I put an application in at my local police department. Why do they want to know about traffic citations I might have got years ago? I can't even remember how many I got. I'm in my late 20's now and I know I got a bunch when I first got my license. I can remember a couple, but even them I can't remember the dates. I just put the best I could remember on the application. I hope it will be good.

How far back? I had to list all of the traffic tickets I ever received. The department I work for now only asked about tickets received within the last 10 years. This is not uncommom. You might have to worry if you have a pattern of bad driving or recent tickets.

They mostly want to see how honest you will be. They can find out how many citations you got from your driving record. You can do the same thing by requesting a copy of your driving record yourself. That is what you should do to make certain you are listing everything correctly.

St.Nick is right. The reasons they require you to list your driving record information might be to find out what kind of driver you are, to get an indication of honesty, and to get an indication of how detail oriented you are. Everyone should get a copy of their driving record before filling out applications for law enforcement officer jobs.

When I got hired about 25 years ago I had 4 speeding tickets under my belt. I know it is probably harder to get hired today than it was back then but if you have a lot to offer you can still get hired even though you have some tickets. Make sure you be honest and try to be as accurate as you can with the dates and let them know that you aren't sure about them.