Lethbridge Regional Police Service

Well, for those of you who don't know already, I submitted my application for the Lethbridge Regional Police Service on Wednesday morning this week. I had been working on it for the past week or so, spending a little time here and there looking for phone numbers, addresses and remembering lots of information from my life. I am really excited to be applying for LRPS because I am getting really excited about starting my career. My interest was sparked in submitting my application early when the recruiting officer of the LRPS came to my law class a few weeks earlier and mentioned the LRPS was going to be hiring new members in May, 2011.

When I spoke to one of my instructors at the College, he recommended that I submit my application. He explained to me that if I submitted it now, by the time they hire the new members in May, I will have three out of my four semesters completed at the college. He went on to explain that during recruit training, most of the courses taken would cover the materials taught in the fourth semester of the Criminal Justice program. The only thing I would have to do to receive my diploma would be to do a couple of classes through distance learning. This is one of the reasons why I felt that now was the right time to apply. I have worked too hard towards my education to not receive my diploma, even if the reason was to be hired on with an agency.

For those of you who don't know what is involved in applying for a police agency, I thought I would share a little about what it entails. There are several components of the hiring process. They are mostly similar to the steps which I took when I applied for the RCMP, but Lethbridge has some differences. Before submitting my application, I had to get my eyes and ears checked to make sure everything was still working properly. I was starting to wonder about my ears, because Levi sure has a set of lungs on him! I'm so grateful my eyes are holding out as well! When I had them checked, the optometrist said I technically have 20/15 vision, so I was pretty happy about that.

Other things I had to list is all the places I have lived in the past 10 years, all of my current/past roommates, all of my immediate family members and their information, my employment records for the past 10 years, my credit history, drivers abstract, references, photocopies of all my important documents from school, and a whole lot more I can't remember right now; it's a huge list! To top it off, there is a 65 page personal disclosure form which every applicant fills out which essentially asks you to tell the police service about every mistake you've ever made in your life with regards to the law. This takes forever to fill out! Having to think back on literally a lifetime of experiences and articulating exact dates, circumstances and reasoning was a huge task!

Last Friday, I took the Alberta Communications Test and the Alberta Police Cognitive Abilities Test at the College, and I am so glad to say I passed them! The ACT was not too hard; it was almost all about spelling and grammar, and during my two semesters at Lethbridge College, my English is actually my strong subject. The APCAT was a little trickier. There were alot of things to memorize and think through.

Since I have submitted my application and I have passed the entrance tests, the next step is to run the Alberta Physical Readiness Evaluation for Police test tomorrow at 11:30. I am nervous, but since I have been going to the gym on a regular basis over the last month or so, I am confident I should be able to pass it. The intimidating part is I have never practiced it before, as the municipal police agencies of Alberta have a copyright on the actual test and will only allow applicants to run it. If anyone is interested in seeing what the APREP is, check out this link: http://calgarypolicenews.typepad.com/cps_recruiting/videos/#tp . Click on the video that says APREP video link at the top of the page.

Well, that's kind of where I am sitting right now with the application process so far. The next step, as far as I know, will be to go for my Personal Disclosure Interview and then a panel interview in front of three to four officers who will question me about my experiences from my past and how I will be a benefit to the organization. That's not intimidating at all!

Well, that was sure a mouth full to get out! If I rambled, it's because I was rushing to get this out before I have to be off working on something else. Nysha suggested I should start writing on the family blog so people know what's going on with my application. If you've got questions, or anything you don't understand, I would love to answer them. I like being able to share with others what is going on in my classes or with the application process, because most people I know have never had the opportunity to learn it. Hopefully I'll be writing another post soon about what's happening next.