Police Academy Instructor

If you were alive in the 1980s, you’re no doubt familiar with the “Police Academy” franchise of films, which are chock-full of comedic cadets and their ill-tempered trainers. Don’t let the films mislead you, however: A Police Academy Instructor is not paid to be the butt of jokes; he or she is paid to turn freshman recruits into full-time Police Officers by way of serious law enforcement training.

A Policy Academy Instructor is a Teacher who works for a police academy that’s run by a city’s police department for the purpose of training new recruits in the skills they’ll need to become Police Officers. Like a College Professor, your primary objective as a Police Academy Instructor is academic instruction, which requires typical classroom duties like planning curriculums, designing lesson plans, delivering lectures, giving exams, and grading student work.

Make no mistake, however: You’re not a typical Teacher. Consider, for instance, the subjects you teach. Instead of science, math, history, and English, you teach courses in titillating topics like victimology, property crimes, narcotics, search and seizure, use of force, crowd control, gangs, arrest and booking procedures, crisis intervention, missing persons, domestic violence, first aid/CPR, self-defense, and — a perennial cadet favorite — firearms.

In fact, some days you have a lot more in common with a Drill Sergeant than a Teacher, as many of the courses you teach — in areas like unarmed combat, handgun usage, and athleticism — have hands-on components requiring physical training, demonstration, and exercise.

Forget Lieutenant Thaddeus Harris from “Police Academy,” therefore. At the end of the day, you’re more like the famous general from “Patton”!