FBI and Police entrance exam - female protagonist

[OldSilver]

Hello,
I'm developing a Detective/Crime TV series.
Creating a convincing character is tough; I'm tired of seeing cliché police officer characters on the screen.
The female protagonist is a police officer (NYPD). She failed the FBI entrance test, but she was dreaming about becoming an FBI officer.
She joined law enforcement as a police officer.
Is it a believable case? Have someone encounter such a situation in real life.
What exam could she possibly fail as an applicant to become an FBI officer, but's that's not a problem to become a police officer.

Thanks for your suggestions.

[Aidokea]

Sounds like an unlikely scenario.

[OldSilver]

Could you please provide some thoughts why it's unlikely to happen. I'm learning about this subject.Thanks

[Aidokea]

Local police are not FBI rejects.

[OldSilver]

I'm sorry that it looks that way.
The general population perceives FBI officers as mystic knights, and I've never met an FBI agent in my life. But, on the other side, I interacted with respectable police officers.
It's a unique situation, and I'm looking for the motivation for my protagonist.

[Aidokea]

You said you were looking for something that is not cliche. All things being equal, federal cops are no better than state cops, state cops are no better than county cops, and county cops are no better than city cops.

[Aidokea]

Do you realize that FBI agents weren't even allowed to carry guns until 1934?

If they wanted to carry a gun, they had to get permission from the local police and get deputized by them.

[Iowa #1603]

Hello,
I'm sorry that it looks that way.

I don't care what it LOOKS like....................

The FBI is good at what they do.....................sit at desks, investigate leads, track down suspects but most importantly SELF PROMOTION

FEDERAL 1811 hiring is mostly checking boxes on an experience/education list, answering the questioners about how their resume will fit the job requirements and interviewing well.

I can see a person who could "wash out" as a Federal 1811 Investigator become a cop instead................and end up as an excellent POLICE OFFICER. . The jobs are not really in the same life cycle

[OldSilver]

Thanks, That's exactly what I was looking for.

[Aidokea]

A college degree doesn't make one bit of difference when it's time to throw down...

[Aidokea]

OldSilver, let me know how many FBI agents you see in this:

[OldSilver]

That's a fantastic piece, The heroine of my story is a cop, and that's for a reason. Thanks for the inspiration.

[Aidokea]

Huh? What are you talking about? What does that have to do with that film?

[just joe]

I'd look at someone who was just a non-select as opposed to someone who "failed" an entrance test. You'd have to be pretty dim to outright fail. Why does she have to be an aspiring FBI agent? How is that a vehicle for anything?

[OldSilver]

Does "non-select mean the person isn't selected for the application process because of experience, education, etc..?
It would make the perfect sense
I want her to compete against FBI officers who see this case as an accident, and she will prove they are wrong.
From the start I assumed she is an FBI agent, but she is too rebellious.
This competition is a personal matter to her, and you can see the heat between the FBI and police is very intense.

[Aidokea]

Lol- law enforcement agencies work together. They don't compete with each other.

[tanksoldier]

Hello,
I'm developing a Detective/Crime TV series.
Creating a convincing character is tough; I'm tired of seeing cliché police officer characters on the screen.

The problem is, we are in many ways very similar. Most of the unique cops you see on TV wouldn’t be successful in real law enforcement.

The guy from Law and Order: Criminal Intent, Robert Goren, wouldn’t have been a successful Line Officer and likely never would have had a chance to become a detective. He also is unlikely to have been a US Army CID agent which is part of Goren’s back story.

Occasionally you see the repercussions on the show of his personality quirks, including damaging his partner’s career, but in reality he is vastly unlikely to have been selected for detective to begin with.

To move up and be given responsibility in these organizations you can’t be a loose cannon.

The female protagonist is a police officer (NYPD). She failed the FBI entrance test, but she was dreaming about becoming an FBI officer.

There is no single test to fail for most federal agencies. You go thru their process and are simply not selected to continue at certain points.

Some have a basic read/write/math test and a fitness test but if you can’t pass those you aren’t getting hired by NYPD either.

Most people don’t apply ONLY for the FBI, they apply to all the major fed agencies: FBI, USMS, USSS, DEA, BATFE, etc.

Most people also apply repeatedly before being hired. It can take years.

The hiring process itself can take years even after you’re given a conditional offer. I know people who dropped out of the federal process because they needed a job and couldn’t wait the three or four years the feds were taking to hire them.

I know a guy who was in the hiring cycle with CBP for three years... never not selected, just slow moving from step to step.

She joined law enforcement as a police officer.

You don’t “join” law enforcement like it’s the military. Most department hiring cycles aren’t that much different than the feds... they may move faster, but some are notoriously long.

Is it a believable case? Have someone encounter such a situation in real life.

More believable than someone who outright failed part of the FBI process would be somebody who couldn’t wait around for them... or who was simply not selected after several attempts.

For most entry level 1811 positions you need a bachelors degree, and to be competitive you need veterans preference points.

If we assume she enlisted for 4 years and then attended college for 4 years, then spent a couple years applying with the feds while working odd jobs, she’s 26-28 and needs to get a career started.

