Can I be part of the CHP?

[Rober0193]

Greetings,

I am currently in the hiring process with the California Highway Patrol. Everyone around me thinks/tells me I'll have an invite to the academy soon but it just doesn't seem real.

I am 26 years old. I've held my job as a technician at a Department of Defense sub-contractor company for 1 year and 3 months. No tickets/infractions/collisions/drug use in 3 years. But..

1. Multiple traffic infractions. 7 out of 8 tickets issued by CHP (speeding, etc.)
2. Multiple collisions
   • 19 years old with a Yamaha R6 (dumb decision)
   • Brakes went out on a 1995 Civic and coasted into someones rear bumper. Surprisingly no damage at all. Not even a paint scratch.
   • Hit a pedestrian coworker at 3-5mph turning into work parking lot in 2019. Witness stated pedestrian jumped in front of me. Found at fault.
3. Spotty employment history.
   • Never kept a job for longer than 6 months prior to the one I hold now. Left 6/8 jobs without notice.
4. Smoked marijuana approximately 200 times throughout 4 year span (18-21 years of age)
5. Self admitted driving under the influence (alcohol) at 19 years old.

I was previously disqualified from LAPD. The letter stated Decision Making and Judgment and Record Checks (employment, driving) as the reasons.

Do I have a shot? I have my background orientation and oral interview on the 21st of this month.

Needless to say, I learned my lesson and I've done everything in my power to make this dream of mine come true thus far. Thanks!!

[Aidokea]

Greetings,

I am currently in the hiring process with the California Highway Patrol. Everyone around me thinks/tells me I'll have an invite to the academy soon but it just doesn't seem real.

I am 26 years old. I've held my job as a technician at a Department of Defense sub-contractor company for 1 year and 3 months. No tickets/infractions/collisions/drug use in 3 years. But..

1. Multiple traffic infractions. 7 out of 8 tickets issued by CHP (speeding, etc.)
2. Multiple collisions
   • 19 years old with a Yamaha R6 (dumb decision)
   • Brakes went out on a 1995 Civic and coasted into someones rear bumper. Surprisingly no damage at all. Not even a paint scratch.
   • Hit a pedestrian coworker at 3-5mph turning into work parking lot in 2019. Witness stated pedestrian jumped in front of me. Found at fault.
3. Spotty employment history.
   • Never kept a job for longer than 6 months prior to the one I hold now. Left 6/8 jobs without notice.
4. Smoked marijuana approximately 200 times throughout 4 year span (18-21 years of age)
5. Self admitted driving under the influence (alcohol) at 19 years old.

I was previously disqualified from LAPD. The letter stated Decision Making and Judgment and Record Checks (employment, driving) as the reasons.

Do I have a shot? I have my background orientation and oral interview on the 21st of this month.

Needless to say, I learned my lesson and I've done everything in my power to make this dream of mine come true thus far. Thanks!!

No.

[Aidokea]

Why would you think that a 19 year old owning an R6 is a dumb decision?

Why would you think that owning an R6 would impair your ability to get hired by a law enforcement agency?

What level of formal rider training have you successfully completed?

What is your objectively quantifiable riding skill level, if there is one?

[Rober0193]

No.

Thanks for the quick response.

Do you think this is something time can change? (5-8 years of consistency)

[Rober0193]

Why would you think that a 19 year old owning an R6 is a dumb decision?

Why would you think that owning an R6 would impair your ability to get hired by a law enforcement agency?

What level of formal rider training have you successfully completed?

What is your objectively quantifiable riding skill level, if there is one?

Absolutely nothing dumb about a 19 year old owning an R6. Absolutely everything dumb about me owning one when I was 19 years old. I was dumb and felt invincible and quite frankly an idiot.

The sole ownership of an R6 surely doesn't impair my ability to be hired by a LEA. It's the documented history of traffic infractions (speeding) with said R6 that pose a problem in my opinion.

I completed a basic motorcycle course.

