Coming to visit

[smithw14]

Greetings!

I am heading up to the Seattle area for a week long visit in March (never been before). I’m scouting out possible cities to re-locate to and work after college (I’m a senior majoring in Criminal Justice at the University of Alabama at Birmingham….3 more months to go!!). I am going to pursue a law enforcement career, at least starting out on the local level. After much research, the Seattle area seemed like an appealing place. I’ve always held the mindset that you never know if you want to live somewhere until you live there for a couple of years, but I am going to cram as much “Seattle” into my system in 9 days as I can!

Of course, I am very interested in talking to officers with the departments there, in particular Seattle, King Co, and Pierce Co. From all I have been reading and researching, they seem like the departments I would be most interested in joining.

As an avid scanner junkie for quite some time, I of course wanted to post on the Washington forum to get some opinions and advice from you guys. (You don’t just have to talk to officers to get good insight about working for the departments – I sure have a ton of insight into many of the departments down here!)

So, here I am – jumping down from the Alabama forum to the Washington forum – in hopes that you guys can give me some tips, advice, and/or opinions. I e-mailed the recruiting offices in Seattle, King, Pierce, and Snohomish the first of this month. Never heard back from King and Pierce, which was a disappointment. I have got some contacts and am going to try to set up ride-alongs with Seattle and Snohomish, but I don’t want to miss out on the other two. Along with your insight on the departments in general, if you guys know the scoop about participating in ride-alongs with Pierce and King Co, please let me know. Also, do I need to try to shoot for a specific beat/precinct? I am sure there are some hot spots and some dead spots. Definitely want to steer clear of the latter!

My final question, and then I will sign off on this novel I am writing here. I read some posts on the forum (although slightly dated) that the whole metro area is on the 800 trunked and can be picked up on the pro-95. Is this still correct? Everybody down here has made or is making the merger to digital, and since I spent a butt-load of money on the Pro-96, I would rather not haul it across the country if I don’t need to.

Thanks in advance!


-William

 

[AuntBee09]

that's cool. i know seattle pd is really trying hard to recrute new officers. you should probably read this article: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003560301_recruiting07m.html

hope that helps. hope you like seattle ttyl

 

[lowboy654]

your 96 is very small so i would think, bring it a long are you kidding me. what do you drive in a tooth pick, that a 96 will not fit in. come on now if you want to be a LEO then just about every county,city and state are looking for a few good people not to mention that feds are to.

 

[blake23]

William,

As far as agencies go, I would put Pierce County SO, King County SO, Snohomish County SO, and Seattle PD as the agencies to work for in that order. Some of the advantages of working for a county agency up here are, take-home car, diverse areas in which to work in, medium to low supervision(read make your own judgments). The downsides are back up can be awhile to arrive, you might get stuck in an area that you don't really want to work in for awhile and with Seattle PD in particular you have to run a lot of things past the sergeant for approval(bookings, in custody arrests etc). King County SO's Field Training Officer program is one of the toughest to get through, the majority of recruits get "washed out" during this phase of their training. Seattle PD is a good agency to work for if you want true inner city action.

My only suggestion is to test everywhere and I mean everywhere. The most important thing is to get your academy(6 months long) under your belt and then worry about what agency you want to lateral to. Some of the smaller agencies around the Seattle Metro area are a good starting point. Lots of exposure to handling calls all the way through from contact to investigating it yourself.

If you would like anymore info feel free to PM me.

Best of Luck

Richard

 

[smithw14]

your 96 is very small so i would think, bring it a long are you kidding me. what do you drive in a tooth pick, that a 96 will not fit in. come on now if you want to be a LEO then just about every county,city and state are looking for a few good people not to mention that feds are to.

lol. Not driving to Seattle from Alabama, my friend. What I was referring to in my post is that I would rather not take the chance of it getting my pro-96 stolen, lost, etc., if my pro-95 would do the trick. Thanks for your comments though.

As far as agencies go, I would put Pierce County SO, King County SO, Snohomish County SO, and Seattle PD as the agencies to work for in that order. Some of the advantages of working for a county agency up here are, take-home car, diverse areas in which to work in, medium to low supervision(read make your own judgments). The downsides are back up can be awhile to arrive, you might get stuck in an area that you don't really want to work in for awhile and with Seattle PD in particular you have to run a lot of things past the sergeant for approval(bookings, in custody arrests etc). King County SO's Field Training Officer program is one of the toughest to get through, the majority of recruits get "washed out" during this phase of their training. Seattle PD is a good agency to work for if you want true inner city action.

My only suggestion is to test everywhere and I mean everywhere. The most important thing is to get your academy(6 months long) under your belt and then worry about what agency you want to lateral to. Some of the smaller agencies around the Seattle Metro area are a good starting point. Lots of exposure to handling calls all the way through from contact to investigating it yourself.

Thanks Richard for your extensive comments - they are very much appreciated! I will try my best to get a ride-along with Pierce and King Counties as well. Do I just need to stop by one of their precincts? SPD officers have to have Sgt approval to make arrests?! Wow. Not much officer discretion there I take it.

-William

 

[blake23]

As far as ride-alongs go, just contact the local precinct(s) for Pierce and King County SO. Explain why you want to go on a ride-along and hope for the best. It depends a lot on who you talk to. They usually approve ride-alongs for people interested in working for their particular agency. King County SO has 4 precincts. Precinct 2 North(Kenmore, WA) Precinct 3 Southeast(Maple Valley, WA) Precinct 4 Southwest(Burien, WA) and Precinct 5 Shoreline PD(Shoreline, WA). They also have several sub stations. The last one is a contract city, if I were to recommend a Precinct I would pick Precinct 4 Southwest, they have a lot go on in that area.

Pierce County SO has 3 Detachments, Mountain, Foothills, Peninsula and two contract cities. Of these I would go with Foothills Detachment. They have a good mix of rural and urban patrol areas.

When you get up here, just call any of those and they will get you in touch with the right person for your request.

And to clarify "SPD officers have to have Sgt approval to make arrests?!" They can make the arrest, they just have to run it by their Sgt. if they are looking to book them into the King County Adult Detention system. They always look at the bottom line as far as booking fees.

Let me know if you need anything further.

Richard

 

[smithw14]

Thanks again Richard. You have been very helpful and informative - I appreciate your insight! I am really looking forward to my trip, and will definitely contact those agencies.

-William