Good Questions to Ask a Police Officer in an Interview
Good questions to ask a police officer in an interview you are conducting yourself: for a class assignment, a news story, a career day or your own research into the job. There are 55, each with a note on what a good answer sounds like, what to ask next or when to leave it alone. The first ten make a complete short interview. The groups after that cover getting hired and trained, what a shift contains, how decisions get made on a call, dealing with the public, and what the job costs and where it leads. These are questions for a serving officer about the work, not questions for a hiring panel to put to a candidate.
Want questions from the whole vault instead? Try the random question generator.
The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
First ten
What is your rank and current assignment, and how long have you been an officer?
Why ask it
Patrol officer, detective, school resource officer and sergeant are different jobs in the same uniform, so settle this before you interpret anything else. Write the title down the way they say it, because you will need it exact when you write the interview up.
Why did you become a police officer?
Why ask it
Common answers are a relative in the job, steady pay and a pension, or one event they can still put a date on. Whichever it is, ask whether that reason survived the first few years. The follow-up is where the answer stops sounding rehearsed.
Walk me through your last shift from start to finish.
Why ask it
Most interviewers ask about a typical day and get a summary. The last shift is harder to generalize, so you hear the briefing, the driving, the waiting and the report writing in the order they happened, including the hours with no enforcement in them at all.
What kinds of calls take up most of your time?
Why ask it
Officers often list things that are not crimes at all: welfare checks, alarms, arguments between neighbors, traffic. A rough split across a normal week is easier to quote than an impression, and a city beat and a rural one will give you different numbers.
What did the academy prepare you for, and what did it not?
Why ask it
The second half tends to get the quicker answer, and it is often paperwork, people in crisis or how much of the job is simply talking. If you are thinking of applying, ask what they would have practiced beforehand had they known.
What do people get wrong about the job from television?
Why ask it
Officers tend to have a list ready: how rarely a weapon comes out, how long an investigation takes, how little lab work looks like the screen version. The follow-up that gets a laugh and a real answer is which show comes closest.
What is the hardest part of the job for you?
Why ask it
Ask it plainly and take a short answer if that is what comes. Do not dig for the incident behind it. A gentler follow-up is who they talk to about it, and whether that person is inside the job or outside it.
Tell me about a call that reminded you why you do this.
Why ask it
This is the most-rewarding-part question with the stock reply taken out. One call has a street, a person and an ending, and officers often choose something small, such as a found child or a thank-you months later, over anything dramatic.
Think of the best officer you have worked with. What did they do that others did not?
Why ask it
Asking what makes a good officer gets a list of virtues. Asking about one real colleague gets habits you can write down: how they spoke on a doorstep, how early they started a report, when they chose to wait.
Would you do it again, and what would you tell someone applying now?
Why ask it
The closing question for a short interview, and the pause before the answer is part of it. A yes with a condition attached is worth writing down word for word, because the condition is the advice.
Getting in
What were you doing before you joined, and does it still show up in how you work?
Why ask it
People arrive from the military, retail, teaching, construction or straight from school, and plenty will say an earlier job is where they learned to talk to strangers. If you are a student, listen for how many different roads lead in.
Which stage of the hiring process was hardest for you: the written test, the fitness test, the background check or the oral board?
Why ask it
Naming the stages gets you a walk through all of them, and the one they pick is often one applicants do not think to prepare for. Stages and their order differ between agencies, so ask how long the whole process took where they were hired.
Did you need a college degree to be hired, and has it mattered since?
Why ask it
Requirements run from a high school diploma to a full degree depending on the agency, so treat the answer as local. Whether credits count toward pay or promotion is local too. Some officers will tell you a few years of ordinary work taught them more.
What was field training like, and what did your training officer teach you that stuck?
Why ask it
The stretch spent riding with a senior officer is where the classroom version of the job meets the street. Listen for a single habit they still keep, and for whether the trainer was someone they wanted to become.
What do you do differently now compared with your first year?
Why ask it
A habit that changed is easier to describe than an opinion and harder to polish. Answers often come down to talking longer and hurrying less, and the story of what made them change is usually better than the habit itself.