Not sure how I would quantify my skill level. For what it's worth, I never stopped riding since I was 19.
Riding a BMW GSA 1250 now definitely changed my perception of what it is to ride a motorcycle.

*edited because I missed your second question in the initial response*

[Aidokea]

Thanks for the quick response.

Do you think this is something time can change? (5-8 years of consistency)

If you make a COMPLETE change, you may eventually have a shot.

[Aidokea]

Absolutely nothing dumb about a 19 year old owning an R6. Absolutely everything dumb about me owning one when I was 19 years old. I was dumb and felt invincible and quite frankly an idiot.

The sole ownership of an R6 surely doesn't impair my ability to be hired by a LEA. It's the documented history of traffic infractions (speeding) with said R6 that pose a problem in my opinion.

I completed a basic motorcycle course.

Not sure how I would quantify my skill level. For what it's worth, I never stopped riding since I was 19.
Riding a BMW GSA 1250 now definitely changed my perception of what it is to ride a motorcycle.

I am not a big fan of using 600 Supersports for general transportation. They're capable of braking and turning, but they have all the torque of a wet fart below about 11,000 rpm and are geared for about 85 mph in first gear.

The MSF (Motorcycle Safety Foundation) BRC (Basic Rider Course) is a great place to START learning, but it doesn't make you a rider- it just teaches you how to operate a 12-horsepower mini-chopper in a parking lot. I would STRONGLY recommend further formal rider training, so that you can become a rider.

A "GSA 1250"?

Are you trying to say R 1250 GS?

[clof2001]

Greetings,

I am currently in the hiring process with the California Highway Patrol. Everyone around me thinks/tells me I'll have an invite to the academy soon but it just doesn't seem real.

I am 26 years old. I've held my job as a technician at a Department of Defense sub-contractor company for 1 year and 3 months. No tickets/infractions/collisions/drug use in 3 years. But..

1. Multiple traffic infractions. 7 out of 8 tickets issued by CHP (speeding, etc.)
2. Multiple collisions
   • 19 years old with a Yamaha R6 (dumb decision)
   • Brakes went out on a 1995 Civic and coasted into someones rear bumper. Surprisingly no damage at all. Not even a paint scratch.
   • Hit a pedestrian coworker at 3-5mph turning into work parking lot in 2019. Witness stated pedestrian jumped in front of me. Found at fault.
3. Spotty employment history.
   • Never kept a job for longer than 6 months prior to the one I hold now. Left 6/8 jobs without notice.
4. Smoked marijuana approximately 200 times throughout 4 year span (18-21 years of age)
5. Self admitted driving under the influence (alcohol) at 19 years old.

I was previously disqualified from LAPD. The letter stated Decision Making and Judgment and Record Checks (employment, driving) as the reasons.

Do I have a shot? I have my background orientation and oral interview on the 21st of this month.

Needless to say, I learned my lesson and I've done everything in my power to make this dream of mine come true thus far. Thanks!!

Long shot. You're a pothead and a bad driver. I would imagine you'd get the same letter from CHP that you did from LAPD.

[Lawdog138]

The amount of traffic citations you have received in such a short period of time would disqualify you from many departments. You are a reckless driver, period. How many times didn’t you get caught speeding and etc?

Police departments will overlook minor marijuana use as experimental. 200 times isn’t experimental. Also, it isn’t so much the getting stoned 200 times. It’s no different than getting a buzz from alcohol 200 times. The issue is, you admitted to engaging in illegal activity 200 times to a police department you applied to.

[Lawdog138]

Aidokea the effects of marijuana wear off after several hours. For occasional users THC will stay in your system for a few days to a week and for heavy users, about a month. As I said, you’re not under the influence because there is THC in your system. The effects dissipate after a few hours.

[Aidokea]

I hear you, but even if Jeff Spicoli doesn't feel "high" from his use of illegal drugs, the metabolites are still in his system. I think it's safe to assume that if he's used marijuana hundreds of times, that he was a regular user.

