The police oral board began as a means of getting multiple professional opinions of a candidate's qualifications for the job. Instead of conducting a number of separate interviews, the oral board was conceived as a means to achieve multiple interviews at the same time. A law enforcement candidate is placed in a room with a number of either command- or supervisory-level officers or agents. A discussion occurs in which questions are posed to the candidate and the answers are evaluated from different perspectives. There is no script, no prescribed set of rules, and no particular sequence of events, other than the candidate sits on one side of a table and the board sits on the other.

The candidate chair is usually positioned in the middle of the room, set back from the table where the examiners are seated. This places the applicant in the open with nothing behind which to hide. Whenever possible, the door to the room is positioned behind the candidate. The candidate knows it is there, but never knows if someone is standing there observing the proceedings. To those who endure this ritual, it seems almost the equivalent of being stripped naked and placed in a room where everyone else is fully clothed and has the added security of a large table in front of them.

A simple definition of an oral board is a formal interview of a law enforcement candidate that includes questioning by multiple interviewers. Questions are not confined to the personal history of the applicant, and can cross the boundaries of the theoretical, and even venture into pure fantasy. The purpose of this kind of examination is to place the candidate in as many uncomfortable positions as possible, and see how she reacts. All of the military bearing and decorum in the world can quickly melt into a hail of emotion as individuals are put through the wringer. It is not normally a name-calling session or a gathering where potential employers yell and scream at the applicant in an attempt to intimidate him, but it can be.