Police Officer

Description

JOB SUMMARY:

Performs general and specialized police work involving the enforcement of laws and ordinances, protecting life and property, detection and arrest of violators, crime prevention, community services or other specialized assignments of comparable responsibility.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:

• Patrols assigned area of the City, by automobile, motorcycle, on foot or Segway, for the prevention of crime and enforcement of all applicable criminal, traffic, and City Ordinances;
• Pursues offenders by patrol vehicle and on foot, stops offenders, subdues resisting offenders using force where appropriate, including deadly force, and arrests offenders;
• Responds to calls for service involving crimes such as robberies, assaults, homicides, and narcotics violations;
• Responds to general public service calls for civil or societal problems;
• Secures and protects the scene of a crime; makes arrests; books prisoners; determines suspect involvement in other crimes and investigates accordingly;
• Responds to hazardous materials incidents and traffic accidents; investigates traffic accidents; detects impaired drivers; administers first aid; directs traffic and requests medical assistance;
• Prepares reports to accurately document information;
• Participates in problem oriented policing efforts by identifying problem areas, recommending and implementing solutions, and monitoring the results;
• Handles hostage negotiations; performs suicide prevention interventions; transports mentally ill patients; performs surveillance operations;
• Performs a variety of general and specialized criminal investigations involving property and persons crimes; gathers evidence; preserves crime scene; prepares cases for prosecution; interviews persons involved in incidents;
• Writes and executes search warrants;
• Searches persons, places, and things;
• Seizes and impounds property and evidence;
• Transports persons and property;
• Performs crowd and riot control activities;
• Observes criminal behavior, and conducts law enforcement investigations to include the following critical tasks: protects crime and traffic accident scenes;
• Measures and diagrams crime and traffic accident scenes;
• Seizes and processes evidence;
• Assists distressed motorists; directs traffic; assists and refers mentally ill, indigent, and other persons in need;
• Performs evacuations; and moves persons, vehicles, and other property from unsafe locations;
• May select, direct, train and maintain canines;
• Appears in court as the States witness and delivers testimony;
• Provides police services at various special events in the City;
• Presents public relations programs to groups; presents other programs and participates in community functions;
• Performs assigned personnel functions in the area of training and record keeping;
• Presents testimony and evidence in both civil and criminal court proceedings;
• Records information and prepares detailed police reports of investigative findings with clearly organized thoughts using proper sentence construction, punctuation, and grammar;
• Investigates known or suspected criminals or facts of particular case to detect planned criminal activity or clues;
• Frequents known haunts of criminals and becomes familiar with criminals to determine criminals' habits, associates, characteristics, aliases, and other personal information;
• Records and reports such information to commanding officer;
• Investigates crimes and questions witnesses;
• Examines scene of crime to obtain clues and gather evidence;
• Investigates suspected persons and reports progress of investigation;
• Arrests or assists in arrest of criminals or suspects;
• Prepares assigned cases for court, according to formalized procedures;
• Participates in specialized tactical training such as SWAT, HDU, etc
• Trains and supervises new officers;
• Provides legal information to citizens;
• Responds to emergency situations relating to weather, on or off duty;
• Maintains vehicle and all equipment;
• Acts as official escort for city officials, funerals, and businesses; provides security at special events and functions, such as, court proceedings, council meetings and mass gatherings.

SECONDARY FUNCTIONS: Performs other related duties as required

SUPERVISORY FUNCTIONS: None.

Requirements

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS:

• The use of police equipment which includes vehicles, and weapons;
• The use of, electronic, and audio equipment;
• The use of crime scene evidence collection equipment;
• Principles and practices of modern police work and law enforcement methods;
• Federal, State and City laws governing Police operations, custody of prisoners, search and seizure, and the rules of evidences; departmental rules and regulations;
• General City law enforcement problems; geography of the City; layout of major facilities;
• Problem oriented policing; community agencies and other available resources;
• Methods of patrol, criminal, and traffic investigations;
• Must possess computer application skills that at a minimum include Microsoft Office Suite products including Word and Excel.

ABILITY:

• Analyze situations, maintain composure, make effective and reasonable decisions;
• Remember names, faces, and details of incidents;
• Establish and maintain effective relationships with those contacted in the course of work;
• Clearly and concisely document the facts and circumstances of a law enforcement incident;
• Correctly identify the elements of a crime and accurately record them in a police report for purposes of prosecution;
• Maintains proficiency in operating a variety of law enforcement tools including weapons, vehicles, and computers;
• Ability to add, subtract, multiply, and divide in all units of measure, using whole numbers, common fractions, and decimals; Ability to compute rate, ratio, and percent and to draw and interpret bar graphs;
• Ability to speak clearly and persuasively in positive or negative situations; listens and gets clarification; responds well to questions; participates in meetings;
• Ability to write clearly and informatively; edits work for spelling and grammar; able to read and interpret written information;
• Ability to follow instructions, responds to management direction; completes tasks on time or notifies appropriate person with an alternate plan;
• Ability to meet scheduling and attendance requirements.

CERTIFICATIONS, LICENSES, REGISTRATIONS:

• Must be 21 years of age at the time of entering the Police Academy;
• Valid Driver's / Motorcycle License;
• POST Police Officer Certification; must be obtained after six months of employment
• Must continuously meet all the requirements and standards of POST.

REQUIRED EDUCATION/OR EXPERIENCE:

High School Diploma or GED

PREFERRED EDUCATION/OR EXPERIENCE:

Associate's degree (A.A.) or equivalent from two year-college or technical school; or two to three years related experience and/or training; or equivalent combination of education and experience.

PHYSICAL CONDITIONS:

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to stand; use hands to finger, handle, or feel; reach with hands and arms and talk or hear. The employee is frequently required to walk. The employee is occasionally required to sit; climb or balance; stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl and taste or smell. The employee must regularly required to lift and/or move, push or pull up to 25 pounds and occasionally required to lift and/or move, push or pull up to 50 pounds without assistance and up to 100 pounds or more with assistance. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision and peripheral vision.

WORKING CONDITIONS:

The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly exposed to moving mechanical parts; high, precarious places; fumes or airborne particles; toxic or caustic chemicals; outside weather conditions; risk of electrical shock and explosives. May be exposed to emergency, dangerous and life threatening situations, very stressful situations.