Employment at CCSO - Page 2
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  1. #11
    Guest

    Re: Employment at CCSO

    Thank you for your posting. Was there any road patrol applicant taking the same physical agility test with you? Or there is a different test for C.O.

  2. #12
    Junior Member
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    Re: Employment at CCSO

    Hello Sadaf,
    Yes there were LEOs at the agility test as well. They had to do the exact same thing as the COs.

  3. #13
    Guest

    Re: Employment at CCSO

    Hi 9QANfHtr

    Did they tell you when to report to the academy?
    Also, do you guys wear the CCSO uniform or academy provides own? keep us posted.

  4. #14
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    Re: Employment at CCSO

    I think the current group hired is supposed to start the academy tomorrow (January 13).

    The academy has a specific uniform you are supposed to wear. CCSO buys it for us since we are being sponsored. You have to get it from Hamilton's Uniforms in Fort Myers.

  5. #15
    Guest

    Re: Employment at CCSO

    Thank you. Your postings have been great.
    Could you keep us posted on your first day at the academy, the daily routines, class room, participation, work load and studying, etc.
    It makes it much easier for everyone to know what to expect at the academy for 4 months.
    Thank you

  6. #16
    Guest

    Re: Employment at CCSO

    To: 9QANfHtr
    Any news or update on academy?
    I just got my call to go down for 4days testing (polygraph, psyc.,physical, and agility test).
    Could you please provide some details about the steps after testing.

  7. #17
    Junior Member
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    Re: Employment at CCSO

    The academy sucks. I will just come right out and say it. From what I've heard about other academies in the state, this academy is better than some but worse than others. Depending on what you are good at and what you are bad at, this could be very easy or very hard. The best way to put it is that they want to try to make this like military boot camp. The difference is they are not as mean as the military and you still get to go home every night. But there is some yelling and there is a lot of discipline. Everyone's experience is different. Some people don't think it was too bad and others think it was the hardest thing they have ever done in their life. It is really all up in the air. The bright side to being sponsored by Collier is that they get you prepared before you go. They are not going to send you into that mess blind like some other counties do.

    When you get hired, Collier will make you read the entire agency's policy and procedure. You sit in a computer lab all day for a couple of weeks and read hundreds (if not thousands) of pages of policy and procedure. Once you get done with that, they start what they call "pre-academy training." They focus on three main areas: Physical fitness (PT), academics, and drill & ceremony (drill). PT is pretty self-explanatory. They make you do a lot of workouts and things that you will probably have to do in the academy's PT. If you are in shape, it isn't too hard. If you are out of shape, it can suck really bad. Especially since you have to be there at 7 in the morning. But you are probably going to be with a whole group of people that got hired at the same time you did and they have to do it too. So you have company. They have some guys from the CERT and SWAT teams come help out and sometimes they even let groups use the Naples PD's SWAT obstacle course.That is very rough. But it teaches you the value of teamwork. And by the time you're done you realize that if you could finish that obstacle course, you can finish anything.

    Academics consist of just sitting in a room and reading the academy books. I suggest you use the time wisely. The more information you retain before the academy the easier the academy tests will be to study for. I'll get more into the academy later in this post.

    Drill and ceremony is essentially just marching and doing stuff like that. You learn how to salute and "fall-in" and "Fall-out." It isn't hard but it does take some practice. If you are lucky enough to get hired with a group of people that were in the military, they can help you. I had a few in my group and it made things so much easier because they can give you little tips about stuff. They have, after all, been doing it for years.

    But you do all of that for a few weeks and then you start the academy. The first day of the academy is like the first day of any other school. Nobody wants to be there, everyone is anxious, and there is a lot of confusion. But it is nice when you have a whole group of collier people that are doing this stuff with you. My advice is to make friends with your group as soon as you meet them. You guys are going to be going through a lot together. I promise you that being good friends with each other makes it easier on everyone.

