Police Officer (Lateral) | About the Position

Lateral Police Officer definition:

Those who have both 1) successfully completed a California POST Basic Law Enforcement Academy AND 2) have at least two years of recent experience with a police department, sheriff’s department, state police of highway patrol.

All others, including California academy graduates without 2 years’ experience and experienced police officers from out of state should apply for Recruit Police Officer. Note, that California academy graduates will not have to attend the police academy again and instead will enter our Field Training Program once hired.

Would you be surprised to know that nearly 50% of our sworn staff are lateral officers who left their old agency to become Santa Clara Police Officers? Would you be even more surprised to know that many of them had 10-15 years of experience and some were even Sergeants, but they left all that behind because they wanted to join our team. We only want to hire the best so the folks that come to us from other agencies are usually the best of the best from those agencies. So, what would make an experienced officer from another agency give up their seniority and start over at a brand new agency? Although we pay very well, they don’t leave for the money. Although, Santa Clara is a great city to work in, they don’t leave because of our great weather. In a word, they leave because they want to be happy. When you talk to our officers who were laterals, they will tell you they learned about the culture of our department and quickly found out that our officers are happy to work at Santa Clara PD. “Being happy” may sound overly simple, but if you stop to consider just how much time you spend at work, what could be more important?

Why then are officers so happy at Santa Clara? It has everything to do with our culture. Our culture, in a word, is one of support. Our community supports us, our department’s senior administration supports us, our City Council supports us, and we support each other. Being a police officer is hard enough without the added pressures of feeling unsupported. We feel very fortunate to work in a city where the citizens are so overwhelmingly supportive of us. We have gained that support through years of selfless service and always going the extra mile for our community. When officer from other agencies are hired with us, many of them are shocked at the outpouring of support from our citizens. Don’t be surprised when our citizens wave to you as your driving by or they want to stop to shake your hand. They’ll want to thank you not for being a police officer, but rather for being their police officer.

But, you won’t just feel that culture of support from our citizens, you will also notice it permeates every corner of our organization. Hopefully, you have noticed that it starts long before you ever don a Santa Clara Police uniform. Take this website, for example. We spent countless hours crafting the material on this site for one reason: we want to help you be successful. We don’t subscribe to that outdated attitude that police agencies should make it hard for applicants to apply. Instead, we want to give you every opportunity to be successful here. We’ll provide the opportunity and then you’ll earn it by a lot of hard work and dedication to serving our community.

Think you’ll have to wait forever to get on a specialty assignment? Wrong. As a lateral officer, you may come to Santa Clara with a long list of previous assignments and special skills. We want to put you to work and use your talent. As soon as you are off probation, you’ll be eligible for outstanding opportunities.

As a Santa Clara Police Officer, you are going to receive a fantastic pay and benefits package. That package will allow for you to take care of your family, enjoy a rich and fulfilling life away from work and build a future. If you enjoy working overtime, there will be plenty of opportunities to do so. Not only can you work extra patrol shifts, but you can work overtime at the Levi’s Stadium during sporting events and concerts. You can work on Team 200, which is an overtime assignment patrolling the Santa Clara University area. There are also plenty of special events and other overtime assignments that are routinely available to you.

Working at Santa Clara isn’t like working at a lot of other agencies. That is why so many experienced lateral officers choose to start over and join us. Think back to the reasons you chose to become a police officer. You wanted to defend, to protect, to serve. That is what we want our officers to do. At Santa Clara PD, you’ll find a team of quiet professionals, who value high-quality police work. We’ll expect a lot out of you, but you can expect a lot in return.

You may be thinking to yourself that this really isn’t a good time to leave and start over, but perhaps there will never be a perfect time to start a new beginning. You are reading this because you know you need to make a change. You have heard about Santa Clara PD and you are wondering if it is really as good as you have heard. It is. So, what are you waiting for? Apply now.