Peace Officer Overview
Working as a Peace Officer
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a peace officer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $17.22 an hour? That's $35,824 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 5% and produce 37,500 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Peace Officer Do
There are certain skills that many peace officers have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed communication skills, empathy and good judgment.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a peace officer, we found that a lot of resumes listed 12.0% of peace officers included public safety, while 9.0% of resumes included emergency, and 7.8% of resumes included procedures. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
How To Become a Peace Officer
If you're interested in becoming a peace officer, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 31.6% of peace officers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 7.1% of peace officers have master's degrees. Even though some peace officers have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a peace officer. When we researched the most common majors for a peace officer, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or associate degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on peace officer resumes include high school diploma degrees or master's degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a peace officer. In fact, many peace officer jobs require experience in a role such as security officer. Meanwhile, many peace officers also have previous career experience in roles such as correction officer or police officer.
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Peace Officer Career Paths
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a peace officer can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as security officer, progress to a title such as officer and then eventually end up with the title operations officer.
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Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Average Salary for a Peace Officer
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
City of Baytown Deputy Marshall/Peace Officer Deputy Marshall/Peace Officer | City of Baytown City of Baytown | 01/05/2021 01/05/2021 | $47,81301/05/2021 $47,813 |
City of Friendswood Peace Officer Peace Officer | City of Friendswood City of Friendswood | 10/14/2020 10/14/2020 | $42,00010/14/2020 $42,000 |
St. Edwards University Peace Officer Peace Officer | St. Edwards University St. Edwards University | 08/14/2020 08/14/2020 | $52,17508/14/2020 $52,175 |
City of Friendswood Peace Officer Peace Officer | City of Friendswood City of Friendswood | 08/10/2020 08/10/2020 | $42,00008/10/2020 $42,000 |
City of Friendswood Peace Officer Peace Officer | City of Friendswood City of Friendswood | 04/09/2020 04/09/2020 | $42,00004/09/2020 $42,000 |
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Peace Officer Resumes
Designing and figuring out what to include on your resume can be tough, not to mention time-consuming. That's why we put together a guide that is designed to help you craft the perfect resume for becoming a Peace Officer. If you're needing extra inspiration, take a look through our selection of templates that are specific to your job.
Learn How To Write a Peace Officer Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Peace Officer resumes and compiled some information about how best to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Detailed InformationTop Colleges for Peace Officers
1. California State University - Bakersfield
Bakersfield, CA • Public
2. SUNY at Binghamton
Vestal, NY • Public
3. San Diego State University
San Diego, CA • Public
4. SUNY Farmingdale
Farmingdale, NY • Public
5. Boston University
Boston, MA • Private
6. Howard University
Washington, DC • Private
7. SUNY at Albany
Albany, NY • Public
8. Western Carolina University
Cullowhee, NC • Public
9. SUNY College at Plattsburgh
Plattsburgh, NY • Public
10. SUNY College at Oswego
Oswego, NY • Public
Top Skills For a Peace Officer
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 12.0% of peace officers listed public safety on their resume, but soft skills such as communication skills and empathy are important as well.
- Public Safety, 12.0%
- Emergency, 9.0%
- Procedures, 7.8%
- Motor Vehicle, 7.5%
- Law Enforcement, 7.5%
- Other Skills, 56.2% See All Peace Officer Skills
How Do Peace Officer Rate Their Jobs?
Top Peace Officer Employers
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