I'd like to ask you a few things if you where or are.

1. Did it help you get a PD job after you got out of the military or is it helping you get one?
2. Is MP a good thing to go in to if you want to get on a PD.

I was told by recruiters not to go in to being an MP because PD don't like to have to retrain you. I'd like to know how you guys fell about this or know about this. Thanks

btt

I was an MP for 3 years.
3 of the 8 guys I work with were MP's of some sort.

It isn't the best military job, look forward to 14 hour shifts. It might give you a taste of what being a LEO is like. Maybe you'll be able to decide if it is something you want to pursue as a civilian career.

Whether or not it will help, depends on the attitiude of the Dept. you apply to. But most Depts. will look favorably on honorable armed forces service. Don't overlook the National Guard or Reserves.

What would be more helpful is a degree in Police Sciences or Criminal Justice and an ability to speak spanish.

Of course if you have military service, a degree, and can speak spanish. Not to mention other skills like EMT that a PD may look favorably on, your chances of being hired get much better.

You would probably have an advantage the more you are over 21, PD's seem to have less favorable results when people without job histories, or life experience are hired.

As far as a PD saying we won't retrain an MP.......never heard that mindset.

Also be prepared to take a job in po-dunk, get some job experience before you can get to a more desirable employer.

tayous....Remember one thing and one thing only...Recruiters are idiots....plain unadulterated idiots. I started off my career as a SP for the USAF....Spent many an hour humping the Alert Pad around BUFFS and Tankers. Ct'd to LE. Left those fields and into another one. When I ETS'd the PD's here in California went nuts for former LE's,SPS's, MP's and the rest. At this very moment, if you have a military background and are honorably discharged, you have it made...unless you're a complete twit. The last few guy's hired and sent through the academy at my agency were all vets in LE fields. Go for it.

Well I found at [url]http://search.usajobs.opm.gov/wfjic/cgi-bin/wwcgi.dll?WFJIC~WFJICSearch~TL[/url] That the Army have opening for the MP you get to chose where you would like to be located and also can get up to a 20K bonus that is why I was looking at it I was also looking at the Firefighter job the Army has also.

btt

btt

It seems to help a lot of people I was in with (I became a lawyer instead)
MPs work too much and start on strange (police) drinking habits, as compared to standard military jobs.
One note of caution, many chiefs will not hire someone in the reserves (even though they are breaking the law) because they want you able to work your schedule with only your vacation and sick time off. The military thing really throws them a curve, in particular the weekend stuff.

U.S. Marine Corps Military Police (1996-2000).  I was lucky and got assigned to garrison duty (as opposed to field).  So basically I was like any other police patrol officer (Camp Pendleton is pretty much its own city), as opposed to being a grunt with a badge.  The 10% veteran's preference was definitely a plus when I got hired as a civilian LEO.  Plus, my police experience helped me breeze through the oral board.  Nobody cared about the whole "retraining" issue.  All you really need to learn different is the phonetic alphabet and local laws as opposed to the UCMJ.  If you're thinking about going Army, don't plan on being a full-time garrison MP.  I believe they all do field rotations.  Bottom line, in my opinion, if you want to get some basic police skills as well as some military experience, and you can get an MP guarantee, then I say go for it.

SeMPer Fi

If you go Army MP, make sure you're 95B and not 95C.

I changed MOS from 19K (Armor Crewman) to 95B with an eye toward getting into LE.  I got orders to the USDB in Ft. Leavenworth, KS, and worked as a prison guard instead of being a regular MP.

Unless you want to be a prison guard, that job really kind of sucked.

Speaking of the only maximum security military prison, anybody seen "The Last Castle" yet?  They got the unit patch and the look of the prison right, but that's about it.  Entertaining, though.

Ex-95B (amongst other things), LEO for past 9 years.  The more "police-type" experience of any kind you can talk about in the oral boards will help.

My department didn't care if I was in the Reserves, but its not a small department.  I'd also suggest you attend college courses (and anything else that sounds cop'ish) while serving.

My department didn't worry about the 're-training' factor.  That was taken care of during the 16 week FTO program after the six month long police academy.

I also think the discipline you will learn from the military makes you a better candidate for a LEO career.  Immature people dont make good cops, or last long on departments.  There are TOO many temptations, they eventually do something that gets them $hit-canned!

Hey, good luck.

I was an SP/LE in the Air force when they still seperated the two (1994-1998) and the thing I liked about the AF besides the food, living conditions, and treatment was the variety.  
I mean I was A patrolman when I was in the States and A member of the EST team (SWAT) when I went overseas I was doing ant-terrorism, dignitary protection force protection and a lot of other cool stuff.  We had LE's that are stinger qualified 81 mm mortar qualified and heavy weapons qualed.  it is the best of both worlds you run radar in the states go to domestics that sort of thing and in kuwait you are calling in forward air strikes with the TACP's and putting the MK19 through its paces on the tank farm by basra.  then at the end of the day we are having steak and shrimp at the chow hall (the other branches hate this).  I did not want to be a cop when I got out so now I am a nuclear Security officer.  cant believe I get paid what I do to play on the internet and watch cameras.  If you have any questions about the AF let me know I still have a lot of friend that stayed in.

john