you're watching TV SI television for San Antonio and welcome to behind the badge i'm officer robert dark your host with me today is officer rosemary floors with the San Antonio Police Department as well fellow colleague hello rosemary hello robert rosemary you are with the recruiting department is that correct okay you tell me a little bit about how long you've been with the department and what you do for the department sure I've been with the department about 13 years now and I'm actually in recruiting what I do is go out and recruit officer our recruit cadets for the police department okay and how long have you been was a recruiting department about three years three years okay um well let's get started what does one need to do if they want to pin on the badge and you know go out there and make the streets of San Antonio a safer place alright what we're looking for right now we're qualified both male and female applicants you have to be at least 20 and a half and at the time of application and no more than 45 at the time of appointment to the academy we're looking for somebody who's looking for a career in law enforcement basically it's a simple process you start with a application and then you go right into a written exam after the written exam you will be scheduled for a PT test and then comes the background check the background check does take a while the investigation does there's a series of tests you have to take a psychological test a medical test a polygraph things like that it doesn't happen right away it does take some months to be accepted into the police academy so if somebody thinks they're going to apply one day get higher the next day does take some time to go through your background okay well that's a good question then on average how long would someone have to go through the application process from the time that they sign up to take the test of the time that they get their appointment of the Academy it really depends on what you how old you are we go back all the way back to the time you were 17 years of age so if you've lived a lot of different places if you had a lot of different jobs it's going to take the background investigator a little longer than say someone who's straight out of high school hasn't had a lot of jobs a military person is somebody that's easy to follow and you can pretty much trace their steps back to the time they were 17 if they join the military pretty young and speaking of the military another one that we're always looking at we have really good applicants come from the military area and if they do decide to apply military do get five points extra on the written exam if they provided DD 214 at the time of application okay and most military folks are familiar with that form that you're yes talking about okay is there any requirements that they need for the DD 214 well it needs to have an honorable discharge on it and they'll know anything other than honorable probably be will be questionable on your background investigation would doesn't necessarily be grounds for disqualification not necessarily I necessarily the case by case okay and who usually determines that is that the applicant processing it is the background investigators are the one that do the investigation okay once somebody has taken the test how long before they are I guess schedule schedule for the next step it takes you find out the night at acxiom how you did it's a written exam 100 questions it's a comprehensive exam 100 questions multiple choice on a scantron you'll find out the day of the test how you score those that score and the 92 or higher will be scheduled to take the PT test so i'm usually the following saturday if not two weeks from then and then we just trinkle down from there we usually start in the 90s the ones that score higher but 70 is passing you will get called if you make 70 or above it just you won't get called right away so a lot of times people will think that they didn't get accepted because they didn't get into that first batch that are going to take the PT test but that's not the case as long as you made a 70 or above you will get called at some point okay on that exam are what kind of questions are asked is it a lot of math or there's no math at all it's all reading comprehension you read passages and you answer questions after that there are several books out we give lots of workshops there's even on our website there's a study exam that we have on there it's a PDF format it's downloadable printable for you to review so that you can give you give the applicant and idea of what's on the written test okay what is that website by the way ww san antonio gov okay and you can download it very easily so viewers at home if they are curious as to what type questions are asked okay that's good to know it's a really good website to you can also find a lot of other information on there our pay scales some of the benefits that we have when we're taking applications the places that we're taking applications for women that are interested in becoming police officers there are sites on there just for women exclusively for women there's a site for the military or out-of-towners it's excellent website I encourage anybody that's interested just take a look at the website and then there's a link to the recruiting email if they have more questions maybe they can't get in touch with a recruiter right away or we have a lot of guys that are in gals that are in Iraq and they can only communicate through email so just shoot the recruiting unit and email and they're usually pretty good about answering on daily basis that's good to know if once they're done with the test they go to the physical fitness portion as a what does that entail do you know yes it is a one and a half mile run push-ups sit-ups jump over a five foot wall and everything goes according to age and gender so in the pace then the scales are also on the website as well okay