an interview handbook purchased at a bookstore.
The panel, made up of veteran police officers, can spot “canned” answers a mile away and if they suspect you are regurgitating answers rathen than that of your own opinion, you can kiss that job goodwill not get the job.
Remember, the sample police interview questions that I’m going to share with you in just a minute is only a guide. It was never intended to be recited word for word. Here’s one question that will definitely be asked during your panel interview:
Sample Questions#1: How would your past co-workers describe you?
Here are tips to answer this question.
Be confident:
You can never cast more doubts onto your answer if you sound unconfident, unclear, or uncertain about what people would say about you. Don’t start your answer using the phrase ‘I think my colleagues would tell that ..’ . You don’t ‘think’ you are sure.
Be Professional:
The interview panel wants to know how would your colleagues describe you rather than your friends. Even if asking about friends, they wouldn’t be interested in your personal life, at least for now.
When asked about how your friends would describe you, try to keep the description as professional as possible. Do not try to implement any factors of your personal life, like being jovial, adventurous, easy to get along with, etc.
Be Concise:
When asked about how your co-workers would describe you, be concise and not say anything that would be considered ambiguous.
Remember that the person who is interviewing you could be your future sergeant, lieutenant, or captain. You should definitely give a thoughtful answer in describing how you believe colleagues would describe you.
Be Factual:
Another important aspect to remember is to provide facts and truthful information ONLY.
You never want to place yourself in a position where you tell something that is not true and it could be discovered later.
Most of this information would be cross checked and some of it may even be used to make decisions about you. For example, if you describe that you have leadership qualities, there are many chances that they might consider you for leadership positions now or in the future of working with the agency.
Keep in mind that if you are asked for referrals during your recruitment oral board interview, these questions might be asked to those referrals too. Of course, you cannot tutor all your referrals about how they should reply to any questions and therefore you should only give out information that would be agreeable by all.