What training do you have to repeat every year, and which part do you actually use?
Why ask it
Firearms requalification, first aid, legal updates and driving tend to come round on a schedule set by the state or the agency. Which sessions they call useful and which they call a box to tick is a quiet review of the department's priorities.
Is there a fitness test after the academy, and how do you stay in shape around shift work?
Why ask it
Some agencies retest every year and some never test again after hiring, so ask which theirs is. The practical half is how anyone trains around night shifts and long hours in a car seat, and it is fair to ask how much the vest and belt weigh.
What can a student do now that would help an application later, and what would hurt one?
Why ask it
If you are weighing the career yourself, this may be the most practical answer of the day. Expect less about fitness and more about a clean driving record, steady work, honest forms and what sits on your social media. Disqualifiers are set locally, so ask what theirs are.
The shift
How much of the job is paperwork, and when do you actually do it?
Why ask it
Get it in hours per shift. Whether reports are written in the car between calls or after the shift ends, and whether that time is paid, depends on the agency, and the answer explains a good deal about tiredness.
How much time do you spend in court, and how does that fit around your shifts?
Why ask it
Hearing dates are set by the court, not by the roster, so they can fall on a day off or the morning after a night shift. Ask how much notice they get, and how often they wait all day without being called.
Which piece of equipment do you use most in a shift?
Why ask it
People look at the belt, but the honest answer is often the radio, the laptop in the car or a pen. Follow up by asking what they carry that the department did not issue, which is where the practical knowledge shows.
Do you ride alone or with a partner, and how far away is your nearest backup?
Why ask it
Whether officers ride alone depends on the agency, the shift and the staffing that night. Get the backup distance in minutes: in a rural county it can be a long drive, and that wait sits behind every decision made on a doorstep.
How big is your beat, and how many officers cover it overnight?
Why ask it
Two numbers that put everything else in scale. A reader who learns how many officers are on the road after midnight can work out response times without being told.
What does a slow night look like, and what do you do with it?
Why ask it
Quiet hours are when officers check buildings, catch up on reports, follow up old calls or simply fight sleep. How someone spends unassigned time says a good deal about how they see the job.
How much does the dispatcher change how your shift goes?
Why ask it
Dispatchers decide what an officer knows before the car door opens, and most officers have firm views on what a good one does. The answer also points you to a second interview that almost nobody thinks to request.
What hours do you work, and what has shift work done to your sleep and your home life?
Why ask it
Start with the pattern itself: how long the shifts are, how often they rotate, how much of the overtime is voluntary. Officers tend to speak frankly about missed birthdays and sleeping at noon, and anyone weighing the career should hear it.
On a call
What is the strangest call you have ever been sent to?
Why ask it
Nearly every officer has one, and it is usually funny, which makes it an easy way into a heavier group of questions. If the story involves someone identifiable, leave names and addresses out of what you write.
What do you do when you arrive and the call is nothing like what you were told?
Why ask it
Information passes through a frightened caller and a dispatcher before it reaches the car, so the picture is often wrong. How they slow down and reassess is closer to real police judgment than any dramatic story.
When the law leaves it up to you, what tips you toward a warning instead of a ticket or an arrest?
Why ask it
Discretion is the part of policing people argue about most and see least. Useful answers name what they weigh: the risk to others, the person's record, what the stop was meant to achieve. Then ask whether anyone above them looks at those choices.
What do you actually do to de-escalate when someone is shouting at you?
Why ask it
Good answers are physical and small: standing further back, lowering their voice, taking off sunglasses, letting a silence run, waiting for a second unit. If all you hear is the training term repeated, ask for the last time it worked.
How do you approach someone who is frightened of you?
Why ask it
A uniform frightens some people before a word is said: small children, people from countries where police are feared, anyone with a bad encounter behind them. Experienced officers often have a habit for it, such as crouching to a child's height or taking off a hat.
What changes when the person in front of you is a teenager?
Why ask it
Separate rules usually cover questioning and detaining minors, and they are set locally, so ask what applies there. Beyond the rules, listen to the tone: whether young people come across as a problem to manage or as somebody's kid.
