During my career I have had many officers getting themselves into a state of panic when it comes to giving answers to an oral board during their promotional process. This is the quickest way to ruin a great presentation. Often times police officers are striving for perfection and trust me that isn't going to happen. The only person that I heard about that was perfect walked on water, so we must strive for excellence.
When you enter the room for your oral board and take your seat, remember you are in charge of this interview. Don't worry about anyone else because the only competition you have in this process is yourself. You can't determine how the other candidates will do during their interviews, so don't think about it. Now the big concern:
How Do I Answer the Questions?
The best way you know how. Give the answer you believe is correct. If the answer needs an explanation, give it but keep it concise; remember, you are on a time schedule, and the raters may cut you off. So don't ramble! Practice being concise; give a lot of information in a short period of time. This way you won't become flustered during your presentation. Remember to talk to the raters in your own style; don't sound like you're writing a police report. Police reports are very "matter-of-fact," and they only report the facts relating to the incident. If you are given a hypothetical situation, think about your answer and tell the raters exactly what you would do to successfully handle the incident or whatever it may be. The raters may try to "push" you on your answer to see if you really believe in what you're answering. If you feel confident that you are correct, don't be swayed to change your opinion. When you answer these questions, put some feeling in your answers: show the Board that you are emotional, have genuine feelings, and have a passion for this position.
When you answer questions, don't use words with which you are not familiar. Many candidates I've interviewed seemed to get their words from the Readers' Digest "Word of the Month Club" and didn't have a clue how to use them properly or know what they even meant. They were trying to impress the panel of raters but in the long run, they really hurt their chances of scoring well. You don't have to be an English major but on the other hand, you don't want to sound like a dolt, either (just thought I would throw that in to see if you were paying attention).
The key when answering a question is to find a common ground. You don't want your answer to be too long because you will start to ramble (and, remember the time limit!). If you use too much time answering one question, your interview may be cut short and you will not have enough time to answer all of the other questions. On the other hand you don't want your answer to be so short that you don't get your point across.
There are no ground rules for answering questions. You have to say what feels natural to you. However, there is one area that created several problems for me when I was a rater. (And remember this is only my opinion.)
Oftentimes a panel of raters will ask a question similar to this: "If we don't choose you for this position, which candidate should we choose?"
Think about what you would say in a situation like this. How would you answer the panel? If you put down your competitors, you'll sound conceited. How are you going to feel about yourself when you tell the Board that your friends competing against you are not as good as you? Or, on the other hand, maybe they are as good as you and to be a good friend you should tell the board how really great your friend is and they should get the position if you were not chosen. This is an interesting quandary.
There was once a Lieutenant, along with other members of the same department testing for a chief's position. Naturally, this was an open test and officers from other agencies were also testing. Now this lieutenant wanted the new chief to come from within his department so when he was asked the question, "If we don't choose you for the position, which candidate should we choose?" he immediately stated something to the affect: "Gentlemen, if you don't select me for this position, then the only person to hold the Chief of Police position for this department is captain so & so!" Now, he did not stop there; he continued to extol this person's virtues and how it would be a great mistake for the Board to go outside the department and not pick this captain. He was quite pleased with himself when he left the room and even boasted to other officers how he told the Board whom to choose. To answer your obvious question, neither he nor the other individual was selected. Rather, the Board chose a captain from an outside agency.
If you were to give an answer similar to the above, that you feel someone else is really qualified for this position, it would appear to me that you have very little confidence in yourself or your abilities. It also demonstrates that you feel the other candidates are better than you and they should get the position, which often occurs.
On the other side of the coin, when you are asked the above question, do not "put down your opponent" because these types of answers can backfire. It will not make you look any better in the eyes of the raters but will, in fact, make you look very insecure with yourself.
