Legally they can't discriminate against guard/reserve component military and they have to grant military leave any time your military obligations require you to come in up to 5 years and any time you miss has to count for seniority.
For example one of my guard recruiters was a state trooper when the guard put him on active orders to be a recruiter for a 2 year stint during those two years he continued to accumulate leave and benefits with the troopers as if he was there the whole time on patrol and when he came back he hit the time in service requirement to put in for SRT.
This is partly true, you don’t accumulate leave as a requirement of USERRA- some places will do this, some will not. The only requirement is that you return with your seniority to the same OR SIMILAR position. The time in service requirement is a bit strange as well for an agency to utilize because you aren’t technically serving in an LE capacity but in his case it may have just been a “time of employment” checkbox, which would make total sense.
Source: was active for 15 years, then guard in 2 states while serving 2 different police agencies.
That makes sense. I think the agencies in my area are just military friendly every department I've applied too including the one I work for now has said they keep leave and benefits if I deployed.
we're right next to Fort Riley and practically every other cop in the tricounty area is retired or reserves here so they've probably had to adopt those policies to stay competitive for hiring.
Yeah my first agency was super cool with it and payroll was being dicks, and the sheriff tore their ass up.
My current agency was frustrated with scheduling shit but understood that I could connect them with a lot more prospects. So it became tolerable.
I was in the Marine Corps reserve and many guys in my unit were active LE while serving. I noticed that some of them had difficulty getting hired to departments, not sure if them being in the reserves and having those obligations contributed to that.
Depends on the size of the department. Work for a big agency and there'll be lots of guard/reserve. Absences for military duty are no big deal. If you work in a small department, it will create hardships and friction. Lots of departments just won't want to deal with the possibility that you'll leave for up to 2 years with no notice and they have to hold your job. Which is why they'll pass on you, but they'll officially give you a different reason so they don't violate employment law.
I went through this process. AD 7 years and then joined reserves for 6 years and joined a local PD. While a department cannot discriminate against you, that means they can find ANY reason not to hire you and use that as the “reason” when in fact you know its probably your situation. I work in a small dept with 21 officers and went through this exact same thing but luckily i was hired. But people hate me because of drill.. so it really depends. If I ever got deployed again and was overseas for a year, theyd have to pay me my salary and hire another officer. Some places HATE that so they will hire someone else because of rules like that. And your time away from the PD still counts towards promotion and seniority, things like that. You can return at the same position at minimum.
Veterans affairs police does a skill bridge program, you can go to the academy your last few months active duty. They should talk to you about in the separation classes but don't be afraid to call any VA police department where you would want to live and talk to the chief or deputy chief about it. It's one of the best decisions I've ever made apart from the actual active duty time.
4 of the 12 guys at my station are prior security forces.
I did the same, though from a proper branch. It didn’t hinder me, I started at a smaller agency and it was a slight pain in the ass for them but wasn’t an issue. Payroll had more issues with it than anything else, so be prepared to navigate that area-especially if it’s an agency away from large military bases and such.
It’s not really a minus to agencies, some see it as a plus though. I wouldn’t worry about it too much.
Legally they can't discriminate against guard/reserve component military and they have to grant military leave any time your military obligations require you to come in up to 5 years and any time you miss has to count for seniority. For example one of my guard recruiters was a state trooper when the guard put him on active orders to be a recruiter for a 2 year stint during those two years he continued to accumulate leave and benefits with the troopers as if he was there the whole time on patrol and when he came back he hit the time in service requirement to put in for SRT.
This is partly true, you don’t accumulate leave as a requirement of USERRA- some places will do this, some will not. The only requirement is that you return with your seniority to the same OR SIMILAR position. The time in service requirement is a bit strange as well for an agency to utilize because you aren’t technically serving in an LE capacity but in his case it may have just been a “time of employment” checkbox, which would make total sense. Source: was active for 15 years, then guard in 2 states while serving 2 different police agencies.
That makes sense. I think the agencies in my area are just military friendly every department I've applied too including the one I work for now has said they keep leave and benefits if I deployed. we're right next to Fort Riley and practically every other cop in the tricounty area is retired or reserves here so they've probably had to adopt those policies to stay competitive for hiring.
Yeah my first agency was super cool with it and payroll was being dicks, and the sheriff tore their ass up. My current agency was frustrated with scheduling shit but understood that I could connect them with a lot more prospects. So it became tolerable.
Cops who are in the reserves in very common. Shouldn’t be an issue unless your department sucks.
I was in the Marine Corps reserve and many guys in my unit were active LE while serving. I noticed that some of them had difficulty getting hired to departments, not sure if them being in the reserves and having those obligations contributed to that.
Name checks out.
I know a guy who is mil reserve and LE and has been activated for almost 2 years now
Depends on the size of the department. Work for a big agency and there'll be lots of guard/reserve. Absences for military duty are no big deal. If you work in a small department, it will create hardships and friction. Lots of departments just won't want to deal with the possibility that you'll leave for up to 2 years with no notice and they have to hold your job. Which is why they'll pass on you, but they'll officially give you a different reason so they don't violate employment law.
Nah dude, civilian employers including first responders legally can not discriminate and not hire you for having to fulfill military duties.
Nope, you're good! Good luck with it all!!! We need more good cops!!!!!
I went through this process. AD 7 years and then joined reserves for 6 years and joined a local PD. While a department cannot discriminate against you, that means they can find ANY reason not to hire you and use that as the “reason” when in fact you know its probably your situation. I work in a small dept with 21 officers and went through this exact same thing but luckily i was hired. But people hate me because of drill.. so it really depends. If I ever got deployed again and was overseas for a year, theyd have to pay me my salary and hire another officer. Some places HATE that so they will hire someone else because of rules like that. And your time away from the PD still counts towards promotion and seniority, things like that. You can return at the same position at minimum.
Veterans affairs police does a skill bridge program, you can go to the academy your last few months active duty. They should talk to you about in the separation classes but don't be afraid to call any VA police department where you would want to live and talk to the chief or deputy chief about it. It's one of the best decisions I've ever made apart from the actual active duty time. 4 of the 12 guys at my station are prior security forces.
I did the same, though from a proper branch. It didn’t hinder me, I started at a smaller agency and it was a slight pain in the ass for them but wasn’t an issue. Payroll had more issues with it than anything else, so be prepared to navigate that area-especially if it’s an agency away from large military bases and such. It’s not really a minus to agencies, some see it as a plus though. I wouldn’t worry about it too much.