When you are researching different law enforcement agencies, pay special attention to the individual hiring practices of each agency, because they are not universal. If the job is a civil-service job, the candidate must first complete the process for eligibility under the civil-service testing process. The hiring agency will certainly be able to direct applicants on how to qualify, or they can contact the governmental level that oversees the agency (town, city, county, or state government agencies, or the U.S. Department of Labor for federal agencies).

The civil-service system is one in which a qualifying examination is given to make sure that candidates meet the minimum intelligence and/or experience standards for the job. The civil-service examination tests reading comprehension and mathematics ability, and is monitored closely to make certain that those taking the test are in fact who they claim to be. Anyone seeking civil-service employment must be able to function if hired for a public position, and this scrutiny during the testing process ensures that civil-service workers can read and write in English at a minimum standard.

If the agency or department is one that uses the civil-service process, it is likely that there will be a hiring ratio based on nonobjective criteria. Affirmative action is a federal program that is often incorporated or used in conjunction with the civil-service process. It is a program in which gender and ethnic minorities are given a weighted consideration for jobs. The controversial problem with this system is that individuals who might be less qualified are hired ahead of those who are presumed to be better suited for a job or, at minimum, in line for a position ahead of the minority member. Originally implemented to overcome the racial discrimination targeted against blacks, virtually all ethnic minorities and women were eventually included under the affirmative action program.

Getting inside information about the agency being applied to is not as difficult as it may seem. Whether it is a large federal operation or a small-town department, there are plenty of ways to find out the inside scoop if you're creative.

One of the most obvious ways is to walk in the front door of the agency and ask. That might sound silly, but it does demonstrate a certain amount of courage on the part of the applicant. Unfortunately, it's unlikely that this approach will be met with a great deal of success for a variety of reasons. The standard of fairness applies throughout law enforcement, and for this reason the only information that is readily accessible is that which is openly available to everyone. Insider information is seldom given, not only due to the fairness issue, but because there is an underlying belief among agencies that all applicants should start at the same place. This is one of the ways to ensure that the subsequent assessment process yields the most qualified candidates, because they all had the same information to start with.

Approaching members of the law enforcement community is alright if the applicant personally knows that agent. But more often than not, officers are reluctant to talk to “outsiders” until they know who they are talking with and the purpose of the questioning. Officers have a tendency to consider the flow of information a one-way street, coming from those outside the agency toward the agency. For this reason, they are unlikely to be a good source of insider information.

This brings into sharp relief one of the primary differences between law enforcement personnel and people who are not in law enforcement. Agents and officers tend to play their cards close to their chests. This means that they are not quick to expose any personal or system vulnerabilities to non-law enforcement members, for fear that a perceived weakness will somehow be exploited to the detriment of the officer or law enforcement in general. Whether these fears are baseless or not has no bearing on the reality that law enforcement tends to be a closed fraternity whose members only reluctantly share information with outsiders.