For example, some officers will answer this question by stating something like: "Officer Joe should not even be considered for this position because I have more time in grade and more education. He doesn't believe in school and only registered for classes when he heard that this promotion was going to take place. He doesn't even believe in all of your policies like I do, and he can't be trusted. Look at my record and when compared to his, there is no comparison. I am the better person." Or, "I don't think you could possibly be considering Officer Jane because she has no self-esteem and would make a terrible supervisor. Besides you don't want a female supervisor running your troops out in the field. You need me."
Naturally the above statements are somewhat exaggerated but believe me, I have heard similar statements during Oral Board presentations as well as in the Chief's interview. These types of answers tend to show that the officer does not possess a great deal of self-esteem and in my book, this is definitely not the #1 candidate for the position.
So, what do you say when a rater does ask you these types of questions? Well, the first thing you want to remember is that your competition is just that - your competition; they are not your friends during this testing period. They are trying for the same position as you; they are attempting to enhance their career the same as you; they want to improve their salary just like you; so, as you can see, they should not be viewed as your friends during this testing process.
You may feel that this kind of thinking is cruel. You couldn't possibly think that way about individuals who are your friends. These are people you depend on for assistance out in the field; whom you socialize with when you are off duty. How could you possibly think of your friends as competitors? Because, to repeat, this is a competition and should be viewed as strictly business!
When I was asked: "If we don't choose you for this position which candidate should we choose?" during a promotional exam, I always felt there was no other competition and I would state something to the effect: "If I were not chosen for this position, I believe the Board would be making a mistake by not giving my police department the best person for the job." Then I would explain why I felt I was the best person for the position. Again, you have to feel comfortable with this kind of response (for example, I always thought that if I wasn't the best person for the job then why go through all of this trouble to begin with?)! With this type of answer, I did not give the other candidates any "accolades" (let them earn them on their own) nor did I "put anyone down." I wanted the Board to focus their attention only on me and my achievements.
"Nothing demeans you more than your demeaning of a fellow competitor!"
Now, specifically for female candidates, there are some answers to certain questions that do more harm than good during your presentation before the Oral Board or the chief's interview. For example, some female officers have stated to me, "I will be your first female supervisor if I am appointed" or "It would be good public relations for the department to show that you are an equal opportunity chief by promoting me" or "I hope you don't think that because I am a woman that I cannot do the job." Don't demean yourself by placing these conditions in your answers. The raters and the chief know you are qualified to take this exam; otherwise, you would not be in the testing process. Just how qualified you are for the supervisory position will depend on your prior work history and the answers you give to the Oral Board and during the chief's interview. So, state who you are and why you think you are qualified for this position based on your own merits.
Elvin Miali
El Miali,a retired chief of police, started his law enforcement career in 1967. In 1986 he was appointed Chief of Police of the Fountain Valley Police Department in Orange County, Ca. He was Police Chief for 17 years, prior to his retirement in 2003. Chief Miali participated in many oral boards and assessment centers and observed how difficult it was for many officers to do well in the promotional process. He wrote a book entitledUnless You're The Lead Dog, The Scenery Never Changes. Chief Miali knows what the administrators of police agencies want from their candidates, Learn more about Chief Miali and his book through his Lead Dog Promotions web site or contact him by e-mail by clicking on his name
![“By the early part of next year, I think we’re going to be up close to where we only have about 350 vacancies, and it continues on that trend. In three or four years, we’ll be up where we should be, which is 2,500 [sworn officers],” says Commissioner Richard Worley about the agency's aggressive hiring.](https://img.officer.com/files/base/cygnus/ofcr/image/2025/06/68405de973e934e2dec66844-richard_worley_baltimore_pd_commissioner_md_tns.png?auto=format,compress&fit=&q=45&h=139&height=139&w=250&width=250 "“By the early part of next year, I think we’re going to be up close to where we only have about 350 vacancies, and it continues on that trend. In three or four years, we’ll be up where we should be, which is 2,500 [sworn officers],” says Commissioner Richard Worley about the agency's aggressive hiring.")
