Best Entry-Level Law Enforcement Jobs For Criminal Justice Degree Graduates

If you want to use your new online criminal justice degree to land a job in law enforcement, you will find the most success with federal safety jobs, rather than police jobs at the state and local levels.

Many state and local governments are strapped for cash and are not hiring new police officers, at least for the next two years, says Jason Abend, executive director of the National Law Enforcement Recruiters Association in Arlington, Va.

However, he says, there are some bright spots. Consider these federal government positions, which will allow you to gain valuable policing skills as well as a foothold in the government hiring system:

• border patrol agent

• customs enforcement officer

• immigration enforcement officer

• transportation security specialist (TSA officer)

• U.S. Capitol police officer

• General Services Administration police officer

Abend is particularly enthusiastic about the U.S. government’s border patrol program, which he says provides both rigorous military training and  Spanish language training, while paying in the $36,000 to $46,000 range (not counting overtime). (For more information about the position, visit the U.S. government’s U.S. Border Patrol page.)

If your goal is to become an FBI agent, Secret Service agent, or federal air marshal, says Abend, you will need experience; simply possessing a criminal justice degree will not land you such a position. It also can be difficult to get hired by the government for a higher-grade position if you are not already in the system.

Working in the fields mentioned above provides you with that necessary experience as well as entree into the federal government.

If you wish to become a police officer for a local or state government, Abend says he believes the current hiring difficulties should abate in about two years. Then, he predicts, a “binge in hiring” could occur.

Abend advises people who wish to become police officers to also get degrees in business, computers, and international affairs as a way to set yourself apart from the competition and become "more hirable in criminal justice."