What exam could she possibly fail as an applicant to become an FBI officer, but's that's not a problem to become a police officer.

If you really want her to have the stain of failure, try this: virtually all federal agencies have internships and new college grad hiring programs. These are often positions that convert to a regular employee position if the person is successful.

Have her selected for one of those, but not work out.

It doesn’t even have to be anything bad. Maybe the position was eliminated. Maybe one of the government shutdowns caused a hiring freeze.

She worked there for six months, loved it and now is trying to get back in.

Local police are not FBI rejects.

That's the problem with your premise and most perceptions of state & local LE vs Federal LE.

The difference is really more about the job description than the agency.

Colorado has a Colorado Bureau of Investigation. The Attorney General has a whole division of investigators, as do most of the District Attorneys. Their jobs are very similar to a typical FBI agent’s job: desk work.

The work of an investigator and a street cop are very different.

[OldSilver]

Thanks for your suggestions, I find it very valuable;
Drama on the TV screen and real life are different beasts. TV show serves entertainment purposes, and people got enough issues in real life. Chatting with legitimate police officers helps me to understand their character and motives.
I'm learning about the subject and grateful that the police officers spend time helping me.

[westside popo]

"FBI officer?" As in the FBI Police or do you mean agent?

How can you write about something you apparently know absolutely nothing about?

[OldSilver]

I can pull info only from internet.
https://www.fbiagentedu.org/careers/...olice-officer/

[westside popo]

There is a difference! They have the FBI Police and FBI Agents. Do a better job at research.

[Aidokea]

Is there an echo in here?

[Aidokea]

OldSilver, I don't think that any of us mind helping you out by answering a few questions to clarify stuff, if you've already made a reasonable investment of your own time and money to learn about something, but this is like someone who hasn't even taken a basic first aid class, going online to ask a bunch of doctors to teach him neurosurgery over the internet, for free, so that he can get rich.

It's painfully obvious that you haven't even taken the time to do a ride-along.

If you want to make money developing a TV series about the NYPD, how about you get off your posterior, open your wallet, hop a plane, and go do some ride-alongs with the NYPD...

[ehbowen]

Actually, that's excellent advice and I think I'll adopt it for my own project. I just sent a contact note to media relations for a major railroad requesting to ride along with one of their special agents for at least one shift.

[Aidokea]

If you want other ideas, ones that are actually believable, we can surely give you some.

For example, how about a bunch of obnoxious 5 foot tall females that can't drive, shoot, fight, write decent reports, or even spell very well, but they got hired anyway, to satisfy the department's "diversity goals", because they are female, not white, and self-identify as lesbians.

They could be lazy, not answer the radio when called, abuse their sick leave, pile on a bunch of weight after probation, get in drunk-driving crashes, and whenever they are faced with any kind of righteous consequences for it, they could threaten to sue the department (again) for perceived discrimination.

[OldSilver]

It's a great idea, but I don't intend to damage the police's image; it's damaged hard enough.
I'm on your side; my family has a military background.
Have you watched https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2467372/

[tanksoldier]

His point is, those are far more believable because they actually exist. Your scenario isn't really possible.

[Aidokea]

How about a story of a bunch of peace officers in Portland Oregon, working 12 hour shifts, 7 days a week, getting attacked by rioting mobs of black-clad soi boys every single night for over a year, with improvised spears, molotov cocktails, wrist rockets firing glass marbles and big steel ball bearings, bricks, rocks, glass, ice, urine, feces, illegal high-powered lasers used to permanently blind numerous officers, occupied police stations barricaded and torched, and all kinds of other things, but the officers would be ordered by their beta mayor not to defend themselves, their city, the citizens, or the businesses that employ those citizens.

You could show the senior officers with the most skill and knowledge retiring and moving away to escape it, taking all that skill and knowledge with them when they leave. You could show large amounts of tenured officers leaving Portland for departments in parts of the country that don't treat peace officers like that. You could show the junior officers using massive amounts of overtime money they're earning when ordered to work all those hours, to buy ranches in Texas, and trying to figure out how long they have to put up with this until they are vested in the retirement plan so they can retire early and actually see their own families again. You could show officers injured in the line of duty in the riots, retiring on big fat pensions.

[Aidokea]

You could do a story filmed in real time, of a the 24 hours in the day of an officer doing DUI enforcement- you could show the 15 minutes that it takes to do a traffic stop and everything that leads up to the arrest, then the hour that it takes to process the prisoner and fill out all the forms at the station, then the three hours of typing to do the actual DUI report, with the officer getting off at sunrise...and then spending the whole day in court for a DUI trial for another offender. Then you could show him going home at 5:00 pm to pull his blackout shades, crank the air conditioner up and collapse into bed, having just spent 20 hours straight in his uniform. You could show his wife and kids eating dinner without him, as quietly as possible, because these 4 hours are his only chance for sleep before his alarm goes off at 9:00 pm, after his wife and kids have gone to bed, to wake him up to go back to work to do it all over again...

[OldSilver]

I appreciate your reflections on the life of the officers in the line of duty.

[tanksoldier]

...but you're not actually willing to write about any of it.