LAPD Question

[GrndPnd0311]

I have tried to ask these questions to the LAPD recuriter and havent really made any headway. I realize they are probably swamped so I figured I would throw it out there. I am a Junior at the Univeristy of Maryland majoring in government and politics with a minor in Studies of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) which is a DHS center of excellence. I am prior Marine Corps Infantry, got out as a Sgt. I graduate May of 2009 and my fiancee is wanting to go to grad school at USC. I did the online qualification test for the expediated process and it said I was good to go. So my questions are:

1) When should I fly out to start my process if I dont want a lull in my monitary intake?
2)Where is a good place to start looking at for housing? Somewhere that will be close to USC but on the same hand be larger than a walk in closet.
3)How do I prepare? (They have a mentor program, but I am all the way on the opposite coast)

I also hold a clearence, which I have heard some rumors that it might hamper the process rather than help.

Any information or advice would be greatly appreciated!:cool:

[BigHouseGreen]

I don't work for LAPD so I really can't answer any of your questions. But I can tell you that you don't want to live any where near USC.

[lapd4me]

The sooner the better. The process can take anywhere from a few months to a year or more depending on your background. I believe it takes longer for people who live out-of-state primarily because the background investigator will have to send out mail to wherever you live and there will be inevitable delays.

There is an expedited testing program that allows you to take a majority of the tests all at once and it's meant for people in your situation (out-of-state). Keep in mind that by "expedited" it doesn't mean your process is any faster, it just means you took all of the tests in a shorter period of time.

As for USC I graduated from there and lived there for four years, it isn't that bad. There are several areas in that immediate area that you can live in. If you want more safety, head northwest of USC but keep in mind with safety comes higher costs. Anything north of the 10 freeway and west of the 110 will be okay, and the safety and cost is lowest to highest from east to west. Try using apartment searches like mynewplace.com to look up rent.

As for your military clearance I'd have to check with my military background classmates on that. PM me if you really want to know and I'll ask. If you have any other questions feel free to PM me and I'll try to help you out. Lastly, a few of us recruits have been working on building a website specifically for lapd applicants and lapd recruits (recruits are people in the academy) so if you're interested just send me a PM and I'll tell you the url (don't want to spam the site here).

Best of luck!

[Kieth M.]

Anything north of the 10 freeway and west of the 110 will be okay, and the safety and cost is lowest to highest from east to west.

North of the 10 and west of the 110 is Rampart Area, hardly a garden spot! Although I was surprised at the amount of housing being marketed towards USC students. Going west (Olympic & Western) will place you in Koreatown, where things may be a little safer. Many apartments insist on a year's lease, rather than month-by-month. My son found a place, for a year in Koreatown and suffered no crime problems, just parking tickets, a couple of impounds, and a T/C with an unlicensed illegal alien driver. That's life in L.A.

There are many brand new apartments at/near the downtown area but you're talking $$$ to live there. Sadly, there is no overall safe public transit easily leading to/from USC to any affordable area.

Here's a very good source to get all your questions answered: http://policebackground.net/

It's a site run by an LAPD B/I guy....who is also on O.com, quite often.

[GrndPnd0311]

Thank you all for all the great advice. Seems like the housing thing is going to be the fun part.