Hello all,

So I'm in a hairy situation. Becoming a police officer has been a life long dream of mine and my indecisiveness all these years have lead me to make some very poor decisions in life.

I'm recent college graduate with a B.A. I'm 25 years old. Last August I applied to my local police department and was disqualified after my initial backgrounds for being not matured and undisciplined, but I was given the choice to withdraw my files which I did.

I was disqualified for smoking marijuana (last time was April of 2012 ), I have experimented with MDMA (5 times) and cocaine (2 times). I know these are red flags and I deeply regret all these past decisions. I have been clean of all these substances since April 2012. I even cut my ties with the people I was associated with when I have taken these substances.

What I am asking from the community as a whole is if I still stand a chance in ever getting into police academy and what I can do to redeem myself. I understand we all make mistakes and I have no intentions of hiding my past. I understand what I have done was wrong how ever I also believe we all have the capability to make bad choices in life, mine being my weakness to peer pressure.

After I withdrew my files I spoke to a background investigator as to how I can climb my way up to be a worthy candidate and he said "Because I made these decisions at 25 I was past my experimental stage." My only qualm with that is I feel like I am a late bloomer and I came from a very sheltered family however it does not excuse my choices as being wrong. I feel to say I am past my experimental stage is generalizing me.

I would like to know if any of you board members have been in a similar situation I am going through and have been able to overcome this adversity to get into the academy. Any advice would be much appreciated from constructive criticism to being plain out blunt.

I still do plain on applying to a police department in the near future. I was thinking three years from now. And on the side was thinking of donating to rehab centers for drug abuse if that would help.

Thank you all again.

My department wouldn't hire you.

I see. Would joining the military and completing 4-8 years show I have matured and am disciplined?

It might, but my department wouldn't hire you. Other departments would.

Your chances of getting hired by any police department won't be good for sometime if you've used hard drugs in 2012. Even if you only used marijuana in 2012 most police departments wouldn't hire you for a few years. That is not to say it is impossible for you to get hired. Stay clean!

@Lt Thanks for the response and feed back. It really helps.

@JackT Thank you for your response. It certainly sheds some hope in applying in the future. And I agree with you that since I experimented just last year that it's too recent. I have no idea what I was thinking in applying the same year... But I have called and talk to various background investigators and they say 3 years minimum and 10 years max if I'm lucky.

What I would really like to know is if there is something else I can do to redeem myself other than staying clean (staying clean is no problem at all for me. My fault is I have succumb to peer pressure. I am in no ways addicted to the said substances or any other illegal substances).

Again thanks for the replies.

Waiting and not doing anything else that could jeopardize your chances of a department hiring you are the two biggest things to do.

Join the military. Police departments like to hire people with military experience. Go MP if you can!

You could always continue your education and get a master's degree