Portland Police Bureau?

[BP_Oregon]

I'm in the midst of planning a major career change to law enforcement (tax & investments prior, fed up with it).

Next testing date with Portland is in late July, and I'm currently planning on applying.

Anyone have any advice/comments about this agency and its hiring process? Good, bad, or ugly?

This will be my first application for a law enforcement position. Pretty nervous about the whole thing, but at the same time, pretty confident.

[Caspertoo]

I know a handful of PPB people, they seem happy in general, but do feel that PPB is a bit more political than most agencies.

The hiring process is thorough, with an exstensive background process. I applied for them 3 times, first time I passed their written, but withdrew during my background to clean up some credit issues on the advice of my background officer. 2nd time I got dropped during a hiring freeze while waiting for background. 3rd time I failed the written...go figure.

My experience was that you will take the written in an giant auditorium with about 200-300 other people. It is long and they do part of the psych test during this as well.....so you'll be filling in a lot of circles.

[Kashihara]

My experience was that you will take the written in an giant auditorium with about 200-300 other people. It is long and they do part of the psych test during this as well.....so you'll be filling in a lot of circles.

As Caspertoo says, it is a long exam that runs about four to five hours total, including the break in the middle. The written is about two hours with the pre-psych (called Biodata Questionnaire) portion lasting an additional two hours.

Caspertoo: I wish I had YOUR background investigator. This is the first agency I tested with (one year ago) and didn't have a clue about the scope or depth of the background. I was disqualified because of some credit issues (that I've since cleared up entirely) and can't reapply until 2009! Sucks for me.

[Caspertoo]

eh clean up the credit issues (like I did) and apply at other agencies. Reserve programs are a top notch way to get experience. One golden flag like that could overshadow a red flag like past bad credit.

[Safeway 1]

I'm going through the hiring steps with Portland, and it's looking likely. Just wondering if anyone has more thoughts about the Bureau? Somone mentioned that it's political. What do you mean?

Reading through online material, it seems like their very committed to community oriented policing, but strained with low budgets.

Any other thoughts about working for them?

Many Thanks.