    Anyway, the first thing you do when you arrive at 6:50 is warm up. You run a lap around their track, do 100 jumping jacks (they call them side straddle hops), do 100 flutter kicks, and 40 pushups. Right now, even before you get hired, I'd recommend working on that stuff. Work on running, flutter kicks, and pushups. They will be working those muscles hard and it helps to be good at them now. But then you do a lot of different stretches that are not hard. Then you take your initial PT assessment. You run 1.5 miles, do push-ups, sit-ups, get weighed, and they make you jump as high as you can. They will give you another one of these tests at the end of the academy. What they want is for you to improve your scores. The only things they care about though are the 1.5 mile run, push-ups, and sit-ups. You need to run the 1.5 miles in at least 15 minutes by the end of the academy, but still show improvement over your first score. For example, if you ran it at 16 minutes the first day, and on the last day you ran it at 15 minutes, you pass. But if you ran it at 15 minutes the first day and the last day, you still fail because you did not improve. They do not have set marks for push-ups and sit-ups, but need to show improvement. So if you did 1 push-up the first day, you better be able to do 2 the last day.

    At about 8 they tell you to go hit the showers. The female locker room is very small and does not have many shower stalls. The men's locker room is bigger but the showers are all open in a giant room (similar to that of a prison :P ). Nobody likes this and some people have a hard time dealing with being naked in front of everyone else. My advice though is to just do it. Nobody is actually looking at you and everyone hates it. But don't let yourself be the guy in your class that doesn't shower and smells terrible the whole day. The key to the academy is to blend in and do not make yourself stand out. Depending on how many fire academy classes, CO classes, and Law Enforcement classes there are, the locker room can get very crowded. Just try your best to hurry up and do everything you can at home (like shave) to save time.

    You need to be in your classroom by 8:30. You usually have assigned seats but sometimes the instructor will let you sit wherever you want. But pick a seat that you like the first day because it probably will be your seat the whole academy. You will be in class learning stuff out of the book all morning. Depending on what chapter you are on, you will have different instructors teaching different things. So one day you might have instructor A and the next instructor B. You have the teachers that you like and the ones you don't. My advice, behave. The quickest way to get your ass kicked is to misbehave. Shut up, and pay attention. If someone else in your class is misbehaving, pull them aside and tell them that they need to cool it. You are all on a team and you need to get that military mindset before you go.

    You have to be out in the parking lot by 9:50 to raise the American Flag. They call it "Flag." You will be in formation and whatnot. This is where your drill practice comes into play. This becomes the easiest part of your day.

    Then you are back in the classroom the rest of the day. You get an hour for lunch (some people get an hour and a half depending on the class) which usually starts at 11:30 or noon. You are allowed to leave campus if you want but make sure to be back in the classroom when it is over and start learning again until the day ends at 4.

    Then you go home and have to study your ass off. Do not think for a minute that you will not have to study very very hard. I am a generally good student and I've been through college. But I had to study every spare moment of my day to get good grades on the exams. There is a lot of information to learn and your tests come up very fast. You might learn a whole chapter on Monday, take the test on Tuesday, learn the next chapter on Wednesday, and take another test on Thursday. Study. I cannot put it any better than that. You need to get at least an 80% on every test to pass. If you fail a single test, you will be put on what is called the "bubble." Mr. Martin (the academy CO coordinator, kind of like a principal) might let you take the test over again. The keyword there is "might." You better have a good excuse for why you failed. If you take it over again and pass, you better not fail another test the rest of the academy. If you fail a test after being put on the bubble, you will be kicked out of the academy. So in short, you are not allowed to get below an 80% on any test, otherwise you will be kicked out.

