Police Promotion Information and Resources.

Your Police Promotion Timeline — When Should Preparation Begin?

By Lt. Paul Patti (ret) - Director
Police Career and Promotion Services, LLC.

What you need to know about all aspects of preparing for and achieving your promotion in law enforcement can be found in these pages.

About us: I spent 27 years in law enforcement, and since 1985 I have directed an organization that has worked with individuals and agencies in finding and promoting the right people into the higher ranks of police and sheriff's departments. We include a Ph.D. in Personnel Management, as well as a staff attorney focusing on criminal law applications and legal-oriented promotion exams in law enforcement. We specialize not only in writing promotion textbook exams for police agencies, but also written exam preparation for individuals, along with in-basket, oral board and assessment center preparation for both agencies and individual training. Our individual client base of thousands of career law officers has a 99%+ pass rate on their written exams!

More information about me, my organization and affiliates can be found at these links; PoliceCareer.com, About Us, PoliceCareer.net, PolicePromotion.com, Finests.com, In-Basket.net and PoliceAssessmentCenter.com.

Master List of Articles. Questions? Contact me - Paul@PolicePromotion.com

Your Police Promotion Timeline - When Should Preparation Begin?

By Lt. Paul Patti (ret.), Director, Police Career and Promotion Services, LLC — 40+ years of law enforcement promotion expertise.

"Become the kind of officer everyone already expects to be promoted."

- From the Academy Director during my police academy graduation commencement, Miami-Dade Law Enforcement Training Academy, Basic Law Enforcement Class BLE 31, 1976. It stuck with me.

The officers who win their first promotion typically began preparing for it years before the exam was ever announced. The competition is not won in the six months before that very first promotion test day — it is won in the years of daily decisions that came before.

But - when, exactly? Do you start, as some have suggested, on your first day of the police academy? First day of Field Training? First day you come off probation?

The answer to those questions is both yes, and no.

Let me explain.

For over 5 years I was the entry-level personnel processing supervisor for a medium-sized police agency in Southeast Florida. I processed and recommended over 100 new officers to be hired. I made sure each and every one of them, as best as possible, wanted and were qualified for a long, full career in law enforcement. We would ask each candidate in oral interviews if they had thought about and were open to promotion up the ranks - and overwhelmingly the response was "Yes."

The next question stumped most of them - "What have you done to start preparing for promotion?" The typical response from these candidates was something about college classes they were taking or law enforcement books they were reading, or more typically we simply heard "Well, I think I should get hired first."

All were good responses - we wanted to hear some kind of enthusiasm for promotion. What we didn't want was to hear any ridiculous or unrealistic expectations - such as "I've already started preparing - and I'll be a sergeant within 2 years."

Bad answer. You won't be promoted, in all likelihood, within the first 2 years. 5 years is a big "maybe." 7 years - sure, that can be done.

Here's a simple, realistic timeline of what you can expect for an entry-level career trajectory toward your first promotion:

Police Academy - 4 - 8 months.
Field Training - 4 - 8 months - but in large agencies, it may be as long as 18 months.
End of Probationary Period - 1 - 2 years.

NEW - some agencies, following field training, have you enter a "mentorship" or "apprenticeship" phase where you are monitored very closely by a team of Field Training Officers, Senior Officers, and Supervisors, who will stay active in your training and development, and recommend any further training needed. They will shadow your calls and arrests, read your reports, interview other officers, victims and contacts, and sign off on your serious reports and performance evaluations. Since this is still a developing trend, it is hard to tell what the timeline will be, but from 4 months to a full year seems realistic.

Doing the math, that's a minimum of 3 years where you will be trained and monitored very closely.

During this time period - be enthusiastic, productive, and positive. Be a team player, make friendships, get all the training you can, learn from your success as well as your mistakes. BUT don't - DON'T - under any circumstances, start telling every officer and supervisor you meet that you are going to make sergeant in 3 years, or 5 years, or whatever. This training, probation and mentorship phase is not the time for that.

