Police Officer

How to join the Police Force

Gazetted Police officers are recruited by the Union Public Service Commission through a competitive nationwide examination. On completion of a nationwide basic public-service course, police officer candidates attend the National Police Academy at Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. They are then assigned to particular state or union territory forces, where they usually remain for the rest of their careers.

Each state and union territory of India has a state police force. The officers and other staff in the state police are selected by respective state commissions. They lay down the requirements of qualification, written examination, age limit and physical test. One must clear the prescribed requirements in order to join police officer jobs.

The IPS examination is conducted in three stages. Any graduate Indian national is eligible to write the exam. The first stage consists of objective test called Preliminary examination. Candidates who clear this sits for written test called the Main exam. This is followed by an interview. Candidates who clear the IPS then joins the cadre in the any one of the Indian state and start their police jobs in India.

Without clearing the IPS exam one can enter the Police force as any non-gazetted officer or as a constable. The requirement for each post is different. Based on your education you can directly join any of the post depending upon the vacancy.

One can also join the Central Police forces like BSF, CRPF, CISF, ITBP, and SSB. UPSC conducts an All India exam for the position of Assitant Commandant in A grade in these forces. The exam is called the CAPF Exam. Graduates from all streams are eligibe to take up this exam.