Police Officer Requirements – Mississippi
Minimum Requirements to be a Police Officer in Mississippi
- Be at least twenty-one (21) years of age,
- Be a high school graduate or obtain a General Educational Development (GED) Diploma,
- High School graduate is defined as graduating from a secondary school in an accredited school district having earned the required Carnegie units and successfully completed any and all subject area testing as specified by the Mississippi Department of Education in the year the diploma was awarded.
- Accredited schools include those accredited by the Mississippi Department of Education, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) or one of the six regional bodies of the Association of Colleges and Schools.
- If an applicant has not obtained a high school diploma from an accredited school, the applicant must obtain a GED through the Mississippi Department of Education or obtain an equivalent score on a GED test administered by the American Council on Education.
- Applicants may provide a standardized test score on the ACT of 18 or higher with component scores of 16 or higher in Math, Reading and English in lieu of a GED score.
- Be a United States citizen,
- Be of good physical and mental condition, capable of performing the duties, under conditions inherent to the profession, as verified by a licensed physician,
- And be of good moral character as evidenced among other things by having neither a conviction, a plea of guilty, a plea of nolo contendere, having been ordered into probation or pre-trial diversion or have been fined in relation to a felony or a misdemeanor involving moral turpitude. Individuals must have been discharged from the Armed Forces under honorable conditions. Fitness for service as it relates to moral character must be verified by an appropriate background investigation. (See Background Investigations)