Delaware State Police

The year is 1776 and our founding fathers just declared our independence from England.
At this time the major police force was the National Guard. Fast forward to the year 1903 and the
state of Pennsylvania just adopted the first modern state police department in the nation. In the
coming years other states adopted the need for a state police. It wasnt until 1919 that the little
old first state of Delaware got a unified police department the name however wasnt changed too
State Police until 1925 (DSP History). Although at first the it was known as the highway traffic
police which started out as 14 officers working 12 hour shifts in a construction shack in
Claymont Delaware and be responsible for the entire state of Delaware. Close to a hundred years
later with hundreds of officers all over the state of Delaware with 9 troop locations. . The
amount of different types of services that the State Police have gained over the year has grown
too, from its start of just highway patrol it now has units ranging from aviation too scuba and
homeland security division.
The requirements to become a Delaware state police has changed over the years from
back when it first started anyone could do it granted they passed the academy, now you have to
have at least a 2 year degree or 60 credit hours or 30 credit hours with 2 years of active duty in
the military. The degree you need to become a police officer recruit is limitless and can be any
degree under the sun which they prefer to have a better group of certain background knowledge.
You have to be no younger than 21 upon completing the academy and no older then the age 39
before the first day of the academy. You do not have to be Delaware residents when you apply
for the academy but you do have to gain residency upon successfully completing the academy. A
recruits vision can be no worse than 20/40 uncorrected and must have glasses or contacts able to

correct vision to 20/20. Any drug usage under 2 years before applying to the academy is an
automatic disqualification from the acceptant process. (DSP recruitment)

You dont automatically become a police officer upon receiving a diploma you still have
to pass the police academy which is a 6 month course which will teach you everything you need
to know too be a police officer. The police academy is much like military boot camp but in the
police academy you will have to be there longer 6 months compared to 10 weeks basic training
respectively. Being that it is based around military boot camp it is a must that you get in shape
and be prepared to get screamed at a lot. Most police agencies expect there recruits too have
work experiences working with the public that can range from being a cashier too lost
prevention. (DSP recruitment) The things you will learn in the academy are firearm training,
boxing/ hand to hand combat, along with all the proper ways on how to detain a suspect, too
proper maneuvering of your squad car to get out of harms way. The academy is made to be very
physically demanding and also mentally stressful to better prepare you for the everyday life of
being a police officer which is a stress level that is constantly evaluated because you dont know
when you pull over a car for a traffic stop that could be the last thing you ever do.

A great amount of technological improvements have come over the past hundred years
that the State Police has been around. For instance when a citizen wanted to get ahold of a
nearby police officer they couldnt just call the police station with their problem for the simple
fact that there was no radio communication from the station to the office. Instead they would
have to call a nearby store who was a part of the flag system, meaning that the store owner

would put a flag in the window of the store too get the attention of the nearby officer to tell them
of the problem. To solve this problem they adopted the two way radio which was put in the
squad cars of each officer. By 1951 the Delaware State Police got the states first polygraph
machine or lie detector which they used to combat crime and is still in use today and every
officer must pass a polygraph test to gain entrance to the police academy (DSP recruitment). In
1987 the Automated Fingerprint Identification System was put to use it allowed officers to
compare finger prints of suspects to the national database of fingerprints to compare fingerprints
with other states records.
Being a police officer can be very rewarding and also very dangerous all at the same
time. You have the ability to make a difference in someones life either good or bad. You have
the ability to help someone make good decisions even when you see the worse of human kind
from drug dealers too drug addicts. (A day in the life of a police officer) Nothing is ever the same
every day when being a police officer you have a new adventure every day when you put on that
uniform. Other benefits of being a police officer include competitive salaries which is $46k
during training and $55k after training, along with a pension plan which has a mandatory
retirement of 55 years of age or 20 years of service, college tuition assistant and state shared
health insurance are some of the vast benefits available to a Delaware state police officer. Overall
being a police officer can be one of the most rewarding things you can do.

Work cited
"State of Delaware - Search and Services/Information." State of Delaware. Delaware State
Police Website, n.d. Web. 07 Mar. 2016.
Roufa, T. (2015, July 07). A Day in the Life of a Police Officer. Retrieved from
http://criminologycareers.about.com/od/Work_Environment/a/Day-in-the-life-of-a-policeofficer.htm
Roufa, Timothy."Http://criminologycareers.about.com/od/Education_and_Training/a/First-DayAt-The-Police-Academy.htm." Http://criminologycareers.about.com. Timothy Roufa, 08 Oct.
2015. Web.
State of Delaware - Search and Services/Information. (n.d.). Retrieved March 08, 2016, from
http://dsp.delaware.gov/dsp_recruiting_requirements.shtml