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Posts Tagged ‘Career’

How does one actually become a law enforcement helicopter of fixed wing pilot? This is a question asked by many young people who one day aspire to be a pilot, or more specifically a law enforcement pilot. The standard answer you will hear, is that most police agencies “hire their pilots from within.” This is true for the most part but let’s take a closer look at this possible career choice. Another related question I see often is how much do law enforcement pilots make?

Indeed there are some agencies who hire civilian pilots. We will take a closer look at this in a future article.

First let’s look at where most of the law enforcment pilots are found in the United States. By far the vast majority are found in state and local law enforcement agencies. In other words your local police and sheriff’s department, or your state highway patrol. Yes there are a number of federal agencies who employee pilots, but the vast majority are local law enforcement agencies.

Take LAPD (Los Angeles Police Department) for example. They operate approximately 18 aircraft, most of which are helicopters, and have somewhere in the neighborhood of 70 people assigned to their aviation unit. They are one of the largest law enforcement aviation units in the country, if not the largest.

I probably don’t have to tell you that the helicopter dominates the law enforcement aircraft inventory, though many agencies will operate one or two fixed wing aircraft for prisoner transports and surveillance operations. So the majority of law enforcement pilots are helicopter pilots.

The vast majority of agencies do in fact take their sworn officers and deputies, and either train them in house, or send them to flight school to obtain their helicopter pilot license. Why do they do it this way instead of just hiring people who are already pilots? Well I can’t answer for every agency, but suffice it to say that the majority do, do it this way and they have for many years.

So how long would you have to spend on the ground as a patrol officer before being able to transfer into a law enforcement air unit? This varies significantly from agency to agency. There is usually a minimum amount of time, such as 2 or 4 years, and then there is the actual time and experience you will need in order to be competetive for such a position. I know of some law enforcement officers who were able to transfer into their air units with as little as 5 or 6 years on the department.

About that pay. Most law enforcement pilots do receive a premium pay for being a pilot in the air unit. However, all you really need to do is look at the salary of a law enforcement officer on a large department with about 10 years on. This will give you a good idea of what a law enforcement pilot makes. Depending on the part of the country I would estimate most law enforcement pilots are making ,000 to ,000 at a minimum. Some make much more. Ultimately, law enforcement and law enforcement pilot are excellent and rewarding career choices.

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Have you always wanted to work in law enforcement? There are more jobs in law enforcement than just working as a police officer or a corrections office. If you get a Law Enforcement Administration degree you can work in one of the many exciting support roles that are vital to the success of law enforcement. Having a Law Enforcement Administration degree will give you more options than you would have without a Law Enforcement Administration Degree if you want to work in the law enforcement field. If you have a Law Enforcement Administration degree you can learn how police stations and sheriff’s office run and how to manage those offices effectively. A police station or sheriff’s office is useless to the public if it is not run well so it’s very important to local police stations and sheriff’s offices that they have a person in charge that has a Law Enforcement Administration degree. Do you have what it takes to get a Law Enforcement Administration degree? Having great managerial skills is important for getting a Law Enforcement Administration degree. Being a good leader and being comfortable taking charge are also important skills that you need to have in order to be a good law enforcement administrator. If you have previous managerial experience or if you are comfortable playing a leadership role in an office situation then you would probably have no trouble getting a Law Enforcement Administration Degree.

If you already work in law enforcement but want to take your career to the next level and feel like you need additional education and training in order to reach that next level of success getting a Law Enforcement Administration degree is a good way to give yourself more career options. Once you have a Law Enforcement Administration degree you can apply for a managerial job within a police station or sheriff’s office or you can use that Degree in Law Enforcement Administration as a springboard to go on and study other areas of criminal justice and law enforcement. Have you ever thought about studying Criminology, Psychology, Ethics, or other disciplines related to law enforcement? You can use your Law Enforcement Administration degree to go on and get a more specialized degree in one of those fields in the future. You might even be able to get a managerial job with your Law Enforcement Administration degree and work full time while you study for an advanced degree that will give you even more career mobility. If you have a Degree in Law Enforcement Administration you will never have to worry about your job prospects. Since law enforcement is a discipline that every society needs you will always be able to find a job in law enforcement if you have a Degree in Law Enforcement Administration. Best of all, you can attend school to get a Degree in Law Enforcement Administration online so that you don’t need to give up your dream if a school near you doesn’t offer a Law Enforcement Administration degree and you don’t need to quit your day job to go back to school.

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