Probationary Police Officer

Blue Bloods and NCIS made being a cop look like high-speed chases and dramatic interrogations. The reality is closer to a 23-year-old probationary constable at 3 in the morning, parked at a random breath test site on a quiet country highway, asking the next driver to count to 10. Becoming a police officer in New South Wales runs through the associate degree in policing practice, delivered by Charles Sturt University at the Police Academy in Galburn. Four months of distance learning online, eight months residential at the academy, fully paid at $1,360 a week, recruits cover law, firearms, defensive tactics, driving, first aid, and scenario-based incident response. After attestation comes 12 more months on the job as a probationary constable, supervised by a field training officer, the day on general duties is responding to triple-zero calls, domestic violence jobs, motor vehicle accidents, brake and enters, mental health crises, writing up the cop's event narrative after every job, running people and vehicles through the police database, giving evidence in the local court for the matters they charged.