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Police officer — skills, knowledge and links
Where this job sits in the official classifications, what those classifications say it demands, and what it connects to. Every block names its source: our own judgements, the U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET, or the U.S. Department of Education.
How it connects#
O*NET also lists (no page here yet): Detectives and Criminal Investigators · First-Line Supervisors of Police and Detectives · Transit and Railroad Police · Bailiffs · Private Detectives and Investigators · Probation Officers and Correctional Treatment Specialists · Correctional Officers and Jailers · First-Line Supervisors of Correctional Officers
In the official classification#
Police and Sheriff's Patrol Officers
Fit with this page: same job
Job Zone 3: medium preparation
See it on O*NET OnLine ↗What O*NET rates highest#
From O*NET 33-3051.00 (Police and Sheriff's Patrol Officers). Ordered by O*NET's importance rating; the words are O*NET's own scale anchors.
Transferable skills
- Social PerceptivenessVery important
- Judgment and Decision MakingVery important
- CoordinationVery important
- Service OrientationVery important
- PersuasionVery important
- NegotiationImportant
- Complex Problem SolvingImportant
- Time ManagementImportant
Knowledge
- Public Safety and SecurityExtremely important
- Law and GovernmentExtremely important
- Customer and Personal ServiceVery important
- English LanguageVery important
- PsychologyVery important
- Education and TrainingVery important
Work activities
- Documenting/Recording InformationExtremely important
- Performing for or Working Directly with the PublicExtremely important
- Making Decisions and Solving ProblemsExtremely important
- Communicating with Supervisors, Peers, or SubordinatesExtremely important
- Communicating with People Outside the OrganizationExtremely important
- Operating Vehicles, Mechanized Devices, or EquipmentExtremely important
Abilities
- Oral ComprehensionExtremely important
- Problem SensitivityExtremely important
- Oral ExpressionVery important
- Deductive ReasoningVery important
- Inductive ReasoningVery important
- Written ComprehensionVery important
Essential skills
- Active ListeningVery important
- SpeakingVery important
- Critical ThinkingVery important
- Active LearningVery important
- Reading ComprehensionVery important
Tasks O*NET proposes to add#
O*NET's analysts propose new or reworded task statements for future data collection, drawing on what surveyed workers write in, research into new technologies and professional associations. They are candidates, not yet part of the rated task list, and they say nothing about whether automation is involved. This site does not fold them into its own task judgements.
- Organize community events and programs to educate community members about law enforcement practices.New task · 2026-08 · reported by surveyed workers · O*NET 31.0
Our task judgements#
O*NET says what this job demands. It does not say what automation is doing to it — that is what this site's 6 task judgements are for: 2 backed by a verified event, 4 platform inference. VOLO judgement
Sources and rules#
- Four kinds of source, and each block says which: this site's own judgements, O*NET, the U.S. Department of Education's CIP–SOC crosswalk, or something computed mechanically from those. Nothing on this page is a rating we made up.
- O*NET's importance ratings are used only to order and shorten the lists. They are never combined with this site's impact index or evidence counts.
- The fit between our page and an O*NET occupation is our judgement and is stated per code: same job, broader, part of it, or only the closest there is.
- O*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026 release, U.S. Department of Labor/Employment and Training Administration, CC BY 4.0. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. The translations of O*NET descriptors on this page are ours, not O*NET's.