SFO Certification

Yates 10-41

Today had the potential of being my last day at POST. The first block has come to an end. Today was the tests to certify as an SFO Officer. If I failed any one test I am not allowed to continue at POST.

First we had to pass a PT test. It was the same as the entry test just the minimum requirements are bumped up a little. Passed everything just fine. I can't remember what I did on my entry. However today I jumped 24 inches, 40 sit ups in a minute, 30 consecutive push ups without stopping and ran the mile and a half in 12:39. I know on my entry I ran it in 13 and a half to 14 min (something like that). So I improved on the run.

The next test was the defensive tactics (DT). We had to go through every move of every hand lock, hold and throw along with terry stop and felony prone searches. The test had 149 points possible. Passed no problem with 147 out of 149. The two points that I missed were nit-picky in my opinion but I'm not bitter. 99% is good enough for me.

The last test was a written 100 question test covering all the book work we've gone through in class. This was probably the hardest part of the testing series. It covered all the Utah Criminal Code plus the 10 Code and Police Alphabet (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta etc). The questions got pretty specific and we had to know the details of the majority of the Utah Criminal Code book. I think to just piss us off a little bit they throw in a good chunk of trick questions where because of one word or verb tense it made the statement true instead of false, none of the above instead of all of the above and vice versa. Those kinds of tests just piss me off. Don't make it harder than it already is. Just test us on the knowledge instead of throwing in all these curve balls just to see if we're gonna notice or not. To pass we need to get 80% on everything. I passed the written portion with the skin on my teeth. I could only miss twenty questions and I missed 15. Too close for comfort in my opinion. 5 questions made the difference of employed and unemployed. Yikes. 84.7% was my official score.

Congrats to me being SFO certified! Some others weren't so lucky. One person didn't pass the PT test, three didn't pass the DT test and four didn't pass the written test. I'd hate to be in their shoes tonight. It's pretty sad to know they've been working so hard for almost 6 weeks and not passing. Some of them I've come to be good friends with too.

Tomorrow begins the LEO block. What better way to start than with Man Down PT. Yippy.

Yates 10-42