after the physical fitness portion and everybody passed or they passed the that portion what's the next step after them after the physical fitness portion you'll be called in to talk to a detective who will ask you to give a personal history statement and you'll have a time to turn in all this information you'll be assigned a background investigator from that point on you'll have be on a one-to-one with your background investigator they'll set you up for all your next appointments that will come up the polygraph a medical exam psychological board that you'll have to go in front of there's a few other tests that are on the website that you can take a look at and it gives you a little synopsis of what each test entails as well those are all scheduled events that are done by your background investigator ok I know that credit is a big question is that something that the department has started looking into yes it is and the biggest thing with the credit is that you can manage your debt that's the biggest thing the biggest issue that we have with the credit okay and are those consider or looked at it on a case-by-case basis okay spike alright so we're looking at the physical fitness portion after the exam and then the background what's the next step after the background after the background and your you get a conditional letter of employment offer of employment and then your paperwork will go up to the chief's office he will review it at that time and sign off on it and then you'll become appointed as a cadet into the cadet program the cadet program last seven months monday through friday at the training academy go home at night and you go home on the weekends okay i know that there is a review board somewhere in there yes during the background join the background how does that work the review board is a panel of three officers and they put you in scenarios and just answer to the best of your ability we know that a lot of people coming in doing the scenarios or maybe not prior law enforcement and that's not really what we're looking at we just want to know what you think at that time that you're put into that scenario so good logical thinking and we look yes best answer I know a lot of people are probably nervous about a polygraph holograph is I know as a requirement to get on the department mm-hmm any advice right now the best thing I can tell you about a polygraph is to relax clear your mind and just answer the question try not to think into it too much and just answer the question there's a lot of people that try to beat the polygraph but we have an excellent Polly prefer on our department who does a really good job and if maybe you didn't tell the truth in the beginning it will come out during that polygraph they'll find out if you if you've been lying about anything right okay how often are you recruiting now now that we know how the process kind of works how often are you recruiting officers so we just kicked off this year we're starting to recruit every tune what we're recruiting all the time but we're starting to take applications every two months in fact in january december we just took applications and we hope to start taking applications again in February will be kicking off our recruiting cycle every two months so people that are interested in filling out an application can look at the website and just look for the dates will have them on there pretty quick so you can tell when they can put in an application alright if anybody is joining us right now what is that website again ww San Antonio gov okay excellent let's talk a little bit about benefits then I'm sure you get asked that all the time what are some of the benefits as far as graduating from the Academy oh well when you graduate for the police academy you have a basic peace officers license you can move up to intermediate license pretty quickly by just taking a few classes there are five classes that a basic peace officer needs to take to move to the intermediate level there are so many benefits on the department I'll name just a few if you work nights you get night differential if you speak a second language that's fifty dollars more a month you have education pay for an associates or bachelors degree or higher if you have it even if you don't have a degree if you have 65 college credit hours or more well you'll be compensated for that there's also in addition to that you're always accumulating vacation time sick time bonus days every year you're given the opportunity to earn up to five extra physical fitness days it's a lot there's so much I can tell you but it's best just to go to the website and look at it and it breaks it down piece by piece the benefits listing is a very lengthy I looked at it of course I'm yes being a member of quite aware of it but I have a lot of people ask me as well and I always refer them to talk to a recruiter now that we know as far as what is expected during the cycle what now how often you are doing that if somebody's just joining some right now let's go through it real quick what do they need to do in order to join the police department the first thing that they need to do is fill out an application just look at the website they'll give you the dates and times in the location where while taking applications we go everywhere we go to military institutions we go to colleges we're at a downtown every day to 15 south san saba that's the first step the next step you'll be scheduled for your written exam you have to have submitted an application before you can take the written exam if you pass successfully passed the written exam then you'll be scheduled for your PT test after that and then you'll go into your background checked which does take some time it does take some months to get in the department it's not a quick you know overnight thing right okay well good well it sounds like you've got a lot of information if somebody needs to get in touch with you