Who comes with you to a mental health call: a medic, a crisis worker, or nobody?
Why ask it
What you get is a map of the local arrangement between police, ambulance and mental health services, which differs a great deal from one area to the next. Then ask what they wish they could offer the person and cannot.
Which part of the job is most dangerous, and is it the part people assume?
Why ask it
Many officers will name driving, standing at the roadside or walking into a domestic argument before anything that looks like a film. Let them choose the example, and do not push for the worst day of their career.
How often do you have to use force, and what happens afterwards?
Why ask it
This is the careful version of the question every student wants to ask. Leave out whether they have ever fired their weapon; an officer who wants to tell you will. The report and the review that follow a use of force where they work are fair to ask about, and they tell you more.
If you wear a body camera, when does it have to be on, and has it changed how you talk to people?
Why ask it
Rules on when it records and who may watch the footage belong to each department, so ask for theirs. Officers tend to mention both sides: cover against a false complaint, and a more careful way of speaking once everything is on video.
The public
What does community policing mean on your beat, in practice?
Why ask it
Ask for an example from the last month. Naming a specific school, business or resident is different from describing an initiative, and that difference shows whether the program exists outside a press release.
What is the most common crime here, and is it the one residents worry about?
Why ask it
The gap between what gets reported and what people fear is a story in itself. Check the answer against the department's published figures if it has any, since one officer sees one beat on one shift.
What do people call the police for that you cannot actually fix?
Why ask it
Noise, custody arguments, a neighbor's fence, a relative who will not take medication: plenty of calls have no police answer. What they do on those calls anyway is a fair measure of the officer.
What makes a traffic stop go badly that the driver could have avoided?
Why ask it
Classmates and readers will use this one. Typical answers are about hands, sudden movements and arguing the ticket at the roadside. It also lets the officer describe how a stop looks from their side of the window.
Have you ever been sent to a call and found you knew the person?
Why ask it
In a small town this can be a weekly event, and in a big city it may never have happened. Find out whether the department lets them pass the call to someone else, and how it went the next time the two of them met at the grocery store.
How has the way the public treats you changed over your career?
Why ask it
The answer comes from what has happened to them, not from a position on national politics. Expect it to differ by neighborhood and by time of day, and report that difference instead of averaging it.
When policing is in the national news, what changes on your street the next day?
Why ask it
Here is how to raise a controversy without asking for an opinion on it. You get what they saw: more phones filming, colder looks, or nothing at all. Hold it until late in the interview.
What happens inside the department when an officer does something wrong?
Why ask it
Keep it to process: who investigates, how long it takes, who is told the outcome. Complaint systems differ by agency and some include civilian review, so a plain description of theirs and its limits is worth more than either a defense or a denial.
What is it like being known as a police officer when you are off duty?
Why ask it
Outsiders rarely think about this: what they say at a party when asked what they do, whether the neighbors know, how their children get treated at school. Some officers choose to live outside the area they police, so ask how far home is from the beat, not where it is.
The long view
What support does the department offer after a bad call, and do officers actually use it?
Why ask it
Availability is the easy half. In some departments officers stay away from counseling because they think it could count against them, and in others a peer support team is an ordinary part of the week, so ask who really goes.
After a hard shift, what do you do so it does not come home with you?
Why ask it
Ask once, take whatever level of detail they offer, and do not press. Some answers are routines, such as changing out of uniform at the station or sitting in the driveway for ten minutes, and a routine is easier to quote than a reflection.
How has the job changed the way you see people when you are off the clock?
Why ask it
Officers often mention small things: where they sit in a restaurant, how they read a parking lot, what they notice about a stranger's hands. Families tend to spot those changes first, so ask who pointed it out.
How does your family feel about you doing this job?
Why ask it
Expect pride and worry in the same sentence. A partner who waits up, a parent who tried to talk them out of it and children who boast at school are three different answers, and an officer may want to keep this one brief. Let them.
What routes are there out of patrol, and which would you take?
Why ask it
Investigations, traffic, training, K9 and school liaison each have a different life attached, and which units exist depends on the size of the department. The one they would pick, and why, says more about the job than a general question about advancement.
