Can You Ace This Police Academy Exam?

Police forces are looking for recruits that blow off steam in a healthy way. Even if having a drink or going to a strip club wouldn't disqualify you for service, it's wiser to pick the "gym" option on an exam with personality-assessment questions.

A police entrance exam is likely to test you on both grammar and spelling. This is because writing a basic report is an essential part of police work.

"Jurisdiction" is the official word for a place where a law-enforcement officer can operate. If you're on vacation in Canada, you have no jurisdiction. So if you intervened in a crime being committed, you might not be faulted for your actions, but they'd be treated as the actions of any civilian.

The Miranda warning is the famous one beginning with "You have the right to remain silent." It must be read or recited aloud to a suspect at the time of arrest.

Search warrants must be approved by judges. (Imagine if the voters had to decide on every single warrant! What a nightmare!)

There are four exemptions to the need for a search warrant: plain view, consent, emergency, and after arrest. (Thanks to author Vernon Geberth, of "Practical Homicide Investigation," for this piece of information).

Lakisha will lose seven pounds in 35 days. Which is, of course, five weeks.

"Inadmissible" is a key term in legal situations. It can apply both to physical evidence and to testimony.

As mentioned in another question, members of the media or defense attorneys might read your reports. Having basic good spelling and grammar is important. "Adolescent" isn't the easiest of words, but remember, spellcheck will catch it if you only remember to run the program!

The Glock is a common handgun for officers to carry, and 40-caliber is about the largest that you'd be issued. If you chose AK-47, we really hope you aren't applying to the police academy any time soon!

Time and again, officers say they dread domestic calls. Tempers are high; alcohol is often involved, there might be handguns in the home - it's a volatile mix. There's also a psychological toll, too, from observing the effects of violence on women and children.

While it's good to be compassionate, this is a situation in which the public could be endangered. The officer's partner is also at risk if the officer is driving their squad car. Bite the bullet and go to your sergeant or lieutenant.

Anything that is private property requires a search warrant. It doesn't matter who the ultimate owner is, e.g., a landlord. But public land is an exemption.

To get the area of a rectangle, you multiply the length by width. Here, that's 12 by 10, or 120 square miles. True, it'd be rare for a town or county to be perfectly rectangular, but we're simplifying here to exemplify the kind of math problem you might find on an exam.

It'd be a good idea to radio the dispatcher of the jurisdiction you're entering so that officers there know what's going on. They might even give you a hand. But there's no legal reason to stop short at the city limits.

0.08 is the legal limit in all 50 states. It's important to know this because of DUI arrests are among the most common arrests made by police officers.

This is a fairly simple math problem. It requires you to divide those 10 miles by seven days, getting 1.43, then multiplying that by 12, getting (roughly) 17. Of course, we don't know how John is dividing up his running schedule, so this is one case in which we can literally say "actual mileage may vary."

Hopefully, Captain Jones would be smarter than this! But if he did indeed go to bed at 7, and set his wind-up alarm for 8, he's only going to get an hour's sleep until the alarm goes off at 8 p.m. Retro technology can really backfire on you!

Police uniforms serve several purposes. When detaining or arresting someone, officers benefit from wearing a visible sign of their authority. Uniforms also help members of the public flag down officers quickly in time of need. And at calls where multiple agencies respond -- metro police, country sheriff, harbor patrol, park police -- it can really cut down on confusion.

Judgmental phrases like "went nuts" have no place in reports. It doesn't help that the phrasing is so casual, either. Remember, a defense attorney and/or reporters can read these reports, and they should reflect well on the department.

Contrary to popular belief, there's absolutely nothing wrong with using simple words in a police report. For example, f you can't spell "juvenile," then "child" or "teenager" will do.

Police are not trained to deal extensively with animals. It's fine to pass this off to the more qualified agency.

The right thing to do here is to drop back. The safety of citizens comes first, no matter what they're doing with their free time.

Deadly force is to be used to protect you, your partner or the public. Despite what you might have seen on the 70s and 80s cop shows, you can't fire on a criminal just for committing a crime or running away.

An easy way to figure this is to find ten percent of 80, which is eight. (Just lop off the second digit of 80). To get to 80 percent, multiply that 8 by 8, which equals 64.

"Offender" is not an uncommon word in police work. Just don't use it interchangeably with "suspect." If a person hasn't been convicted yet, they are still a "suspect," not an "offender."

We're asking a lot of questions about the right to search, but there's a good reason. Understanding when it's OK to search a person or place, and when not, is key to being a competent officer. The issue will come up again and again.

This was a fairly easy averaging question. Because you're dealing with two equal periods of time, six months each, you simply choose the figure that falls halfway between $2,000 and $2,400. Written as an equation, it'd be (6 x 2,000) + (6 x 2,400) /12 = 2,200.

Technically, two-thirds is .66666 ... indefinitely. But it's generally written as .66, or 66 percent.

Judgment questions like these are tricky. Is the Academy looking for recruits who are absolute straight arrows, and would report a thief? But, on the job, aren't you expected to be loyal to your partner first and foremost? Is anything wrong with simply making an anonymous repayment? Ultimately, though, the second option offers the best mix of backbone and compassion.

Your first obligation is to preserve life, meaning you should make sure the dead body is really a dead body. Of course, common sense comes into play: if the body is quite decomposed, that wouldn't be necessary.

"Purloined" is an old-fashioned word meaning "stolen" or "taken by false premises." It appears in the work of 19th-century mystery writers, which is where it should stay! This word really doesn't belong in police reports.

If you've watched TV coverage of the G8 summits, or certain protest marches, you've seen a skirmish line. It's a military tactic adopted by civilian police for crowd control.

Some nouns require an "es" rather than just an "s" to be made plural, but "youths" isn't one of them. Sidebar: Bonus points if you thought of "My Cousin Vinny" here, and "the two yoots."

This question isn't as hard as it looks. Ten percent of 175 is 15.5. Another 5 percent is half that, or 8.75. Added together, that's 26.25 pounds, which we've rounded down to 26.