[Lawdog138]

Aidokea, 200 times without a doubt falls into the regular user category. How does the OP know he only used 200 times? Maybe he used 400 times or even more. That’s like me keeping track every time I had a buzz from drinking some beer. I just don’t see any police department hiring someone who admits to smoking weed 200 times.

[Aidokea]

I concur. Nobody wants Jeff Spicoli as a beat partner, and no department wants to incur the liability associated with hiring a drug criminal.

[Ratatatat]

Smoked marijuana approximately 200 times throughout 4 year span

Twenty years ago this would've instantly landed you in the No pile, but the times they are a changing. I live in a state where recreational marihuana sales hit $1.5bil last year and the smell of burning bud is ubiquitous- on the freeways, in public parks, hell, it wafts throughout my pastoral neighborhood when I take my dog for walks. And you should see the number of out-of-state license plates that funnel across the border to drop their cash here... it's only a matter of time before their politicians realize hundreds of millions of dollars are at stake and they legalize it too. At some point, the dam breaks and there's no turning back, really.

It's similar to shaggy beards and neck tattoos- they too were once taboo but I see officers now who look like Klondike gold miners with a neck tat of a skull with fire bolts shooting out the eye sockets or Love and Hate tatted on their knuckles. They look like new parolees and that stuff would've been frowned upon back in the day, when the only guys who got any pass for tats were military veterans, definitely not hipsters with a Calvin and Hobbes quote in Disney font on their forearm.

We're probably headed, at least in some places, towards the Canadian model when it comes to LEOs and cannabis: Please don't partake, but if you must, just don't show up to work impaired.

Windsor police must be 'fit for duty' and encouraged to abstain from weed in pot policy | CBC News

That said, I don't see this becoming the standard everywhere. 200x is still a definite career blocker with Idaho State Police or the Wyoming Highway Patrol. And not everywhere is cool with relaxing rules and changing norms- you saw it this week when Potus45 talked about building Freedom Cities in the desolate intermountain hinterlands. 100 percent sure those PDs won't be hiring reefer smokers with neck tats....

Trump calls for contest to create futuristic ‘Freedom Cities’ - POLITICO

[NolaT]

10-15 years ago, you’d be a firm / hard, No-Hire, in todays nationwide, understaffed climate who knows,……..

The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior, personally I don’t feel like enough time has passed, 26 is still so young with your almost yesterday baggage.

[Aidokea]

Rober0193, something you need to understand, is that the hiring process is competetive.

Even if some agency lowered their standards enough to make you eligible, doesn't mean that they would actually choose to hire you, because other applicants don't have your baggage. Nobody in law enforcement would be stupid enough to hire someone with your baggage, when they can instead hire other applicants that don't have that baggage.

I was a background investigator at one time. As stated above, the best predictor of future behavior, is past behavior.

And in this litigious society, law enforcement agencies are hyper-focused on minimizing liability. Hiring a drug criminal that's a crappy driver, would be ASKING for massive lawsuits if you ever got involved in anything bad.

[1RidgeRunner7]

Wait 10 years.

[Iowa #1603]

Rober0193, something you need to understand, is that the hiring process is competetive.

Even if some agency lowered their standards enough to make you eligible, doesn't mean that they would actually choose to hire you, because other applicants don't have your baggage. Nobody in law enforcement would be stupid enough to hire someone with your baggage, when they can instead hire other applicants that don't have that baggage.

I was a background investigator at one time. As stated above, the best predictor of future behavior, is past behavior.

And in this litigious society, law enforcement agencies are hyper-focused on minimizing liability. Hiring a drug criminal that's a crappy driver, would be ASKING for massive lawsuits if you ever got involved in anything bad.

One of the biggest fallacies that potential hires have is that you should be hired if you meet the MINIMUM posted requirements for the agency.

[just joe]

What does "Everyone around" you know about police hiring processes?

We would pass on you just based on your citations and crashes.