Residence Requirements:

THERE ARE NO RESIDENCY REQUIREMENTS FOR PARTICIPATION IN THIS EXAMINATION.  Candidates must be a United States Citizen, an Erie County Resident, and where applicable a resident of the Town or Village where he or she is appointed per Public Officers Law at time of appointment. (See Erie County Policies and Procedures.) The eligible list resulting from this examination will be used to fill future vacancies in Erie County Towns and Villages.

FOR APPOINTMENT AS POLICE OFFICER: In all Erie County Towns and Villages, preference may be given to candidates as provided for in Section 23.4 (a) of the NYS Civil Service Law and Rule VII of the Erie County Rules for the Classified Service. Upon exhaustion of the list of such resident eligibles, certification shall be made from the whole eligible list. Appointees may be required to become legal residents of the municipality wherein they receive appointment in accordance with local law or ordinance.

Examples of Duties:

A Police Officer is responsible for the enforcement of laws, ordinances and the protection of lives and property in an assigned area during a specified period; does related work as required;

Patrols highways or streets, or a specific area on foot, in a radio cruising car or on a motorcycle;

Investigates suspicious activities and apprehends and arrests criminals, disordered, vagrants or other persons menacing the general public;

Gathers evidence and assists in the prosecution of such persons in court;

Serves as a motorcycle patrol officer and arrests violators of traffic regulations or other laws;

Investigates automotive accidents and submits reports in detail;

Checks doors and windows of unoccupied business and residence properties;

Escorts prisoners to jail and court;

Investigates reports of and searches for missing persons and stolen cars and property;

Directs traffic and marks cars for overtime parking;

Broadcasts radio messages and send teletype messages;

Makes daily reports.

Qualifications:

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:
Graduation from high school or possession of a high school equivalency diploma and in addition, either:

A.) Completion of a minimum of sixty (60) semester credit hours from a regionally accredited or New York State registered college or university at time of appointment; or:

B.) Completion of a minimum of thirty (30) semester credit hours from a regionally accredited or New York State registered college or university and completion of one (1) year of active duty military service* (see Notes 2, 3 and 5) at time of appointment; or:

C.) An equivalent combination of training and experience as defined by the limits of (A) and (B).

PHYSICAL AND MEDICAL:
Candidates must have visual acuity of no worse than 20/100 in each eye uncorrected and must otherwise satisfy the medical and physical fitness standards prescribed by the New York Municipal Police Training Council. These physical and medical requirements are posted in the Erie County Personnel Department at 95 Franklin Street, Buffalo, New York, Room 604.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS:

Eligibility for appointment begins when candidates reach their 21st birthday. 

Candidates who reach their 35th birthday before the date of the written examination are NOT eligible except as follows*: Candidates may have a period of military duty or terminal leave up to six years, as defined in Section 243 (10-a) of the Military Law, deducted from their age for the purpose of meeting the age requirement.  *Section 58.1(a) requires that applicants not be “more than thirty-five years of age as of the date when the applicant takes the written examination...”  Candidates who may be impacted by the maximum age requirement and who are requesting an alternate test date (for active military duty, Sabbath observance or for an alternate test date situation which meets the conditions of Erie County’s alternate test date policy) are advised to contact Erie County to discuss the request.

CITIZENSHIP: United States citizenship is required at time of appointment and maintenance throughout period of employment.

DRIVER'S LICENSE:  Candidates must possess a valid New York State Driver's License at time of appointment and maintenance throughout period of employment.

Permanent appointment shall be contingent upon satisfactory completion of an approved municipal basic training program pursuant to Section 209q of the General Municipal Law. 

BACKGROUND INVESTIGATION/PSYCHOLOGICAL EVALUATION:
Applicants will be subject to an extensive pre-employment background investigation and psychological evaluation. CONVICTION OF A FELONY WILL BAR AND CONVICTION OF A MISDEMEANOR OR OTHER OFFENSE MAY BAR PARTICIPATION IN EXAMINATION AND APPOINTMENT. Criminal convictions or other offense are subject to evaluation and may result in disqualification pursuant to Section 50 of the New York State Civil Service Law. The psychological evaluation will consist of a combination of psychological tests and interviews. Candidates must pass the psychological evaluation. In addition, a negative report or failing psychological evaluation may result in disqualification pursuant to Section 50 of New York State Civil Service Law. Candidates must be a United States Citizen, an Erie County Resident, and where applicable a resident of the Town or Village where he or she is appointed per Public Officers Law at time of appointment. (See Erie County Policies and Procedures.)

Notes:

1. ALL candidates must be not less than 19 years of age on or before September 14, 2019. 

2. *Active duty military service does NOT include active duty for training.

3. Up to one (1) year of active duty military service may be substituted for education on the basis of one (1) month of active duty equals 2.5 college semester credit hours.

4.  Candidates must have a high school diploma or possess a high school equivalency diploma issued by an education department of any State of the United States or hold a comparable diploma issued by any commonwealth, territory, or possession of the United States or by the Canal Zone or hold a report from the United States armed forces certifying successful completion of the tests of general education development, high school level.

5. ***ALL APPOINTEES MUST HAVE COMPLETED AT LEAST 30 COLLEGE CREDIT HOURS.  Your degree and/or college credit must have been awarded by a regionally accredited college or university or one recognized by the New York State Education Department as following acceptable educational practices. A grade of D or better is required for a course to be credited as successfully completed. If your degree and/or college credit was awarded by an educational institution outside of the United States and its territories, you must provide independent verification of equivalency. You can write to this Department for a list of acceptable companies providing this service; you must pay the required evaluation fee.

