Thread: Houston, TX PD (HPD)

Is there anyone here that currently works for or used to work for the Houston Police Department (Texas)? Or, anyone familiar w/ the recruiting standards in Texas???

Please advise. I don't want to start asking questions to get that truthful, yet frusterating response, "you should probably call the agency for which you're applying." of course I don't want to ask the same questions to them, directly, that I may be able to get answers to here.

Many thanks!

What exactly are you looking for as far as recruiting standards? TCLEOSE is the Texas POST agency which defines the minimum standards to be licensed in Texas.

Usually the average is 45 credit hours of college, no convictions or admissions of Class B misdemeanors or higher, no drug usage for at least 5 years (some depts. 10 years). It really is best to contact the agency you are looking at.

a while back i taked with an officer and he said he had to have 60 hours of college. Go to the HPD website. It sould have all the info.

oh yea they get paid real well

Originally Posted by texastorso

oh yea they get paid real well

Yea that's a real bounus, its the largest city in the greatest state in the union and they get paid "Average for Texas Police Officers" (per HPD website)

Hmm... just a simple comparison of Major PD's in Texas

Houston PD
Requires 60 hrs credit
1st year (Cadet/FTO) $27,097
Police officer $33,954 - 47,166

Dallas PD
Requires 45 hrs credit
1st year (Cadet/FTO) $36,806-$37,173
Police officer $37,173-$58,637

look at the burbs if you want a little more money. I know in Dallas the smaller cities around DFW get paid fairly well.

Check out Austin and San Antonio, their pay is better as well. In fact both of them are pretty high in policepay.net rankings (#5 and #12 respectively). Of course pay isn't everything.

Thank you for all the replies.

I have a bachelors' degree in CJ which I obtained in May of 2003 (Magna Cum Laude - 3.62 GPA). I'm 25, female, african american, no criminal record and haven't used any drugs in well over 5 yrs--I don't even drink. However, if the requirement is 10 years then that may be an issue b/c I experiemented with marijuana once when I was about 14 or 15 yrs. old and learned AFTER THE FACT that cocaine was rolled up in the joint! I know cocaine is an automatic DQ in most places...I'm just wondering if I'm screwed???

I know FBI is 10 yrs. but any admissions regarding drug use, no matter how small, frequent, or "innocent" are basically butt kickers OUT of the applicant pool....Also, DEA doesn't care WHEN it was...any admission to anything other than marijanua is a DQ!

I would be lying (by omission) if I said I only tried marijuana once b/c even though I didn't know the cocaine was in the joint when I smoked it, I found out immediatley afterwards and would probably fail the poly if i'm asked, "have you ever used cocaine..."

by the way, i'm definatley not in it for the money. currently i make 40K a year, which at my age is great, but i really want to be a police officer....i'd rather be happy each day knowing i'm doing something i enjoy and believe is productive as opposed to sitting in a office and making attorneys richer all day....