obviously the website wwc antonio gov what about a phone number with somebody who need wants to reach you by phone arey 210 207 60 to 70 60 to 70 all right any other last thoughts as far as anybody might be interested in joining the police oh yeah and especially being female I always want to put in that female kick of we have more females on the department than we've ever had before I myself when I first came on the department didn't see a whole lot of females out there and if you look around where we have more and more female so I encourage if you've ever thought to the females out there if they ever thought about becoming a police officer and just you know maybe they're their boyfriend doesn't want them to do it or their husband think it's not a good thing you should just give it a try and come talk to me and I'll tell you my story there's some stories on the website that you could look at about women and policing to give you the confidence that you need to just put your foot in there I the only my only regret is that I didn't do it sooner I wish I'd come on the parm I was 29 when I came on so I wish I had come on a lot sooner if I only known but I didn't see a whole lot of recruiters back then so that was that would be my biggest thing is to get the females out there how many officers are on the recruiting team right now we have four officers on the recruiting team right now so if they can't reach you who else can they the weather have officer Taylor oster castaneda and officer vada or the other three recruiters besides myself that they can get in touch with okay and you all work out of the Academy is that correct we do but we're in the process of moving over to applicant processing center which is at 2 15 South San Saba and there will all be housed all the recruiters and all the applicant processing detectives will be there one location okay rosemary thank you so much for joining us today again that website is www San Antonio gov and the phone number eric 02 and 02 07 60 to 70 all right thank you very much for you today and that was rosemary also rosemary floors with the San Antonio Police Department recruiting unit will be back in a few minutes to talk with officer Jorge Chavez talk about training at the San Antonio Police Academy I wouldn't do it I wouldn't do it I wouldn't do it I wouldn't do it hey I wouldn't do it I wouldn't do it I wouldn't do it either I wouldn't do it I wouldn't do it I wouldn't do it I wouldn't do it I wouldn't do it hey you know I'd never do it don't mess with Texas I wouldn't do it don't mess with Texas and welcome back I'm offs Robert dark with behind the badge i am your host and we're talking training and recruiting today and with me now is officer jorge chavez with the San Antonio Police Department officer Travis welcome good good to see you now you and I Travis go back a long way you want to explain to people how long you been with the department and introduce yourself well my name is officer George javis I've been with the Department approximately seven years and me and Rob went to the Academy together so we've got that we also actually still work a juvenile detention together which even further back to that for a short while and we actually went to the applicant processing together so we we did the hope and again it together so so obviously I know a lot of the stuff that we're about to discuss right Oh what is it you do for the department now George I'm actually an instructor at the academy I mainly with the PT program mmm excuse me sorry I thought yeah i'm also an academic instructor out there but may limit the PT program and i get them acclimated to the Academy lifestyle ok we'll get it into the PT portion just a little bit what are the academic classes you teach as you can I tourney I currently teach a Code of Criminal Procedure professional policing mmm sorry and juvenile issues ok and usually how long are the cadets in those classes for how long are the training blocks well the joining the training block at the entire Academy is seven months do you mean how long day in the classroom right for your for your particular classes how long can they well the academics is over 1200 hours actually so we we ask a lot of our cadets and it's one of the biggest in the state as far as mandate so it's over 1200 hours of Academy studies ok and I know that the state of Texas requires a certain amount of our the San Antonio Police Department actually requires almost double almost double is that the exponent almost double and so we're looking at over a thousand hours over 1200 hours current like 1200 hours of training that is San Antonio police officer yes has so San Antonio police officers you can out stay without bragging too much are the best trained officers probably in the States I would say they receive some of the best training in the state of Texas okay maybe even the country maybe in the nation with the seventh largest in the nation so you could even argue that we're we're up there right okay let's get into the PT portion PT for those who don't know is physical training what can a cadet expect on the first day of the Academy well on the first day the Academy I will say that it can be a little bit of a culture shock as you remembered our prior military actually have a little bit of an advantage because they used to that paramilitary organization which is what the police department is but people coming off the street who have no idea what this type of training is about it can be very a bit of a culture shock we get them in there we a'kla made him to the PT lifestyle we march them they run in formation they learn how to stand at the position of attention they learn how to address an officer properly and to people who have never done this this can be very you know standoffish they don't have conduct themselves and we try to get them in line as quickly as possible right how awfully have you seen the cadets finally come around