    Once a week you have Defensive Tactics (DT). Basically this is like self defense class. They also teach you handcuffing and disarming, and some stuff that you will need to know as a CO or LEO. Collier makes you do some of it in pre-academy training so you at least have a foundation. The key is to pay attention. If you miss a single step the whole thing fails. Anyway, once a week you have DT. It gets very very hot in the DT room. You are wearing pants and a shirt and are doing a lot of exercising. It sucks. But thankfully you only have that for about a month and then it is over. At some point, you have an entire week of DT. The first three days you are finishing up actually techniques you need to know, the next day you get OC sprayed (more on this later) and the last day you have your final test in it. You take a written test and then have to be able to perform the actual techniques in front of the instructors.

    Normally, every morning you have PT at the academy. It consists of various workouts. Again, this sucks for some people. In fact, most people think it sucks. The key is just to actually try. They cannot fail you if you are incapable of doing certain things. But if you do not at least try, you will fail. One example is if you walk instead of run. It does not matter if you run really slow, just make sure you keep running. If you run really fast but then have to stop and walk to catch your breath, you will fail. Make sense? However, on days when you have DT, you do not usually have PT. Sometimes they make you PT and that turns into a very bad day, but usually you have drill in place of PT. That is where they try to teach you more marching and things like that. They sometimes do uniform inspections and whatnot. It is not that bad. It is an easy way to kill and hour in the morning once you actually learn all the movements and everything. The instructor seems like a **** at times but he is actually a very cool guy if pay attention to what he is telling you. The academy is not the place to goof off.

    On Thursdays in PT you have to drive to North Fort Myers where you run across the Edison Bridge. You will meet at the Harbor side Event Center at 6:50 and do your warm up and everything. Again, my personal belief is that this whole thing is stupid. It becomes a long drive for some people and parking can be difficult in that area (you have to pay to park at the parking meters). The bridge is 1.5 miles. You have to run it down and back. So you run 3 miles that day. That is not hard if you pace yourself. I'm a big guy so it was a little harder for me but I learned I could take longer strides and pace myself and I always finished in a good time. The view from the bridge would be very pretty if it were not for all the sweat dripping into your eyes. The bridge has an arch in it so at times you are running uphill and it kills your legs. But everyone has to do it almost every Thursday (weather permitting).

    Speaking of weather, if the weather is bad and you cannot be outside for PT, you have to go inside the DT room for PT. And that is the worst exercise regime you could possibly do. They punish you for there being bad weather. Whatever you do, pray to god that the weather outside is nice. Even if it is cold, do not complain because they will send you to the DT room and it is simply awful in there. I'd rather run that bridge than do PT in the DT room.

    Spray day is not bad. It is the second to last day of DT. Basically you get sprayed with OC spray and have to run a small obstacle course. It is not as bad as the full strength stuff you use in the jail or the military uses. But it still sucks. My advice is to ignore the hose. They tell you to wash it out of your eyes when you are done but that does not help. Hold your eyes open and get the wind in there. It will burn worse for a few minutes but it will eventually stop. If you put water on it, it will just keep reactivating and hurting. Yes, it will reactivate when you get in the shower the next morning. But the rest of spray day is okay, you pretty much just sit around and watch movies that day.

    You also have first aid days and things like that. First aid is self-explanatory and not too bad. Just pay attention. You also have firearms training. Although this sounds fun, it is very very boring. You do it at Lee County Sheriff's Office Shooting Range. It is indoors and is a very nice facility, but it is very loud and very cold. Unfortunately, if you are like me and already know a thing or two about guns then it sucks because they spend a lot of time talking about safety and the actual parts of the guns. And if you are in certain habits, they will yell at you because they want you to do it a certain way. Whatever you do, do not call it a "clip." Call it a "magazine." Other than that, at least you get to shoot stuff. You will use a Glock 22 .40, 12 gauge shotgun, AR15, and M4. However, you only have to qualify (get tested on) the Glock 22 and the shotgun. The test is not hard. And if you fail, they will make you come back the next day and try again. It shouldn't be a problem for most people. But this is not the place to screw around. They are very serious and demand a lot of focus.

