Officers Should Be Able to Get More Than 33/35 on This Police Entrance Exam. Can You?

The Miranda rights were named after a landmark court case involving a suspect with that last name. In "Miranda v. Arizona," the Supreme Court vacated Ernesto Miranda's conviction because he was unaware of his right not to talk to the police when he made his confession.

The uniform helps a member of the public quickly flag down an officer in time of need. It also underscores the officer's official status when they need to ask someone for information, or they make an arrest. Detectives, who work in plainclothes, must use professional clothing, demeanor and sometimes a shield worn visibly in a belt or a chain to underscore that same authority.

"Individuel" should be "individual." Watch out for "receipt," too -- it's frequently misspelled, but the spelling above is the correct one.

Why exclude the chief's salary? Maybe elected positions are paid from a different income source. We're not sure ... we just didn't want to make this too easy! Averaging is fairly simple math, after all: add up the four remaining salaries and divide by four.

Options 1 and 3 have pronouns without a clear referent: Which of the officers is 'him'? Who is 'she'? In the second sentence, it's not clear whether the patrol officer is letting in four individuals, or whether the bank manager and the teller *are* the witnesses. Only the fourth sentence gives you a clear picture of who's saying what to whom, and why.

It's not appropriate for an officer to diagnose mental illness, and phrases like "my considered opinion" don't change that. Relate what the suspect said and did, and it won't be hard for your superiors or prosecutors to draw conclusions.

You don't have to be Hemingway to be a police officer. But your reports will be seen by your superiors, prosecutors, maybe members of the media ... it's important to have basic spelling and grammar skills.

When an aggressive animal is encountered, an officer should call Animal Services. Police officers do not receive extensive training in how to deal with animals.

Yup, it's a trick question. There is no driver at a hit-and-run -- they've fled the scene.

Maybe the driver is from out of town; maybe they're just a really bad navigator. The fourth option is the most tactful and appropriate way to handle the situation.

Though "it varies" or "it depends" is usually the right answer, not so here. All fifty states have made .08 percent the legal limit.

Commercial drivers might argue that they are professionals with good driver training, which actually makes them better able to handle a vehicle with some alcohol in their systems. However, commercial vehicles are usually sizable, and their massive weight can make accidents more readily fatal -- making a lower limit a good idea.

The fourth sentence is neither a run-on nor a sentence fragment. It also has a smooth flow, using a comma and the conjunction "but" to link two ideas.

There are some exceptions to the need for a search warrant, but you can't just assume that suspects are destroying evidence just because they're not opening the door. And getting a building super to open the door isn't legal either -- he or she can't consent to a search on behalf of a tenant.

Police officers will sometimes be the first on an emergency scene and need life-saving skills. They also need to be good drivers, and to write clear reports. But, unlike what 1970s TV shows taught us, officers really don't run down suspects like leopards on the savanna. Most foot chases will be short, and if a suspect gets away, it's time to get on the radio with an alert.

An easy way to do percent problems in your head is to remember that to get 10 percent, you simply move the (unseen) decimal point one place to the left. In other words, 10 percent of 60 is 6. Five percent is half that, or 3. 6 +3 = 9. A simpler (though harder) way is to move the decimal point over two places, getting 1 percent of 60, which is .6. Multiply this by 15 (possibly with a calculator) and you get 9 again.

4/5 is the same thing as 8/10. This makes it easier to see the relation to 80 percent. This question might have seemed easy to you, but year ago a story made the rounds that a significant number of school teachers in a major public school district could not complete this simple problem. (We're not sure it's true, which is why we're not naming the district).

For example, if a murder took place in one location, but the body was dumped elsewhere, both qualify as crime scenes. That is, both should be secured and then examined by detectives and forensic technicians.

It should be obvious that job one is making sure no one is further injured, or does not die of injuries. Also, unless the officer has detective status, developing "a theory of the crime" won't be in his/her job description.

This misconception comes from TV and movies. In actuality, getting close enough to the body to make an outline is to run the risk of contaminating it with hair, fibers, etc. Vernon Geberth, the author of "Practical Homicide Investigation" calls patrol officers who make outlines "chalk fairies" because they magically disappear when the investigating detective starts yelling about somebody messing up the crime scene.

"Lieutenant" comes from the French language, and like more than a few French words, takes a little effort to spell. The version above has an unnecessary extra n.

Just because you know the cars reached speeds of 95 miles per hour doesn't mean you know the average speed. To do that, you'd have to know the length of the chase (in time, not distance) and the speeds of the vehicles from start to finish. What this question underscores is that it's all right -- important, in fact -- to admit when you need more data to draw a conclusion.

In the first sentence, "forewarded" should be "forwarded." We even spelled it correctly in the last sentence, to give you a hint.

Although a police officer is not an EMT, if he or she is the first on the scene, rendering aid to a sick or injured person has to take priority. Calling 911 for more help is not a bad idea, but not because you intend to excuse yourself from the situation entirely.

Don't be fooled by "compleat," an outdated spelling which, for some reason, had a revival in the 1960s ("The Compleat Beatles"). The correct ending is "-ete."

OK, we cite "department policy" above, and police departments are all different. But there are almost certainly none that allow officers to accept "tips" or similar for doing the job.

Reporters and crime buffs listen to law-enforcement transmissions over "scanner" radios. It's important to give backup units, EMT or fire personnel the information they need, but names aren't, and might expose a member of the community to undue gossip, et cetera.

Though "indictment" looks odd compared to the way it's pronounced -- it's "in-DITE-ment" with a long i and silent c -- that word is correct. But "omited" should be "omitted."

We know you can do the math, but this is a logic question. There's no dirt in their hole -- it's all been removed.

This problem is more famously rendered as "the bat and the ball." The temptation here is to say the mint costs ten cents, because one dollar plus a dime equals $1.10. But the mint has to cost five cents for the soda to be a dollar more, or $1.05. Together they are $1.10. This is another test of your reasoning skills.

Of course the janitor comes to mind, and the cafeteria manager's alibi isn't great, either. However, the science teacher is the best candidate: How can she have been grading midterm exams on the first day of school? (OK, this sounds more like the board game "Clue" than an actual call a patrol officer would get -- but we include it as an example of a logic question).

Recent years have given us plenty of opportunity to witness police skirmish lines. These are shoulder-to-shoulder lines of officers in protective gear, keeping protesters (or rioters) from gaining access to protected areas.

There are four exceptions to the need for a search warrant: emergency, plain view, consent and when the suspect has been arrested. The rank of the officer doesn't enter into the equation.

Privately reporting it to a superior or sneaking the beer back into the stockroom might resolve the situation. but will cost you respect and/or trust from your partner. The best case here is to deal with the situation directly, and hope your partner grudgingly respects your refusal to to either collaborate in petty theft or be a tattletale to the brass.

As much as you might not want to stick your neck out, safety violations can cause injury or death. Talk to the owner, then recommend the fire department send someone to follow up and make sure the violations have been resolved.