I have horrible credit, but passed my police oral exam and agility test, Will I still get in with my credit?

Question

I have horrible credit, probably in debt of about 20k, but I am looking to repair it. I passed my oral exam and police agility test already. I know if i do get accepted to the police academy I plan to make arrangements to consolidate it and pay it all off during my first year as an officer. Do you think they will take that into consideration? I will live with my parents and plan to change and show responsibility with no bills, but my debt. So any opolice officers or anyone have any input on this.

Answer 1

My department considered bad credit as a risk because it makes some people vulnerable to corruption.
You will probably have an interview when your background starts. That will be the time to talk about your credit problem and what you are doing to correct it.
I would recommend that you begin to make payments on all of your bills to show that you are attempting to correct the situation.
Best of luck to you.

Answer 2

Without a doubt they will look at your credit history, I personally spent many hours explaining why I had gotten behind on a single Capital One account when I was going through the process. The department eventually had requested a release letter from the creditor showing proof that I paid the balance before they would extended an offer of employment. If you are behind on your bills, there are several things that concern background investigators. #1. Will you be tempted to exploit your position? Take bribes? Steel some seized drug money? Commit a crime to fix your money problems? #2. Are you irresponsible? How did you get behind on your bills to begin with. #3. Is there anything out there that someone can blackmail you with? #4. Do you have a gambling problem? You will not automatically be excluded because of your credit, but you better be able to explain how you got there, and be complelling that you have learned the error of your ways, and are on the road to financial stability.

Answer 3

Credit can very much be a factor. We always run credit checks on all of our applicants, sworn and non-sworn. If someone has a fair (not excessive) amount of debt but they are paying on time and not constantly delinquent, we don't have a problem. A couple of late pays in the past (over 1 year) don't matter a whole lot, we realize everybody's human. Excessive debt, late pays, recent bankruptcies are almost always disqualifiers.
The reason for this is we feel that if you are in trouble financially, you may be vulnerable to bribes or other unethical conduct and that you can't manage your personal life too well. If that's the case, you're going to have difficulty telling others how to handle their problems.

Answer 4

You are allowed to write a letter to a credit reporting service and explain in your own words what happened and what you are going to do about it.

It is essentially an acknowledgement that you know there's a problem and you are actively pursuing a fix for it (ex: "I'm pursuing a career change and I intend to pay this debt off within a year"). It will go into your credit report, and anyone doing a credit check will get the text of that message along with the rest of your credit history.

Answer 5

Having bad credit can hurt your chances of getting a police officer job. Having bad credit and a lot of debt is worse. However, the reason(s) why you have bad credit and debt might be considered. Do what you can to improve your credit and reduce your debt. Getting police officer jobs is becoming more and more competitive. Any red flags can hurt your chances of getting hired by some departments.

Answer 6

While it depends on the department, they almost always look at your credit. The reason being, they want to make sure you can handle your money (police officers have to live as examples even when they're off-duty). If you can show that you're working on it, and doing better now, then when you got into debt, more than likely, you SHOULD be okay.

Answer 7

Lots of good answers on this list. It depends on the agency and their hiring practices, but in my experience, most agencies do look at credit history as one of many factors in determining a person's character. Think about it, they really don't know YOU as a person, so they have to look at your entire background to get a picture of what you are like. If you have never been arrested, have a pretty clear driving history, good job attendance history, good references, good academics, and the credit is the only blemish, you might be okay.

Consider also writing a letter to your Personnel Services Bureau (or the hiring department) explaining the source of the debt and outlining your plans to fix it. Show how your budget will allow you to do that.

Answer 8

Speaking as a recently retired Police Officer, your question says alot about how you have been preparing yourself for a career in Law Enforcement. I believe the obvious answer is within your question. If your not in shape take 3-4 weeks and get into shape, consentrating on your upper body Strength and cardio vascular. You dont have to join a gym to get into shape, simple push ups and pull ups along with sit ups and some sort of cardio work should be good enough as long as dedicate at least 1/2 hour everyday to your physical fittness. Police fittness test usually consentrate on upper body strength and cardio but you dont have to be physical fittness nut to pass.

Answer 9

Possibly, however, credit is one of many things Police Departments take into consideration when deciding to hire someone or not. If you have significant amount of debt it can adversely effect your chances of being hired, and bad credit does not look good either.

From my own experience I have known several people whom have been denied employment solely because of excessive debt. The reasoning being a police officer with significant debt is more prone to certain pressures than one who is not (i.e. taking bribes, extortion, theft of seized goods, etc ..).

Answer 10

You might think it plays a small role, yes and no. It depends on how the debt was obtained. Student loans... OK. If it was from other less responsible expenditures it may hurt you. As this may show a weakness in character.

Any change in your spending habits will have to be over time. Develop a new track record, a history of new responsible spending habits. It will be tough, but that's life.

Good luck. :)