and start meshing as a team as I take a while that actually takes it while you're talking about 30 to 40 individuals who need to come together and work in a program pretty quickly this disc this varies some some people come together with a lot of prior military a lot of motivated individuals and it can take two weeks others come together 30 individuals trying to do their own thing and it can take months depending on how they work together and come together it can be a great experience or if they're pushing against women hmm one another it can be a bad experience but we're there we r that a motivating with it teach them the right way and it comes together ok let's get in the academic portion of it how much testing is done and how our cadets grated actually I should ask well that's very similar to that of high school you know you have a few hours of teaching like my my block encoder procedure hmm this approximate 36 hours I think that 36 hours they take a test and depending how they score they're listed and academically we want above an 80 okay that's the average uh t clothes requires you to score 70 but at sapd academy you need to have an 80 to pass the academy to graduate okay so that's another standard that sapd has above the rest of the state we want our cadets the minimum is 70 you have to maintain an 80 so the state mandates at least a passing score of 70 San Antonio Police Department mandates the passing score of 18 definitely and so he basically a B average or better be average or better you don't maintain that then you can't say you cannot become a Santa and police officer okay well that's important for anybody that might be interested in joining the police department then as far as knowing what the academic requirements are so it's not just going to be physical part of it that's going to be required but the academic portion is actually it's very important to another strangers I woods and that's that's the thing you know you're there in the morning for the first two hours and your PT in your training you're running push up sit ups you get a few minutes and then you're back in the class and you have to be able to sit in class and learn information and we throw a lot of information on there they have to maintain it process it and be able to perform the test and score it at a high level okay once cadets have gone through the physical training of it which is throughout most of the entire Academy and the academic portion when do they get to do some of the hands-on stuff well PT less approximately 20 weeks so that's a very long time the first 13 weeks is monday wednesday and friday after that they moved to tuesday thursdays after PT is finished and they finished taking what we call our final evaluation which is a Cooper's test and then they start moving into skills driving shooting tactics and they move on and into those areas okay can you tell us a little bit about those three areas individually a little bit sure I don't instruct those those courses but I can tell you that when it comes to shooting they actually go to an outdoor firing range and they learn how to use their their side are in their Glock Glock 40 and several hours of shooting I can't even tell you how many hours are shooting I don't even call I remember our trigger fingers getting here is exactly your get your trigger finger will get tired so several hours of shooting we have actually have an outdoor track out there where they get a natural patrol car and they drive around in in wet conditions take the car to an accelerated speed to feel what that feels like and they drive around also when it comes to tactics and and that's we have actually amok village out there when they do scenarios they said we have actors who come out and cysts us and these people go through scenarios on a domestic disturbance on robbery calls on theft calls and they interact with these role players and it says realistic as they can get and even now now they're they use simunition rounds which is basically a paintball right round and they actually will get to fire them each other to up the up the tempo a little bit nothing can prepare them for what's out in the street but this type of training will assist them and help them in a you know to when they go off the streets as real as we can get so the overall training seems to be pretty complete then there's not really one that's harder than the other because you know it all takes something you know I mean we have people who shine in academics yet in PT they may falter if people get out there and tactics and they always know what they're doing yet they so you know it takes the old guy but when we went to create a really right rounded person you know somebody who can pretty much handle the PT side handle the shooting side handle the driving side and get out there and be that complete officer well speaking of that a complete officer I know for a fact that each class has a top cadet that is correct every class at the top you that somebody performs a high level academics in PT in shooting and driving and they get a good score together and whoever it performs the best and all those levels is named the top get out of that class ok you have any advice for anybody that's looking to join the police department what what advice do you have for them well advice I would say is to when you know you start processing that that process can take anywhere from three to six months and if you know this is something you want your processing for it don't wait you know a week outside try to train yourself to come this Academy it won't work if you're trying to go to the least common denominator you're going to be ill prepared for the PT program be running every other day beep boop be doing push-ups be doing sit-ups and come with the mindset that you can do the program is tough but we have had people come in who are college a former cause athletes and somebody who's never played a sport