Build the reputation - BEFORE you need it. Every day, you need to display your work ethic, positive attitude, reliability, integrity and willingness to take initiative.

What the department and its members want is this;
Someone 100% dedicated, during these 3 first years of your career, to learning and growing into a well-rounded and exemplary entry level police officer.
You to learn quickly and volunteer for difficult or special assignments, if you feel you are ready. Example - on your day off, you sign up for special traffic enforcement in a school zone.
No citizen complaints - no unreasonable use of force - no needless or illegal arrests.
No off-duty conduct that reflects poorly on you or the police agency.
No repeated, unsafe driving habits.
No repeated, serious violations of officer safety tactics. 
The above 6 items - that's what you need to focus and concentrate on.

So the answer is - yes - and no. You in fact do want to start preparing on DAY 1 - academy welcome day. But you are not going to hang a verbal or figurative sign on your forehead that says "Watch out everyone - here I come - God's gift to law enforcement has arrived -  and I'll be a sergeant in 2 years!"

An officer who graduates from the academy and begins behaving in a promotion-worthy way immediately has a 3–5 year head start on one who only starts thinking about promotion when an exam is posted.

When you are eligible to take your first promotion exam - after year 3 and with good people supporting you - sign that list. But, don't - DON'T - say anything like "I'm just taking it for the experience" or "I know I'm not going to get it, I just want to get familiar with the steps this time around." You may in fact be the best choice of those who pass the process. First time test takers CAN be promoted - if they follow good advice and good study habits, and don't cancel themselves out with the above types of misguided statements.

Realistically - the 3 year mark is "ELIGIBLE" to compete. It's not a guarantee, even if you ace the exams and assessments, that it's going to be you. You may have a lot of competition, a lot of top-notch officers who have been at this much longer than 3 years. So, take the exam, take the process seriously, but be patient, stay focused on your first 3 through 7 years as being the time to set the groundwork, but mostly to be known as a team player - with a bright future.

Officers who build strong performance records, seek out special or difficult assignments, develop mentors, and pursue training and education early in their careers consistently advance faster than those who wait for opportunities to find them.

Here is the typical timeline before an officer can even sit for the exam:
Generally, officers can expect to be eligible for promotion after 3–5 years of service. Some departments require as few as 3 years; others, like Philadelphia, require 4 years before eligibility for the sergeant exam. If the agency includes detective or corporal as a promotion, that is also usually a minimum 3 year requirement.

If you do get your first promotion anywhere within 3 - 7 years, congratulations!

The time to start preparing for that NEXT promotion? Tomorrow.

Some short articles to further understand this topic;
Preparing to Rise Through the Ranks in Law Enforcement
Show You're Ready For Promotion
How Police Officers Can Prepare for a Promotion
Police Promotions  — Climbing the Law Enforcement Ladder
Employee Growth and Succession Planning
Promotional Test Preparation; an Opportunity for Mentorship

Master list of articles and resources: from PolicePromotion.net
Your Police Promotion Timeline — When Should Preparation Begin?
Field Training — Your First Defining Chapter
Building Your Promotional Reputation Over Time
Recordkeeping — Your Evaluations, and Training Documentation
The Two Tracks — Supervision vs. Specialization
The Role of College Education in Law Enforcement
The FTO As an Early Promotion Credential
The Written Promotional Exam — What It Covers and How to Prepare
The Oral Board — the Promotion First-Timer's Biggest Challenge
The In-Basket Exercise — NOT as Easy as You Think!
Assessment Center Exercises — Don't Fear — Prepare!
Making it To The Top — Or — How High is High Enough?
When it's Time to Leave it All Behind — And What to do Next.

Do You REALLY Want the Promotion? — Links to help you prepare for:
Police Corporal
Police Detective
Police Sergeant
Police Lieutenant
Police Captain
Police Administration and Upper Management
Understanding Police Leadership Concepts
Understanding Police Ethical Considerations
Understanding Police Patrol and Field Operations
Understanding Community and Problem-Oriented Policing
Understanding Intelligence-Led Policing
Police Case Law Application with Case Law Pro