FAQ's about CCSO Employment

[mod 167]

This thread has been created to help others find information about employment at CCSO or to learn more about CCSO in general. If you have questions about CCSO please feel free to ask it here and someone will respond with the answer.

Please only ask genuine questions about the CCSO. Members and Guest who wish to respond to questions, please keep your answers professional and limited to factual information.

As seen in previous threads, certain information posted may have the potential to invoke passionate discussions. The intent of this thread is to provide professional factual information about CCSO and the employment aspect simple, accurate and easy to read.

Should you feel that further discussion is needed about something you read here please start a new thread. This will allow for in-depth discussions without compromising the intent of this thread.

For more information on Employment and Careers at CCSO please feel free to visit our new website at:
http://www.colliersheriff.org

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http://www.youtube.com/colliercountysheriff

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As always, thank you for your interest and professional participation.

Mod 167

I am interested in applying for Collier, but I am a bit concerned over the recent talk about Cop's giving Cop's tickets and Internal Affairs actively targeting members. Is there any truth to this?

I am not sure this post should be on the FAQ sticky, but here goes-

As far as deputies ticketing each other, sadly this has happened on rare, specific occasions.However, these incidents had a number of other circumstances surrounding them and should not be taken as an indicator of relations within the department. The normal course of events is that professional courtesy is extended, hands are shaken, and we go our separate ways. We are a family, and we treat each other as such. This sort of thing does not occur here any more than in any other large agency, and in fact probably less than in a number of places...

The Professional Responsibility Bureau DOES actively target members- if they are committing crimes and violating policies. This is part of their job.
They actively investigate complaints and allegations, as they should. We police ourselves, which we must, considering the level of public scrutiny we find ourselves under. By the same token, the PRB folks, in my experience, DO NOT automatically assume the members guilt. We may often feel that the investigations take too long, and sometimes we don't all agree with the outcome, especially when it affects our freinds, but with all things considered, the level of public trust we enjoy at CCSO is a direct reflection of CCSO taking care of its own business.


Bottom line, if you are considering CCSO, this should not concern you, as long as you are honest and plan on doing what you are supposed to do...

I've got a few questions.

1. What is the recruiters email address. I've tried contacting HR and they have been little to no help. I know CCSO has a recruiter and I would like to ask her a few questions concerning my situation.

2. Where I work now, we are allowed to use our agency vehicles off-duty for personal use within the county. Yes there are drawbacks, but with the way gas prices are going it's a pretty nice luxury. Any chance CCSO will adport a similar policy anytime in the near future?

3. Curious what exactly your pursuit policy is.

To my knowledge, we don't actually have a full-time "recruiter"....We are all pretty much recruiters for the agency, as they give us a $1,000. for each person we refer who gets hired on. We do have a recruitment committee drawn from different divisions that assembles the recruitment campaign and goes to the job fairs, etc.
The way our process works, you turn in an initial application, at which time you are assigned a liasion person from HR who then shepards you through the process and becomes your agency contact. after the intial app, you are scheduled for a board interview. you then undergo a polygraph, a physical exam, a psych eval, a physical agility test and other pre-hire processes. These events occur at scheduled times, and they work with you if you need to change a day or time.
as far as nut and bolt job related questions, the HR people might not know some of the answers. In that case, you can ask questions here, stop almost any deputy you see ( if you happen to be in Collier) or, and this is probably the best thing, arrange for a ride along. For info on that, just call the main Sheriff's Office number and they will get you to the right person.
We have pretty liberal off-duty in-county use of our vehicles, with certain conditions, including monitoring the radio, stopping out to help people if they flag us down, etc. If you are going to transport the kids you need to fill out a form every year to get a waiver to do it, but it is mostly a formality. They know we have families and they work with us on it.
The pursuit policy is a couple of pages long, so I will summarize it for you. We can pursue for felonies, traffic misdemeanors, and in some cases infractions. When you call a pursuit, you will have to immediately provide the reason for the stop, the traffic conditions, the road/weather conditions, speed, direction of travel and any other relevant info (like driving pattern, is he waving a gun out the window, etc.) At that time the supervisor will make a determination as to the continuation of the pursuit.
A lot of the decision will be based on the offense coupled with the traffic conditions and speed. I have seen pursuits for fairly minor offenses be allowed to continue on open roads with no traffic, where the same pursuit would have been terminated at rush hour. It mostly comes down to public safety and common sense.
We have stop sticks and they are used often. As of this writing, CCSO has not yet adopted the PIT manuever, but it is supposedly in the works. Having said that, based on circumstances, it all depends. The supervisors, and by extension the deputies, are given enormous latitude, as long as they act responsibly.

I am sorry this ran so long, but hopefully I was able to answer some of your questions. Please post anything else you want to know about, everyone here welcomes the opportunity to be of service.

Good Luck!

How long does it take to get into a special assignment, like a plain clothes position? I am a bit burnt out of patrol (call to call) and would rather focus on putting the bad guys in jail. I don't enjoy working traffic!!

[oldschool]

Generally, you must have completed your 1 year probationary period (during which you will be assigned to Patrol) to be able to apply to a specialized unit. The specialized units each have their own competitive process to gain the postions.

oldschool, I have been up in ia many times and been around for many years, I have never seen ia "target" anyone.

Sounds good. Glad there are some brothers on here that can clear up things for me. How are the defense attorneys in Colllier? Any problems with depo's, trials and such? Not looking to spend a lot of time in court. Here in north florida, we pretty much have the run and dont have much trouble with 'em.

So you are allowed to use your cars off duty within the county? I was always under the impression that yall couldn't use them except for training or duty related tasks. Even the web page states that.

Do any of you know what the process is for someone coming back to CCSO that use to work there? I'm dual certified but only worked in the jail for Collier. Left to take a job on the road elsewhere in the state. May consider coming back to Collier due to family reasons, but not interested in starting back up in the jail. I know going from the jail to the road requires everything short of an application being submitted, so regardless I would have to go through the entire testing process again. I left on good standings with 2+ weeks notice and am curious if I would retain the seniority/pay I had when I left, or if I would start over from Day 1.