SFPD Hiring process

[jld557]

Hello,
Are there any SFPD officers on here that I could ask some questions about the end of the hiring process either on this thread or through PM?

Thanks for your time in advance, and thank you for your service

-J

[dubs02]

I sent in my background report almost 2 years ago....and all I get is an email every couple months asking if I am still interested in the position and that I'm next in line...haha and yet I still see signs about how they are hiring

[jld557]

I sent in my background report almost 2 years ago....and all I get is an email every couple months asking if I am still interested in the position and that I'm next in line...haha and yet I still see signs about how they are hiring

Huh Are you sure your list hasn't expired by now? I stopped getting those emails after I finished my psych and medical. The wait sucks, lots of anxiety haha

[sfpcservice]

I think if you weigh over 100 lbs you will be disqualified.

[Ralston]

I don't know anything about you personally or with your desire to work at SFPD, but from what I've learned from the people who worked there and left came to my agency, and the people that I currently work with covering on calls that are still there, they seem to dislike that place and morale is really really low.

[jld557]

I don't know anything about you personally or with your desire to work at SFPD, but from what I've learned from the people who worked there and left came to my agency, and the people that I currently work with covering on calls that are still there, they seem to dislike that place and morale is really really low.

Thanks for the reply, I appreciate the insight. I'm pretty set on working in SF, I really love the city and in a sense it's my dream job, but hopefully I'll at least get a chance to see how it is for myself.

[Ralston]

Good luck and be safe.

[jld557]

Thank you, hope you stay safe as well

[JM2012]

Thanks for the reply, I appreciate the insight. I'm pretty set on working in SF, I really love the city and in a sense it's my dream job, but hopefully I'll at least get a chance to see how it is for myself.

Go try and talk to a wide variety of SFPD officers, with various tenure. I have ten years in law enforcement, the last four of those with the SFPD. I cannot recommend the SFPD to those interested in a serious career in law enforcement. It is a zero defect environment where mistakes are never an issue, until there's a complaint (either internal or external), and then you are judged harshly by the precise language of either a 20 year old general order, or a department bulletin that is one of hundreds issued every year, and kept in a format that is not searchable for content, and therefore extremely hard to reference from the comfort of a staton, much less the field. Yet you are expected to have memorized the precise language of every general order and every Department Bulletin issued in the past two years.

Decisions about your working conditions will be made on the basis of the desires of those community members who scream the loudest. They are rarely thoroughly and completely considered prior to implementation. At best, those decisions will make your job harder; at worst, they make it more dangerous. I'd be happy to provide you a dozen examples via PM.

Most people gain job satisfaction from job mastery. That means getting to the point in your career when you pretty much have it "on lock" and can go through your day making the correct decisions and feeling pretty good about the work you've done. Not in the SFPD. There is an incredible amount of disinformation, lack of training, and disagreement on the implementation of law, police procedure, and Department policies. Almost daily, you will make decisions that you know are in line with the law, proper police procedure, and Department policy -- only to be told that you're wrong. And even when you can prove that you're right, with a policy in black and white, that won't be enough. You'll be insulted, spoken over, and told, "just do it my way." If you ever get to a sense of having mastered your job, it'll be destroyed as soon as you promote, transfer assignments, or get a new batch of sergeants transferred in to your station.

The solution? Stop working. Many, many, many SFPD officers do little to no proactive police work. They handle their calls for service, call supervisors for guidance on everything (since knowing and implementing the written policy means nothing if your boss disagrees), and generally try to minimize their internal and external liability.

If you want to really do police work, go to an agency that places an emphasis on solid training, sound legal reasoning, adherence to their own policies, and understands that cops are expected to make the best decisions they can in tense, uncertain, and rapidly evolving situations.

The SFPD has a lot of cops by the "golden handcuffs." The pay is great and time off is generally plentiful, which makes it hard to leave, since those two things directly benefit your family. Yet the working conditions are horrible and job satisfaction is generally low, at least for those working cops who actually like hunting down bad guys and putting good, solid cases together.

[non sequitur]

San Francisco

Go try and talk to a wide variety of SFPD officers, with various tenure. I have ten years in law enforcement, the last four of those with the SFPD. I cannot recommend the SFPD to those interested in a serious career in law enforcement. It is a zero defect environment where mistakes are never an issue, until there's a complaint (either internal or external), and then you are judged harshly by the precise language of either a 20 year old general order, or a department bulletin that is one of hundreds issued every year, and kept in a format that is not searchable for content, and therefore extremely hard to reference from the comfort of a staton, much less the field. Yet you are expected to have memorized the precise language of every general order and every Department Bulletin issued in the past two years.

Decisions about your working conditions will be made on the basis of the desires of those community members who scream the loudest. They are rarely thoroughly and completely considered prior to implementation. At best, those decisions will make your job harder; at worst, they make it more dangerous. I'd be happy to provide you a dozen examples via PM.

Most people gain job satisfaction from job mastery. That means getting to the point in your career when you pretty much have it "on lock" and can go through your day making the correct decisions and feeling pretty good about the work you've done. Not in the SFPD. There is an incredible amount of disinformation, lack of training, and disagreement on the implementation of law, police procedure, and Department policies. Almost daily, you will make decisions that you know are in line with the law, proper police procedure, and Department policy -- only to be told that you're wrong. And even when you can prove that you're right, with a policy in black and white, that won't be enough. You'll be insulted, spoken over, and told, "just do it my way." If you ever get to a sense of having mastered your job, it'll be destroyed as soon as you promote, transfer assignments, or get a new batch of sergeants transferred in to your station.