How does promotion work where you are, and what would you give up by taking it?
Why ask it
Sergeant usually means an exam, a list and a wait, and the details belong to each agency. Moving up can also mean leaving the street, losing a preferred shift or supervising friends, and some officers decide not to test for exactly those reasons.
How does the pay actually work: base salary, overtime and the pension?
Why ask it
Salary scales for public agencies are usually published, so look theirs up first and ask about what is not on the chart. Overtime, court pay and off-duty details can move the total a long way, and the pension often decides how long people stay.
If one decision in the department were yours for a week, what would you change?
Why ask it
Put this way, you get something specific, such as staffing, a form, a shift pattern or a piece of equipment, in place of a general complaint about management. An officer speaking with the department's permission will answer carefully, and that caution is not evasion.
How long do you plan to stay, and what do officers you know do after they leave?
Why ask it
Retirement can come earlier in policing than in most careers, though the age and the terms depend on the pension plan. Where former colleagues end up, whether security, teaching, investigations or something unrelated, shows what the experience is worth outside.
What do you wish people asked you about the job, instead of what they usually ask?
Why ask it
Closing here hands them the direction. It also tells you which questions they are tired of, which is worth knowing if you plan to interview other officers afterwards.
Interviewing a Police Officer
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Getting the interview
Go through the right door
If the interview is for publication, expect the department to route you through a public information officer or press office. Many do not let officers speak to the media without that clearance, so ask what the rule is before you approach anyone directly. For a school project, the community liaison or a school resource officer is usually the fastest route, and both may need lead time and a form.
Establish the limits in the first minute
Ask what they cannot discuss: open investigations, anything before a court, personnel matters, and often anything involving a named individual. Knowing the boundaries early stops you burning the interview on questions they were never able to answer.
Agree on the terms
Say whether you are recording, whether the conversation is on the record, and whether their name and unit will be used. Settling this before the first question tends to change how much an officer is willing to say.
Picking questions for the time you have
- Fifteen minutes at a career day or by phone: ask the first ten in order. They run from rank and background through the work to a closing question.
- A class paper on the career: add the Getting in group and the promotion, pay and retirement questions from The long view.
- A news or feature story: build it from The shift, On a call and The public, and ask for numbers wherever a question allows one.
- A ride-along: keep the list in your pocket. Ask the On a call questions after a call has just happened, when the example is in front of you both.
- If the department wants your questions in advance, send eight to twelve and say you may follow up. Sending the whole list invites a written reply in place of a conversation.
Getting past the press-release answer
- Ask about the last shift, not a typical shift. Specific days are harder to summarize into talking points.
- Ask what happened next, twice. The second follow-up is usually where the real detail arrives.
- Ask about paperwork, court time, sleep and overtime. These come with no official position attached, so the answers tend to be plain.
- Ask for a number: calls per shift, hours on reports, years on the job, size of the beat.
- Save the harder questions about accountability and use of force for the second half, once the conversation is running.
Common pitfalls
- Opening with a national controversy usually ends the useful part of the interview in the first two minutes.
- Asking whether they have ever shot anyone. Officers are tired of it and for some it is a painful subject. Ask how force is reported and reviewed, and let them decide what else to tell you.
- Treating one officer's account as the department's position. It is one person's experience, and should be reported as that.
- Asking for detail about a case involving a named person. They cannot answer and it makes everything afterwards guarded.
- Asking them to comment on how another agency handled an incident. Most will decline, correctly.
- Arriving with either a heroic or a hostile frame. Both produce a scripted conversation.
Writing it up accurately
- 1Get the rank, the unit and the length of service right. These are precise things inside a department and errors undermine the rest of your work.
- 2Read back any description of procedure or law before you publish it, since a garbled account of a tactic is what colleagues will notice first.
- 3Distinguish clearly between what the officer witnessed, what they were told, and what they believe.
- 4If you quote a criticism of the department, decide with them whether their name is attached, and honor it.
- 5Send them the published piece. It costs nothing, and it makes the next request easier to grant.