...just wondering, if this should be deleted (Not moved to GD) because people ask this allot go ahead. I read the FAQs and stickies.

Wanted some advice from you guys who are already LEOs...a little background first. I am a college graduate, mid 20s, and fit 95% of most department qualifications. I never wanted to be an LEO growing up, but after I realized EMS/FF/LEOs aren't all lifers and aren't all kids who grew up dreaming to be one every day; I decided that it could be for me. I started looking about three years ago after graduating from college but I was stopped short by my accepting a regular office job which was in my college degree field; and another issue which I will outline later.

My questions, which may spawn opinionated answers and some scorn from hard liners...

I don't have a desire to work in a large department, as in a main city, huge county, or any place with exceptionally bad areas. My choices would be my local PD from the large college I graduated from, the small cities in the area, or a larger but more diverse agency such as the Fish and Wildlife sworn officers. Is this line of thinking a 'flag' for anyone?

I partied in college. I admit it. I am extremely honest and will disclose anything I have ever done and accept responsibility for everything. I tried the green stuff one time in college, and did my share of beer drinking. I have since graduated, moved on, hold a full-time 8-5 job with salary and benefits. My work ethic and references reflect this. I have answered truthfully on all department applications in the past and even got a call back from one department (Even before the 3 year period from doing these things was up). Even after the 3 year waiting period for most local PD's, will this still affect my hiring forever?

And as stated above, I did not grow up wanting to do it. It was within the last years of college I had wanted to, and is being reinforced now by me being stuck in an office all day. I want to do field work and do something I enjoy doing.

Yes, I understand that by saying all this it may seem that I want to be an LEO but dont want to 'do' an LEOs job, or 'do allot'. That is not that case. I want to do my duty, and serve, and 'do' under the department and in an area that means something to me. My alma mater university and the surrounding area mean something to me, so does wildlife and conservation.

I understand the job, the wait times, the grunt work, the paperwork, the academy period, the people, the surroundings, and that not every cop is an angel from the factory. I still want to pursue it, but worry that the issues above will derail my goal...or if what I want will not be fulfilled by being an LEO.

Sounds like you will do fine to me. The one time smoking weed in college thing won't be an issue if that is all that happened. As far as red flags, no. I get red flags usually from the people who want to know how they can get hired and go immediately into SWAT or something like that. Good luck

Nothing in your post concerns me.  As long as you articulate your thoughts well in verbal interviews I don't think you'll have any problems. I would plan ahead for how you're going to say things in the verbal interviews, though.  Blurting "I don't want to work anywhere with a lot of crime" would be bad.  Saying that you like the area and the small-town lifestyle would be better.

You sound like an adult, so I am not going to tell you what you should do.  If you really spend some time on it, you will either know you want to do this or not; however, I can tell you if you don't have a hard drive for service or commitment to this job, these things will wear you down quickly.  People who don't do the job say they understand this is part of it, but frankly you don't get a really good feel for how much of the negative, unpleasant, boring and stupid crap you have to do instead of what you would like to be doing.  This probably won't hit home or make sense until you have either done it or gone on a lot of ride outs, but frankly I don't think this is a job to get into just because you don't want to be tied to an office or are hoping for something more adventuresome.  

A position with parks in wildlife might be different, can't say since I have never done that.  

Good luck, keep us updated.  No reason to delete this or more it to the GD in my opinion.

+1

Try looking into other LEO professions as well like probation/parole etc. if you don't have a real desire to deal with the "street."  Regardless, good luck.

Why dont you want to work a busy area? thats how you learn!

I don't see any problem with you getting into LE.  Not everyone wants to work for a big department (I know I don't, at least not any more, I'm quite happy with the medium-small department I work for now).  Don't let smaller departments fool you though, they all deal with every crime you can think of, the smaller ones just do so less often.  You are actually more likely to get a broader spectrum of experiences at a smaller department where you are expected to handle more calls start to finish, rather than handing it off to a detective or specialized unit.  On the other hand, you won't get as much as fast as you will in a big city.

I didn't want to be a cop my whole life either.  I decided to go into police work when I was 19, by the time I was 23 I was sworn in.  I was planning on being a cop for 5 years or so as it seemed like a good experience to have.  I was going to move on to something else after that.  I'm now 15 years in and I can't imagine doing anything else.  It does get in your blood.

The part in red would mildly concern me but then there are lots of officers curently working that have that same mind set.  

Other than a small concern about that, the rest doesn't concern me.