    Lastly, they have a thing called the Officer of the Day (OD). Every day, someone in your class is the OD. It goes alphabetically. The OD is in charge of calling the class to attention when the instructor walks in, relaying questions and information to Mr. Martin, and for doing cadence in PT (ask your training sergeant more about this when you get into pre-academy). It sucks. Some people have to do it more times than others depending on your last name. My advice for this is to pay very close attention to the people that have to do it before you. Ask questions and make sure you have the system down perfectly when it comes time for you to be OD. The OD can make your class look very bad if they do not know what they are doing.

    That is really about all I can tell you about actual operations. But I have included a small list of tips for you:

    1. If given the opportunity, buy extra PT clothes. They are cheap ($6 for shirts and $7 for shorts). Buy a lot of the shirts because you wear those in PT and your regular uniform. If something happens to one of the shirts (you sweat too much, you forget to bring another one, ect.) it is nice to have more. If nothing else, you won't have to do as much laundry.

    2. Be mature. I assume that if you get hired by Collier you are already a mature person. But collier has a great reputation and they expect you to uphold it. The academy is very strict. This is not high school or college. This is a watered down version of military boot camp. Blend in and do not make yourself stand out. But be mature, professional, and work hard. Do not goof off.

    3. Be prepared to feel like you are in the military. They make this academy a watered down version of boot camp. So get in that mindset and it will make things easier on you. If you have military people in your class, follow their lead because they know how the system works. It is not like a drill sergeant yelling at you, but there will be times when they belittle you and make you feel about an inch tall. They are strict and have a lot of rules that are...frankly stupid. But they think tradition and discipline makes or breaks a man. Most of the military guys will even think that some of the stuff going on in the academy is dumb. But you have to do it so just try to get done.

    4. Get close with your classmates. Even people that are not from collier, bring them into your circle. Whatever you do, avoid letting cliques start. That is the easiest way to get trouble started. My class was great in that rumors were not being spread and people were not bullied. But some classes make it like high school again and try to make things worse. Nobody in that academy gives a shit about you and nobody at collier has the authority to help you there. The only people you have are your classmates. You are all in the same boat. So look out for each other. Support each other at all costs. If someone sucks at PT, do not belittle them. Give them support and turn around and run next to them. The instructors love to see that mentality too. So if you have the big fat guy that is in the back of the line and cannot keep up, your whole class should turn around and fall in and run behind him and cheer him on. It sounds dumb but you will understand when you get there. Leave no man behind as they say. If someone is doing something wrong, tell them. If they are acting up, talk to them. If they are in trouble, cover for them. By the end of the academy, I promise you that you will be best friends. You guys will have gone through stuff together that you will never forget. You all might end up in different units, different agencies, and who knows what. But I assure you that you will all be best friends at the end of it because of the shit you had to go through together.

    5. Lastly, Take it one day at a time. It will go by a lot faster. You need to plan ahead for stuff, obviously, but don't worry about things on down the road. Worry about what is right in front of you. That 4 months feels like 4 years. But when you are done, it will be a huge relief.

    I don't want to scare you. Everyone has a different experience in the academy. Some people did not mind it too much and others hated it beyond anything else. I fell in the middle somewhere. I hated most aspects of it, but once I figured out how things worked it was easier to get through it. Some very embarrassing stuff is going to happen to you in that academy. But it does everyone. My advice would not to make this the deciding factor in whether or not you take the job. This is just a terrible thing you have to go through to get that job. The job is great. The academy, not so much. But it makes you appreciate your job a lot more and you realize the shit that men and women before you have gone through. No, it is not as bad as boot camp. But they try to make it as close to it as they can. In the grand scheme of things, this just becomes part of your life. You learn to live with the yelling and you learn to live with the rules. It gets easier and easier the longer you are there. But the time you reach the halfway point it is not so bad. I look at it like a preview of what the inmates have to go through when they are in jail. Why do you have to get OC sprayed? So that you know what it feels like when you spray someone. Why do you have to go through the academy? So that you know what jail is like when you incarcerate people.

