Mirror of Justice

Law Enforcement Pilot as a Career

July 15th, 2009 at 08:51am Under Aviation Law

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 $60,000 to $70,000 at a minimum. Some make much more. Ultimately, law enforcement and law enforcement pilot are excellent and rewarding career choices.

Boost Your Career Potential With an Online Law Enforcement Administration Degree

July 13th, 2009 at 10:09am Under Education Law

Do you work in management but feel that your career isn’t going anywhere? If you have management experience but want to get into a new field you should get an online Law Enforcement Administration degree. An online Law Enforcement Administration Degree can give you the skills and knowledge that you need to manage a police station or sheriff’s office. It’s very important that police stations and sheriff’s offices have qualified, educated people running the day to day operations of the office because if a police station or sheriff’s office doesn’t run efficiently there could be serious consequences for the public. Also, if a police station or sheriff’s office doesn’t have an effective manager there could be all sorts of problems with lost paperwork and other slip ups that might end up putting criminals back on the street. The behind the scenes work in law enforcement can be just as important as the work of police officers so if you’ve ever thought about getting into law enforcement but don’t want to be a police office then getting an online Law Enforcement Administration degree can be just what you need to start a great new career in law enforcement. Every society will always need law enforcement offices and law enforcement personnel so you will be able to go anywhere in the world and find work with a Law Enforcement Administration Degree.

Since you can get an online Law Enforcement Administration Degree you can attend classes and do your work when it’s convenient for you. Most students who get an online Law Enforcement Administration degree have no trouble keeping their full time jobs and attending school part time online at night and on weekends. Attending class online usually involves using networking software and chat applications and also using email to stay connected to your other classmates and your teacher. Sometimes you may talk to your advisor or professor on the phone but most of the time you will be interacting online. Most of the lessons are interactive and all the materials that you need will be available online so that you can download them and save them for future reference. The Internet has made it easy for anyone who wants a Law Enforcement Administration degree to get one even if no schools in the area offer that degree. In the past some employers didn’t think that online degrees were as valuable as a degree from an established four year college or university but these days it’s become quite common for reputable four year and two year colleges to offer a wide variety of degree programs online for students that want to return to school or get a degree but need to work or have other commitments that make attending traditional classes difficult. An online Law Enforcement degree is the convenient way to get the education that you need to change your career and jump into a new industry. Since good managers will always be needed to help run police stations and sheriff’s offices having an online Law Enforcement Degree is a good way to make sure that your skills will always be in demand.