The solution? Stop working. Many, many, many SFPD officers do little to no proactive police work. They handle their calls for service, call supervisors for guidance on everything (since knowing and implementing the written policy means nothing if your boss disagrees), and generally try to minimize their internal and external liability.

If you want to really do police work, go to an agency that places an emphasis on solid training, sound legal reasoning, adherence to their own policies, and understands that cops are expected to make the best decisions they can in tense, uncertain, and rapidly evolving situations.

The SFPD has a lot of cops by the "golden handcuffs." The pay is great and time off is generally plentiful, which makes it hard to leave, since those two things directly benefit your family. Yet the working conditions are horrible and job satisfaction is generally low, at least for those working cops who actually like hunting down bad guys and putting good, solid cases together.

^^^ THIS!

I worked SF for many years & lateraled out in 2008, and never looked back. I do miss my old coworkers but I do not miss the SF politics. Good luck OP.

[dubs02]

Huh Are you sure your list hasn't expired by now? I stopped getting those emails after I finished my psych and medical. The wait sucks, lots of anxiety haha

lol I hope the list didn't expire seeing as I am still waiting to do the psych and medical...what a Joke of a hiring process if you ask me...oh well I guess will sit around and wait to see when they feel like getting back to us, yet blast us with their "sfpd now Hiring" signs everywhere

[Atomic Donut]

I applied at SFPD over 2 two years ago and didn't immediately hear back from them. Since then I have been hired and on with another agency for a while and I am barely receiving emails from SF about the Q2 test or whatever their qualifying entry test is. Now that I have a little bit of experience under my belt, you couldn't pay me enough to work there.

Just be aware, as much as you may love a city or it's people, everything changes once you put that badge on. I have walked down streets with a military shirt on and people have thanked me for my service, then walked down the very same street in uniform and been called a pig and a-hole by the same groups..

My advice, do ride alongs. While on them ask the officers if they like it there, if the department backs them, moral...etc With what's going on in LE today, the most important factors to consider good policy that will protect you, and leadership that will back your decisions as long as they are reasonable. Just something to consider when looking deciding what agency to apply for.

[RedVines]

Go try and talk to a wide variety of SFPD officers, with various tenure. I have ten years in law enforcement, the last four of those with the SFPD. I cannot recommend the SFPD to those interested in a serious career in law enforcement. It is a zero defect environment where mistakes are never an issue, until there's a complaint (either internal or external), and then you are judged harshly by the precise language of either a 20 year old general order, or a department bulletin that is one of hundreds issued every year, and kept in a format that is not searchable for content, and therefore extremely hard to reference from the comfort of a staton, much less the field. Yet you are expected to have memorized the precise language of every general order and every Department Bulletin issued in the past two years.

Decisions about your working conditions will be made on the basis of the desires of those community members who scream the loudest. They are rarely thoroughly and completely considered prior to implementation. At best, those decisions will make your job harder; at worst, they make it more dangerous. I'd be happy to provide you a dozen examples via PM.

Most people gain job satisfaction from job mastery. That means getting to the point in your career when you pretty much have it "on lock" and can go through your day making the correct decisions and feeling pretty good about the work you've done. Not in the SFPD. There is an incredible amount of disinformation, lack of training, and disagreement on the implementation of law, police procedure, and Department policies. Almost daily, you will make decisions that you know are in line with the law, proper police procedure, and Department policy -- only to be told that you're wrong. And even when you can prove that you're right, with a policy in black and white, that won't be enough. You'll be insulted, spoken over, and told, "just do it my way." If you ever get to a sense of having mastered your job, it'll be destroyed as soon as you promote, transfer assignments, or get a new batch of sergeants transferred in to your station.

The solution? Stop working. Many, many, many SFPD officers do little to no proactive police work. They handle their calls for service, call supervisors for guidance on everything (since knowing and implementing the written policy means nothing if your boss disagrees), and generally try to minimize their internal and external liability.

If you want to really do police work, go to an agency that places an emphasis on solid training, sound legal reasoning, adherence to their own policies, and understands that cops are expected to make the best decisions they can in tense, uncertain, and rapidly evolving situations.

The SFPD has a lot of cops by the "golden handcuffs." The pay is great and time off is generally plentiful, which makes it hard to leave, since those two things directly benefit your family. Yet the working conditions are horrible and job satisfaction is generally low, at least for those working cops who actually like hunting down bad guys and putting good, solid cases together.

JM2012 nailed it, especially about the golden handcuffs. This is SF. Every segment of the citizenry hates you. Bosses that have zero street time.Policy gets changed on the fly because of bad publicity. Brass will throw cops under the bus just to appease special interest groups. Incompetent cowards make it into the dept because of politics and nepotism. The mantra of "if you do nothing you can do nothing wrong" resonates with a lot of working cops that have been burned by the dept. and who can blame them. the dept is more concerned about PR and risk management than law enforcement. You like the city? Do not join the SFPD.

[Blade Gunner]

JM2012 nailed it, especially about the golden handcuffs. This is SF. Every segment of the citizenry hates you. Bosses that have zero street time.Policy gets changed on the fly because of bad publicity. Brass will throw cops under the bus just to appease special interest groups. Incompetent cowards make it into the dept because of politics and nepotism. The mantra of "if you do nothing you can do nothing wrong" resonates with a lot of working cops that have been burned by the dept. and who can blame them. the dept is more concerned about PR and risk management than law enforcement. You like the city? Do not join the SFPD.

The only "Safe" job at SFPD is motors.

[RedVines]

The only "Safe" job at SFPD is motors.

More like the marine unit