Driving Record

[KimberASP]

I am graduating in August with a Bachelors degree and want to pursue a career in law enforcement. I want to enter the federal side of law enforcement, but realize this may be hard to do straight out of college with out any LE background. I recieved a speeding ticket last night (75 in a 60) and have a few speeding tickets in the past. None have been excessive (no school zones, none more than 20 mph over). I have always taken care of them promptly (no warrants) and all have been deferred except for one which I took defensive drivng for. These are the only discrepencies I have on my record (no drugs, no accidents, arrests, etc.). My question is that if I have trouble going into to Federal right away due to lack of experience, would I have trouble getting a job with a local police department with these speeding tickets? Would I have a better chance with a larger department vs. a smaller department? I'm looking at police departments in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. Any feed back would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[master gunner]

There is a guy named Micky Wagner around there, if you run into him say hi fo me. Erlangen Germany late 70's. A hell of a good man.

[BDHershey]

May have difficult time going straight to the Feds. But it never hurts to try. If you think a couple of speeding tickets might keep you out of LE, you must not have ridden along in many patrol cars!

Anyway, I doubt that these tickets will keep you out of LE. But you might want to ease up on the gas for a while! Keep it to less than 10 over.

Good luck, stay safe!

-Hershey

P.S. If you go local I would go with a larger Dept. County Sheriff our larger PD.

[tomgow29]

Your speeding ticket should not be an issue. Talk with the guys that have worked for the Feds for a while prior to making your decision. The guys I have worked with from the Marshall's Service generally did not speak highly of Federal L.E.

They may have been right or they may have worked in a bad command, however they conviced me to stay with my S.O.

BTW is Hershey the same B. Hershey that used to be a reserve Deputy in Kittitas County WA.? It is not a name I run across very often.

[BDHershey]

Nope sorry....

And that isn't a very common set of initials!

And I am a Reserve!


Oooo... Eeeee... Oooo...

It's like the Twilight Zone around here!

-Hershey

[Dwolf00]

My experience has been that if you are honest about your speeding tickets and haven't had any serious traffic violations (hit & runs, license suspensions, d.u.i.s) then you should be alright, but slow down for the time being though. Take a look at local, state and federal agencies, don't rule any of them out until you've looked them over a bit. My understanding is that once you're in the federal system you can do some lateral moves to other agencies within the federal system. I had thought about going into the federal system at one time, but I'm quite happy with being with a local pd. I talked to a lot of people before I came on the job and wound up going with what was my first choice at the time, but had wanted to go to different agency many years before. Good luck to you.

[ColtDieHard]

Originally Posted by KimberASP

I'm looking at police departments in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. Any feed back would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

you're going to have to be more specific than this. there are well over a hundred agencies around DFW.

one of our guys sat some traffic tickets out in jail once before he got a cop job. he's since moved on to a higher paying department. i don't think you have anything to worry about. just don't make a habit of it.