Notice to Candidates: Transcripts will now be accepted by the Department of Personnel ONLY at time of application.
All subsequent transcripts must be submitted at time of interview.

A Guide for the Written Test for the Entry-Level Law Enforcement Officer Series (for all municipalities except White Plains) is available at the New York State website: https://www.cs.ny.gov/testing/testguides.cfm

Subjects of Examination:

A written test designed to evaluate knowledge, skills and /or abilities in the following areas:

 1.  SITUATIONAL JUDGMENT – These questions test for the ability to identify appropriate and effective responses to work-related challenges. You will be presented with scenarios that reflect the types of challenges one could encounter in a work environment.  Each scenario will be followed by several responses to the scenario.  You must rate the effectiveness of each response.

 2. LANGUAGE FLUENCY – These questions test for the ability to read, understand, and present a clear and accurate summary of information.  For some questions, you will be given a brief reading passage followed by four statements, each summarizing the information.  You must then choose the best version. For other questions, you will be given several sentences, one of which contains a spelling, grammatical, or punctuation error.  You must then select the line that contains the error.

 3.  INFORMATION ORDERING AND LANGUAGE SEQUENCING – These questions test for the ability to properly identify the sequence or order of events, or to organize information to fit a timeline.  You will be given a brief reading passage followed by one or more questions.  You must identify the proper sequence of events in order to answer one or more questions.

4.  PROBLEM SENSITIVITY & REASONING – These questions test for the ability to apply information and to identify a problem or potential problem.  For some questions, you will be given information in the form of policies, rules, regulations, laws, followed by a situation.  You must then identify the problem and apply the information to select the best course of action to take.  For other questions, you will be given a scenario and mock witness statements.  You must use this information to answer one or more questions about the scenario.  

 5.  SELECTIVE ATTENTION:  These questions test for the ability to focus on completing a task and to pay attention to important details while performing repetitive and monotonous tasks. You will be presented with a series of letters, symbols, and/or numbers.  You must select the choice that contains the series of letters, symbols, and/or number that matches exactly.

 6.  VISUALIZATION – These questions test for the ability to imagine how something will look when it is moved around or when its parts are changed, moved, or rearranged.  You will be presented with an image of a face followed by four images of faces.  Each face is disguised or altered in some way.  Three of the images have a difference in facial structure or facial features.  You must select the choice that contains the image with the identical facial structure and facial features. 

  7.  SPATIAL ORIENTATION – These questions test for the ability to understand how to navigate within spaces or how to get from one point to another. You will be provided with a map followed by one or more questions.  You must imagine yourself at a certain location and orient yourself to the direction you would move to get to another location in the shortest (least distance) route. 

The rating key for this examination will be established by the New York State Civil Service Commission prior to the date of the test, upon recommendation of a committee of police experts who will review all the questions for appropriateness and the key answers for correctness. There will be no review of the questions by candidates.  This committee was selected with the assistance and endorsement of the Police Conference of New York, Inc., the New York State Association of PBA's, Inc., the New York State Association of Chiefs of Police, Inc., and the NYS Sheriff’s Association.

NOTICE TO CANDIDATES:  Use of calculators is prohibited for this examination.  Devices with typewriter keyboards, "Spell Checkers", "Personal Digital Assistants", "Address Books", "Language Translators", "Dictionaries", or any similar devices are prohibited.  Cell phones are prohibited.  You may not bring books or other reference materials.

PHYSICAL AGILITY AND MEDICAL EXAMINATION:  CANDIDATES WHO PASS THE WRITTEN TEST WILL BE REQUIRED TO PASS A QUALIFYING PHYSICAL AGILITY AND MEDICAL TEST. FAILURE ON EITHER QUALIFYING TEST WILL BAR CANDIDATES FROM APPOINTMENT.

Based on the ranking on the written test, only a sufficient number of candidates needed to fill the present vacancies will be called to take part in an assessment of their physical agility.  The agility test consists of bent-leg sit-ups, push-ups, and a 1.5 mile run and measures muscular endurance, muscular endurance of the upper body and cardiovascular activity. The Municipal Police Training Council adopted the physical fitness screening test based on the model formulated by the Cooper Institute of Aerobics Research. The minimum passing scores, depending on age and sex, represent the fortieth (40th) percentile of physical fitness as established by the Cooper Institute. In addition, the standards are available for review at the Erie County Department of Personnel. Agility testing will be performed before candidates are certified to appointing authorities and is expected to begin in spring of 2020.  

Candidates who pass the written test and the agility test and receive an offer of employment will receive more detailed information about the medical and physical fitness standards prescribed by the NYS Municipal Police Training Council. Candidates should also be aware that an offer of employment as a police officer is contingent upon passing an appropriate medical examination.  Both the medical exam and agility test are given on a pass/fail basis. Re-tests will be permitted only in accordance with the guidelines prescribed by the Commissioner of Personnel.

**IMPORTANT APPLICATION FEE - READ CAREFULLY**

A $30.00 filing fee is required for this exam. The required fee must accompany your application. Send or bring check or money order made payable to Erie County Personnel Department and write the examination number(s) on your check or money order. Do not send or bring cash, as the County cannot be responsible for cash payment. As no refund will be made, you are urged to compare your qualifications carefully with the requirements for admission and file only for those examinations for which you are clearly qualified.