Paying for an Application.

[Militarymuscle]

I am noticing on theblueline.com that you have to pay for applications for certain Police Dept. so I have emailed them about thier age max limit and those are the Depts that dont have one. I find it odd that most Police Depts have an age cut off but these do not. Does anyone have any feed back on this other then they just want my cash.

Thanks!

[ChgoPaintball]

about 99.9% of the time you see an Illinois dept posting a job for law enforcement are the ages between 21-35 years old. I believe that is mandated by Illinois law. The application fee is for the dept. usually paying a service to do the testing process (written, pysical). Thats from what I was told in college a few years ago. Is it true, I dont know I didnt look into it.

[impalaman]

I love when several departments test on the same day, and when you pay to get the app. and find that you cannot test for that department due to the conflict of another department.

[styguy531]

Yes. MOST departments in the state are requiring that you be between the ages of 21 and 35 and that IS mandated by law, however, if there is a department serving a town with a population of, I think, 4,000 or below, there doesn't have to be a police and fire board, therefore, age is totally up to the department.

And as far as the application fee, it is there due to the cost of the process to the department. The physical test and written test is pretty costly, and the medical and psych tests are up there too. Plus, it covers the cost of the department resources for the background investigation. A lot of people really don't understand what goes in to hiring people, but there is a lot to it. Good luck.

[MEATBALL40]

Age

The age limit of 35 is mandated by the downstate pension fund for municiapl police officers. That is why jobs for county depts and state depts in Illlinois allow for different age restrictions, they have their own pension system.

If you apply for a municipal dept with less than 5,000 residants, they are not mandated to participate in the downstate fund and can hire at whatever age they set.

The only exception for over 35 is, if you are already a certified officer in Illinois and are already enrolled in the downstate fund.

After the population of 3,000 residents, a town must have a police and fire board.

[styguy531]

Thanks for clearing that population thing up. I wasn't too sure.

[ChiTownDet]

The age restrictions are mandated by Ill. Police and Fire Commission Rules (Chap. 65 Ilsc 5/10). These rules also go for length an eligibility list is active (2 yrs.). These effect the municipalities that are non home rule (under 5000 pop. or 5000-250,000 pop. that are not home rule muni's).

Although pension funds may adapt these same rules, there have been successful lawsuits by people who were denied employment because they were not accepted into the pension fund (medical problems), but were ordered hired , and not enrolled in the pension fund.

[ParkCop 23]

They are just trying to weed out people who arent serious, but it gets expensive to fill out 5 applications at $20 a pop.... I dont agree with it, they need to not worry about weeding people out at the time of application, I thought thats what a background check and interview was for. Guess not

[dogcop]

I dont agree with it, they need to not worry about weeding people out at the time of application

Why? Weed them out from the start. If someone can't commit to 20 bucks for a potential future career, that is pretty weak IMO. So why overburden a testing system with 500 people as an example if 250 of them really want to be there and the other 250 think it would just be "cool" to try out for a PD. So now a PD must budget to test and weed through 500 people, half of who don't really want to be there. What would be the point? Financially and time wise, it would be a waste for everyone.