How to get a law enforcement career

Officer Acosta, with 25 years of experience in law enforcement, continues to have the same positive energy, motivation, determination, and eagerness to serve the department & our community as he did when he started his career.  The most rewarding part of his role in recruitment is seeing  new hires spread their wings, grow, and mature to responsible police officers who exude enormous amounts of command, presence, confidence, integrity, and who are eager to serve the community, too.    San Jose Police Department recruitment department will guide you through all the steps to join the department. 

Transcript

Leah Solorio, CEO/Founder Nspire Careers  0:08  

Hi everyone, Leah CEO/Founder Nspire Careers. Thank you for tuning into my podcast coming to you from the heart of Silicon Valley, San Jose, California. Today I would like to welcome officer Acosta, who's with the San Jose Police Department, and he will be sharing with us the great opportunities working for the Department in a city that I live in, and love. Welcome.

Officer J. Acosta SJPD  0:38  

So, my name is Javier Acosta, and I am a police officer with the city of San Jose, and I have been here approximately 24 years, and I work numerous assignments. My current assignment is as a police recruiter. I am one of four people that are assigned to recording to offers, and to admin, and that's my current role now with the department is a police recruiter.

Leah Solorio, CEO/Founder Nspire Careers  1:07  

Tell us about the city of San Jose, and the department,

Officer J. Acosta SJPD  1:11  

San Jose, California is the third largest city in the state and the 10th largest city in the United States. We have about 1 million residents. We average anywhere from 100 to 200,000, visitors a day who come to the Silicon Valley, San Jose to work. As you know the Bay Area here San Jose has some of the highest concentration of technology knowledge in the world. We are home to some of the big tech companies, you know, eBay, Cisco, Intel, just to name a few. The city is about 180 square miles. Were the demographic being about 30%, Latino population 30%, Asian, and 30% White. 

We are the second largest Asian population in the state as well. We dubbed a little neighborhood here in San Jose, as little Saigon is the actual name that, residents referred to as.  The Vietnamese population here in San Jose is about 10%.  The city has tons of diversity, in food and community, and we're really close to the ocean, about a half an hour or just three and a half hours away from Lake Tahoe, also known as the mountains. And we're also home to the San Jose Earthquakes, San Jose Sharks, and other local sports teams like the San Francisco Giants. San Francisco 49ers, Oakland A’s, and the Golden State Warriors so for those of you who are not immediately familiar with the Bay Area, that's a little bit about our city.

Leah Solorio, CEO/Founder Nspire Careers  3:06  

Tell us about the department.

Officer J. Acosta SJPD  3:07  

Our department is the third largest police department in California. We have about 1,200 sworn employees, and roughly around 800, non-sworn employees, what do I mean by non-sworn. You know, employees who are not necessarily a police officers but police data specialists, Community Service Officers dispatchers, call takers, civilians who work behind the scenes, and assist officers with the day-to-day operations. We have Anthony Mata is our police chief. Our department is about 10 to 12% women. We have lots of diversity in our department, different backgrounds, we have African American population, and the department is about 3.4%. We have over 50 specialized units. 

We have tons of promotional opportunities here in our department, you know, ranks ranging from officers Sergeant you tenant, Captain, deputy chief, assistant chief etc. We have great opportunities for employees like tuition reimbursement. We have a wellness program here in our police department that offers that peer support group, unlimited counseling for your spouse and your children. We had tons of opportunities for officers to work out decompress process their days, weeks, months, etc. Then we also have a tactical conduct policy, which essentially means that officers must go with, to call two or more officers must respond to a call, so we don’t have officers going to calls by themselves is, you know, so we have that policy as a safety measure for the officers and the public.

Leah Solorio, CEO/Founder Nspire Careers  5:12  

What are the rewards in this profession?

Officer J. Acosta SJPD  5:15  

Well, my job as a police recruiter. My current role is very rewarding as sort of reminds me of when I started the process 25 years ago. And so, I get to see the excitement of young candidates, the energy, the positive energy, the motivation, the determination, just the eagerness to serve. sort of takes me back to how I used to feel and how I still feel about my job. And so, it's refreshing to see young people wanting to serve their communities, my job is to engage in educate and empower young people, and how to navigate through the testing process and ultimately wind up in a police academy. Working with young people with all different types of demographic cultures, backgrounds, languages are fun. I get to learn a lot along the way myself. 

There's nothing more rewarding than watching or meeting a candidate at the beginning stage of the process, and watching him or her develop and spread their wings and grow and mature to this responsible young adult police officer who now exudes an enormous amounts of command presence, confidence, integrity, and just eager to serve our community. I get to see from start to finish so it's very rewarding for me to be able to do that.

Leah Solorio, CEO/Founder Nspire Careers  6:51  

When looking at candidates in the recruiting process, what are the things that stand out?

Officer J. Acosta SJPD  6:57  

Things that we look for are, you know, self-starters, people who have a genuine desire to serve others, people that are hardworking, open and flexible with understanding and patience. Candidates who possess the qualities of having the empathy and sympathy, who really are able to adapt to different situations are able to go from a service mentality to someone who can also go into a help mentality.  Just natural born leaders, really, and people that are good decision makers have great communication skills, and have a really great sense of interpersonal sensitivity. So those are just some of the qualities that we look for.

Leah Solorio, CEO/Founder Nspire Careers  8:01  

Thank you for that valuable insight. So, tell us about the testing process

Officer J. Acosta SJPD  8:07  

The testing process can be quite lengthy. You know the beginning stages are calling the police department, doing some research online or whatever department you're interested in, really that's the starting of the process, when a candidate applies.  The application is just, you know, obtaining some general information like name, date of birth, social security number, etc. And then after that, the initial application we send out a supplemental question are often referred to as the personal history statement. So, we asked additional prescreening questions, and then once you pass that one, then you're invited to participate with a written physical oral background and making sure that you have that entry minimum qualifications, and when that is done, then you start with a written exam. 