in their life and they both been able to complete the program so it come on that can-do attitude you'll do it and when I heard of her rosemary talk about the kind of candidate she's looking for I mean kinda guy she might you know try to get I think I agree with the fact that i want that candidate who maybe is in his late 20s 30s 40s and if they're not satisfied in their career this is something that is very satisfying and if you're looking for a change you're looking for something else to do that is gratifying that you love doing every day and come on give us a try and come meet the instructors yeah come on come kill me come run with me sharing with me as far as the staff the staff at the academy or how are they to work with outstanding I mean we have instructors with all levels of experience training and background prior military and it really is a team concept and that's what we try to instill in the cadets you know we're all work together you know Rosemary's out was out there the Academy I work with her I work with the academic staff PT staff tactic staff and we're a team we have one goal in mind to put forth a good product and that's what we're after that's a good officer yeah uh George I know that you were a field training officer out in the field when you're on Patrol can you tell us a little bit about that once a cadet graduates a little bit about the FTO program yeah the FTO program begins almost a day after you graduate the probationary officer graduates on a Friday and that following saturday they might end up right next to me and there in that patrol car and it's kind of a kind of a shock you know once again I mean you just get through the Academy you got that down and now comes your next phase and basically what I do is I take them and I introduce them into the community show them much like to answer a few calls before you know what they're up and running and they're handling calls themselves and I'm trying to teach them the proper way to conduct themselves on how to act because like I said it's a whole different speed the Academy is a foundation the FTO program kind of wraps it all together and says okay but three months this is what you're supposed to do and hopefully they and it moves quickly to the FTO program is a three-month program yes the three-month program and how is it broken down it's broken down into basically three different phases your first phase mazon is on daylight second phase is on nighttime or dog watch in your third phase on be shipped which is the 22 to 10 shift okay then after that they go to a two two-week evaluation where if they complete the evaluation program and they do well then they move on that graduate and that following day they may be in that patrol car by themselves handling calls going out into whatever situation again be but after seven months of the Academy three months of fto training that they're prepared so so it can't be kind of stressful than getting out there on their own for the first time but I mean I you can remember sure you know that first day when you're by yourself and you look back but I think when you reflect back on the training you can say I am ready I am prepared basically 10 months of training seven months in the Academy three months in the program and of good instruction getting the good quality people to show them what they're supposed to do and then they already there is I'm sure the little bit of nervousness I guess trying to impress your field training officer a little bit and showing them what you know what you've learned oh yeah most definitely they they get in that car there there little tense a little nervous and I tell them relax I try to think back think about I'll let seven months you had you know what you're doing start the car let's go I'll let them drive by I shall I show them the map and I say you know let's go into my area again let's go see it let's go check it out and that's the first thing we do we just drive around and get acclimated and before you know it by the second week they're a little more comfortable they're volunteering for calls they're looking for on site activity right there writing tickets and you know they start to feel comfortable of course there is that call that everybody dreads that code three call with their gentleman starts to go up and we're there to k okay stay calm and how to conduct themselves and how to how to make that call and get home safely because that's the number one get home safely and as we wrap this up any advice you have for anybody that's looking to get on the police department not only just as far as the training what to expect but you know what to expect as a career as a police officer especially a career with the San Antonio Police Department well I would tell you what to expect if you ever do go through all the training and wear this uniform I have I've was a Marine I was a Marine before I came on the department 96 Marine Corps and I had a great pride and putting on the uniform but I tell you nothing brings me more pride on a daily basis than putting this uniform on and that not fluff that's not genre amp up the department that's fact I feel a great deal of pride so if you want to feel pride in what you do if you want to feel good every day and feel you make a difference because I know that I'll never have to leave this earth and think that I met my life never meant anything because it did and it's wearing this uniform an impact in the community and that's what I have to say about that well well thanks for taking the time to speak with us today officer Chavez and also also thank you too officer rosemary force for speaking with us about recruiting if you need more information about joining the police department you can always call a recruiter website ww san antonio gov thanks again for watching us we behind the badge again thanks to officer rosemary floors and officer Jorge Chavez for joining us today thanks for our thanks