    Most of this stuff will be explained to you on down the road. My advice to you is workout. That is the single best thing you can do for yourself right now. It will make things easier on you for the academy and pre-academy. DT, firearms, first aid, PT, spray day, ect. all require a good deal of physical fitness. The better you are now the easier it will be later.

    A couple notes, you need white socks for PT. They will not let you have black socks or anything. They can be no-show, ankle, or even tube socks if you want. You need long black socks for your boots. Yes, you will have to buy boots. You need 8 inch tactical black boots. I suggest you get a watch too. There will be many times, especially as OD, when you need to know what time it is and cell phones are not allowed anywhere near that campus. And get yourself some shower shoes and some hair/body wash for the showers.

    I hope I helped answer some questions you had. As a disclaimer to everyone, like I said the experience for everyone is different. I did not necessarily enjoy my academy experience because I felt like most of the stuff they are trying to teach us and force down our throats is unnecessary and useless. I do not like doing stuff that does not help me later down the road. But at the same time, I made some great friends and developed a new way of thinking that can only happen when you've gone through the academy. If you are a shy person, an out of shape person, or a just a laid back person, this will be harder for you than other people. However, these characteristics will be knocked out of you. The academy hits you and hits your hard. These traits will almost instantly be erased. The academy is made to break you down and rebuild you into the type of person they want you to be. It really doesn't matter what kind of a person you are. At the end of the academy, you will be a completely new person.

    If you guys have any other questions, comments, or concerns, please don't hesitate to ask. Sorry that it took so long for me to respond. I actually forgot about this topic. I'll try my best to answer any other questions you all have. For those of you that will be going to the academy, please do not like this stuff scare you. It is hard to describe but it is one of those things that you hate but can get through if you just put your mind to it. Your decisions should be based off of the jail, not the academy. As collier for a tour of the jail and (dare I say it) watch some lockdown shows to get a better idea of what you really want to do. This is a great job. You have the opportunity to make a good living with great benefits. There are a million different places you can go (gang, vice & narcotics, road deputy, swat, cert, K9, ect.). And collier is, hands down, the best agency in the state.

    Good luck everyone.

  8. #18
    Senior Member LEO Affairs Sergeant
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    Naples, Florida
    Posts
    292

    Re: Employment at CCSO

    Thank you 9QANfHtr for taking the time to post about your hiring and training experience!

    The effort you have put forth will go to aid many others going through the same process and I appreciate the time and willingness you gave to help fellow applicants out.

    The experience you had while attending the academy will be something that you will always remember and in the beginning of your career, will reflect upon often. As you gain experience and time within the agency, many of the things you thought were not necessary or useless within the academy will finally start to make sense as to why they had you do all the things you did. Believe it or not, there is a method to their madness and it is based on generations of lessons learned and those who gave the ultimate sacrifice to their community. Sometimes it will take years or it may only take a few weeks but no matter the length of time, all of the lessons learned and silly routines accomplished will aid you in going home after an OH SH!T moment out of no where!! As you sit back and reflect on the details that led up to that event and the actions taken during the event, it is then you will finally appreciate everything you did in the academy! But more importantly, its now time to apply the same learning principles with your FTO. Together, both training environments will give you everything you need to realize that you are only human and it only takes a second to put yourself in a situation where you could end your career or your life.

    Good luck at CCSO, you are correct, it is the best agency in the state!

    Based on what I have read so far, I have no doubt that you will have a long and meaningful career with our agency.

    See ya out there!

    Mod 167

  9. #19
    Guest

    Re: Employment at CCSO

    I finished up all of my testing (Poly, Psych, Medical, Physical, Agility etc...) last Tuesday (9 days ago) and have yet to hear back from them. How long does the process normally take for them to get back to you? Thank you for the help

  10. #20
    Guest

    Re: Employment at CCSO

    What is the typical time frame they hire deputy after completing all required testing?

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