The written exam is the first step in the process. In the state of California, there's the PELLETB exam. The PELLETB, simply stands for police, entry level, law enforcement test battery.  That's the most common written exam in California, we'll accept that exam with a total of 50% or greater score. The way it's graded is a 77.6 is a perfect score. With a minimum T score of 50% or greater. The other written exam that we accept is the National Testing network frontline written exam. And that's a nationwide Police Department exam. And this passing score for that is a 65% on the video 70% on the reading and 70% on the writing. 

Once you've successfully passed either of those exams. You then take the physical agility exam. And so, the physical agility exam, also known as the W STB and the WS T V simply stands for work sample test battery, and that consists of five items that a candidate must complete. They must, they must scale a six-foot fence, a six-foot chain-link fence. They must drag a body for 32 feet and the body weighs about 165 pounds, and they must complete a 99-yard obstacle course, which consists of some jobs. Some 90 degree turns 45 degree turns. And then also completed 500-yard run. In addition to the work sample test battery, a candidate must run a mile and a half, and under 14 minutes. 

Once that is completed, then the candidate moves on to the oral board interview, the oral board interview is, is a consist of a panel interview, we have a three-member panel. And right now, the consistent of a police supervisor, a city employee, and a volunteer from the community. So, you, you do an oral board interview. And then after the oral board interview, you move on to the background process. Once you're in the background process, you're around the middle of the testing process so in the background process will be a more thorough investigation of other candidates, you know, work history, relationship history credit history, financial history, providing references, you know, speaking to neighbors and stuff like that.

Leah Solorio, CEO/Founder Nspire Careers  12:11  

Thank you for providing so much valuable detailed information on the process. You've been in your profession for over 20 years, and you are still passionate about it, I can tell. So, thank you for that inspiration. Is there anything else you'd like to share?

Officer J. Acosta SJPD  12:27  

When it comes to the testing process. You know, we understand that it's a lot and it's a long process, so we ask candidates to be flexible and  patient, but more importantly be honest, you know. Candidates must have a very high moral compass and with very high integrity, and that does begin with the testing process. So, we ask the candidates to be, be truthful with completing any of these documents. We also provide workshops and tutorials and mentoring for candidates who are enter our testing process. We have a tutorial for the written exam, which is a webinar that helps candidates with that written exam. 

The physical agility portion of the exam, we have San Jose Police Department, fitness series every Wednesday at the police academy where we expose candidates to workouts, by the Academy staff. We also expose them to the wall. They must scale the obstacle course and when they do take the physical agility exam, they're very familiar with it. They get plenty of practice, plenty of instruction with the, with the physical agility exam. The oral board interview we also provide a three hour zoom prep class, where we talk about questions they might be asked, how you would answer a hypothetical question, what your body language should look like, what your rate of speech, and your volume of speech. Your tone, stuff like that, etc. So, there's quite a bit of mentoring and engaging that the candidates, throughout the process.

Leah Solorio, CEO/Founder Nspire Careers  14:29  

Tell us about the mentoring that the department offers.

Officer J. Acosta SJPD  14:33  

We also have a mentoring program in the Department where we team up younger officers with seasoned veterans who can offer mentoring to the newer officers  and if they want to work a certain unit or they are gravitated towards a certain part of the department, whether that be investigations, or working with kids, stuff like that so it's a, it's a program that's designed so that the officers can get early, mentoring, so that they can start doing what they need to do as far as training, what cases they should be working on, and how they can help so that they that, you know, going to these particular units. 

Like I mentioned earlier, we have over, 50 different specialties in the department so if you think of our department is a big employer with 50 different job openings, you know, if you have a background in computer science cyber security well you may end up in the intelligence unit right. If you have a background with science and biology, and/or you want to go into the crime scene unit. You could talk to a mentor about how I would do that, if you've got a tactical background and military background and you want to go into like the SWAT team you will be guided into sort of that field.

Leah Solorio, CEO/Founder Nspire Careers  16:12  

Again, I cannot thank you enough for sharing your expertise. For those who are genuinely interested in preparing for law enforcement careers, this is the information. And I know that after this, you're going to have a good understanding of what it looks like to get into the department, what you can expect from the department, and as you can see, Officer Acosta takes great pride in working for the city of San Jose Police Department, and I want to thank him, also for his service. Thank you. I know you're going to share some contact information.

Officer J. Acosta SJPD  16:52  

Yes, and I appreciate your kind words and I thank you for allowing us the opportunity to educate listeners about our job opportunities. To find out more about our police department and our workshops, you can always reach us at our website, SJPDYOU.com. We're on social media i.e. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. And you can always call us at our office at 408 277-4951.Or email Javier.Acosta@sanjoseca.gov

Leah Solorio, CEO/Founder Nspire Careers  17:49  

Thank you so much.

Officer J. Acosta SJPD  17:52  

You're very welcome. I appreciate you having me.

Leah Solorio, CEO/Founder Nspire Careers  17:55  

Job Seekers, it is my hope that this conversation ignited something in you. a moment where you thought, I want to be just as passionate about my career as Officer Acosta, because we should all get an award for doing something, we love the path to the life you want lies just ahead. Inspire careers, has the plan. So, join our eight-week program so that we can prepare you to pursue a career that you will love to. take great care with love, Leah Solorio CEO, and founder, Nspire careers, connect with us at Nspirecareers@gmail.comNspirecareers.com and an Instagram. We look forward to hearing from you.