Your preparation for promotion begins the day you graduate the academy. It starts with the basic elements of policing and is enhanced every day thereafter. Even though there are no vacancies, you should continue to study your craft daily. You should be building your occupational foundation for future goals and challenges. This is a career - learning should be a natural and continual process. Unfortunately for some, promotional preparation only begins when the test announcement is posted. This is much akin to being good in December and hoping that Santa did not see the other months.
My goal here is to offer some tips from my observations regarding the preparation for any promotional opportunity. First and foremost, never pass-up the opportunity to take the test and/or process. Even if you feel you do not have a shot, take the test to acquaint yourself to this process. The time that you are ready, you have gained experience and should perform even better. That being said, always give it your all! No ‘just trying’, for you never know – always give it your best!
Read and understand the process. There will be deadlines, applications or a letter of intent to respond to. Review and refine your resume, some departments will ask for it. Review your training files and Human Resources files. Ensure all of your commendations, letters and information are there. Your files will more than likely be reviewed, make sure they are accurate and complete. Know the game rules of the process. If you have questions, seek out the answers and never assume.
Some agencies or academies will offer classes on how to improve your performance during promotional assessment centers. If this is offered - take it. Gain every tactical advantage you can get over the others. Many will scoff and not attend. Assessment centers to me are performance incubators to observe you under pressure. The role play you will be subjected to is real as possible, the assessors will separate the pretenders from the contenders. Not the time to be a comedian, treat it real and be yourself.
Some processes will offer a reading list of books, periodicals or white papers. Get them and READ them. In addition to their reading list (if they offer one), here are some suggested topics to review before the testing.
Rules, regulations, and SOP’s – you must review all these to sharpen your understanding of the workings of the department. Sure, they are on your workstation or even on your mobile data terminal, it is important to know how to find them. Your overall knowledge base to their applicability is key here. You may not have them at your fingertips during the test.
Pay particular note to the duties of the new rank that you are seeking. For instance, a patrol sergeant will have expanded duties on critical incidents. Look for these within polices for they are sure to come up. If your department has had a recent high-profile incident, you can be assured these policies will be in the mix as well.
Human Resources – the higher the rank that you seek, the more employee relations will be injected. Do you know your employee assistance program? How do you get an officer in need to the right people? Should you work in a union environment, how well are you versed with your collective bargaining agreement (CBA)? Any of these could be parts of a complex personnel question that you will field.
Flavor de jour or Hot Topic of the Year – what is your chief’s or sheriff’s hot button? Could it be community outreach or predictive policing or accreditation…find out and study it! I can assure you that when the executive puts their spin on the process, their flavor of the month will be on it. If you can reasonably inject this topic within the framework of an oral response you should gain points. Granted some of these are above your current work status. Remember you are seeking a higher rank who may or will routinely deal with this topic.
Public Speaking- you will have an oral board before a dais. Practice your oral responses to questions and remember your body language. The higher rank processes may have to conduct a press conference, with the assessors’ acting as the media. Chiefs’ assessments may have a staff meeting or even a presentation to the elected officials. Public speaking is probably the most feared activity of every cop.
Work on your oral communication skills. Body language, filler words, hopeless fiddling with paper and total fear of speaking have ruined many candidates’ hopes. Have a trusted person ask questions and practice framing them. Should you have an opportunity to take a public speaking course, do it. You may be asked to introduce yourself to a panel – do you have your ‘this is me’ speech ready? Prepare for some personal and personality-based questions: ‘why should we promote you’ for example.
Seek out a trusted officer who has had the test before – pick their minds on what you should know and work on. Listen to what they have to tell you and place yourself in that position- are you ready for this? If you know the framework and end game of the process you should be able to plan and practice your responses. This is not cheating or trying to find out the test questions. Every process is different, the responses will change to the changing face of law enforcement and its issues. The way a question was answered in 1995 will not fully be applicable today.
Know Yourself – what are your strengths and weaknesses. There are some natural born test takers and some fear all written components. Some excel with public speaking and others are naturally quiet. Know where you are strong, still sharpen this edge. However, find out your weak spot(s), that chink in your armor- work on it!
Do not listen to nay-sayers – Of course you will have your patrol buddies that are not taking the test and telling you it is a waste of time. You know what you are capable of and their frat house antics should not sway you – stay the course.
Ask yourself the question – do I really what this job? Recall the effort you put in for the job and graduating the academy. You know you can do this. Put your best into this process, you will never know until you try. By the way – Good Luck!
William L. Harvey | Chief
William L. "Bill" Harvey is a U.S. Army Military Police Corps veteran. He has a BA in criminology from St. Leo University and is a graduate of the Southern Police Institute of the University of Louisville (103rd AOC). Harvey served for over 23 years with the Savannah (GA) Police Department in field operations, investigations and completed his career as the director of training. Served as the chief of police of the Lebanon City Police Dept (PA) for over seven years and then ten years as Chief of Police for the Ephrata Police Dept (PA). In retirement he continues to publish for professional periodicals and train.
