How To Become A Patrol Captain: What It Is and Career Path

What is a patrol captain and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a patrol captain. For example, did you know that they make an average of $43.07 an hour? That's $89,593 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 3% and produce 20,600 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScorePatrol CaptainUS Average

Salary

7.0

Avg. Salary $89,593

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

10.0

Growth rate 3%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

2.4

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 1.49%

Asian 2.16%

Black or African American 10.28%

Hispanic or Latino 13.71%

Unknown 4.23%

White 68.12%

Gender

female 10.00%

male 90.00%

Age - 47

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 47

Stress level

10.0

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

7.3

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.6

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a patrol captain

Explore patrol captain education requirements

Most common patrol captain degrees

Bachelor's

55.3 %

Associate

13.2 %

Master's

11.8 %

Start to develop specific patrol captain skills

Skills	Percentages
Patrol	49.80%
Incident Reports	9.25%
Public Safety	8.13%
Emergency Situations	7.37%
Law Enforcement Agencies	6.30%

Complete relevant patrol captain training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New patrol captains learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a patrol captain based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real patrol captain resumes.

Research patrol captain duties and responsibilities

Lead a platoon that earn numerous awards for jamming opposition force artillery nets and conducting counterattacks on opposition electronic warfare platoons.
Provide leadership, mentoring, and training for commission and non-commission soldiers in a military headquarters staff and line unit organization.
Arrange quarterly Compstat, take complaint reports (CRs), handle special attentions and conduct roll call training.

Get patrol captain experience

Prepare your patrol captain resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your patrol captain resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a patrol captain resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable patrol captain resume templates

Build a professional patrol captain resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your patrol captain resume.