Ride-alongs

[Stcoon]

Greetings everyone,

I plan to pursue a career in law enforcement once I graduate college. I am interested in going on "ride-alongs" with CHP or the local police department. Are there certain requirements to be given such a privilege or certain steps I need to take?

Thank you for your time. I was going to call the local department and ask, but I didn't know if that was appropriate.

[epilepticninja]

Some dept's won't take ride-alongs unless you are an employee of the city/county the agency is affiliated with. Some dept's will take ride-alongs, you just have to fill out a request form. Call the agency you are interested in riding with and see what they say. Now, with that said, here's the caveat. Ride-alongs are all about who you get to go with. If you get a slug, you are going to be bored out of your mind. If you get a good, pro-active cop, then you are going to have some fun. That is the crap shoot.

[696k]

For us you have to have some displayed interest in LE work. We get college kids working on course material as well as applicants or future applicants and sometimes just citizens of the city who want to see what we do.

Call you local Agency and ask about their requirements. I can't speak to the CHP or the county but most agencies have some form of ride along available. Another thing to look into is a "Citizen's academy" these are about 8 weeks long (you meet once a week) and you are given a peek at the inside workings of LE such as range simulators, CSI, narco investigations, patrol and on and on...

Lots of people love to attend and the public as a whole gets a better perspective of the world in which we work. And I have to echo the sentiment of Nija up above. You don't get to pick who you ride with. You may get the young hard charging new guy/gal or the totally burned out I hate everybody cop ( which I hope you don't). Just don't base your entire decision off of one ride.

Other than that go out and have fun. I sure do.

[ElvenSoul]

Have you talked to any depts....most have a long waiting list these days to get jobs.

[2Cute2Shoot]

Greetings everyone,

I plan to pursue a career in law enforcement once I graduate college. I am interested in going on "ride-alongs" with CHP or the local police department. Are there certain requirements to be given such a privilege or certain steps I need to take?

Thank you for your time. I was going to call the local department and ask, but I didn't know if that was appropriate.

No, there is no requirement!!!! You should do it, it is so awesome! How old are you now? You should call and ask if they have a cadet program or something like that too!! It is sooo fun

[Falconis]

Only other suggestion I can make is try to go on ride alongs with several different cities/agencies. Depending on where you live, you'll get a wide range of "sights" to see when you ride and get the different perspectives.

[34marine]

Greetings everyone,

I plan to pursue a career in law enforcement once I graduate college. I am interested in going on "ride-alongs" with CHP or the local police department. Are there certain requirements to be given such a privilege or certain steps I need to take?

Thank you for your time. I was going to call the local department and ask, but I didn't know if that was appropriate.

CHP will take you on a ride-along...no strings attached. Its a good way for potential "officers" to find out just what we do, being that the vast majority of people seem we can only write traffic tickets. Visit your local office and inquiry, or you can call the public phone numbers during business hours. You may or may not need to be in the application process currently, depending on the individual areas.

[Stcoon]

Wow, thank you all for your responses!

This is my first week on calguns.net and that was my first post. The feedback was very useful and quick. I will follow much of the above advice come Tuesday after school.

Response to a few above. I am 24, and I live in Humboldt County.

[Notorious]

Just call around. The Sheriff and your local city PD should have a program or if not, they will tell you. I went on a few ride-alongs with the local PD where I lived when I was still going to college. The officer I rode with is now police chief of that department. Ain't that something?

They will also tell you the rules so don't worry about finding out what to expect here. We don't know. Nobody knows unless they work for that agency. Even then, they might not know. Heck, we allow ride-alongs but I don't know all the rules either. I've never taken one in my current agency. I've taken a few in my last agency but those were applicants... so it's a bit different than for a civilian observer.