• 100 questions
  • Checked October 2026

Best Questions to Ask a Police Officer

Twelve questions for a police officer about the job, each with a line for the answer, ready to print.

Best Questions to Ask a Police Officer

OfficerAsked byDate

  1. Write the officer's name and the date at the top.
  2. Ask each question aloud and write the answer down as it is said.
  3. Skip any question. An officer may pass on any line.
  4. On a class visit, give each child one question to ask.
Show all 24
  1. What does helping look like on a day with no emergencies?
  2. What does the first hour of your shift look like?
  3. What do you do to stay calm when things move fast?
  4. What is the hardest part of working nights?
  5. How do you write a report so someone else can follow it a year later?
  6. Who first made you think of police work, and what did they say?
  7. What is the most useful thing in your pockets?
  8. Who do you work with most closely, and how did you become a team?
  9. How do you get someone who is upset to slow down and talk?
  10. Which skill do you use every day that nobody taught you at the academy?
  11. How do you learn the names of people in the neighborhood?
  12. What is the most common reason people call the police in your area?

Next step Questions to ask a firefighter

All 100 questions

Best to start with 24

  • How do you get someone who is upset to slow down and talk? I lower my voice and ask their name first.
  • How do you learn the names of people in the neighborhood? Slowly, on foot, one front step at a time.
  • How do you write a report so someone else can follow it a year later? Plain words, in order, with the time on every line.
  • What are you proudest of from your time on the job? A crosswalk I asked for outside a school finally got painted.
  • What do people get wrong about the police most often? That every day is a chase. Most days are conversations.
  • What do you do to stay calm when things move fast? Breathe out slowly and say the next step aloud.
  • What do you keep in the patrol car that people would not expect? Stickers, a teddy bear and a lot of spare pens.
  • What do you wish drivers knew when they see a patrol car behind them? That I am usually trying to get past them to somewhere else.
  • What does helping look like on a day with no emergencies? Jump-starting a car and walking someone's grandfather home.
  • What does the first hour of your shift look like? Roll call, a look over the car, then out on the road.
  • What does your radio sound like on a busy night? Three voices at once, and somehow you hear your own number.
  • What habit from your first year on the job do you still keep? Talking to people before I need to.
  • What is the hardest part of working nights? Breakfast at dinner time, and sleeping through the sun.
  • What is the kindest thing a stranger has done for you while you were in uniform? Left a paid coffee waiting on a cold night.
  • What is the most common reason people call the police in your area? Noise, lost things and cars parked where they should not be.
  • What is the most useful thing in your pockets? A notebook. It remembers what I will not.
  • What would make your job easier that has nothing to do with equipment? House numbers people can read from the street.
  • Which call turned out to be something completely harmless? A "prowler" that was a raccoon in a recycling bin.
  • Which part of the job never shows up on television? The paperwork. There is so much paperwork.
  • Which part of the uniform comes off first when you get home? The boots. Always the boots.
  • Which skill do you use every day that nobody taught you at the academy? Listening to two people tell one story two ways.
  • Which street on your beat do you know best, and why that one? The one with the bakery. Everyone stops to talk there.
  • Who do you work with most closely, and how did you become a team? My partner of four years. A schedule paired us, and we stayed by choice.
  • Who first made you think of police work, and what did they say? A neighbor, a traffic officer. She said I asked too many questions to do anything else.

Funny ones 14

  • Do police officers really eat that many donuts? I am a bagel person. Do not tell anyone.
  • Do you ever wish you could use the siren to get to lunch faster? At every long red light. I never have.
  • Has an animal ever climbed into the patrol car? A goat. It was not invited, and it did not want to leave.
  • Has anyone ever asked you for directions to the police station? While I was standing under the sign.
  • Have you ever locked yourself out of your own patrol car? Once. My partner brings it up at every birthday.
  • What do small children say when they see your uniform? "Are you real?" Every week.
  • What does the station smell like at the end of a long shift? Coffee, wet coats and someone's reheated fish.
  • What is the funniest excuse a driver has given you? "I was hurrying home before I ran out of gas."
  • What is the oddest thing you have had to chase down a street? A patio umbrella on a windy day.
  • What is the silliest call that turned out to need a ladder? A toy drone on a roof. The owner was eight and very sorry.
  • What is the strangest thing anyone has handed in as lost property? A single roller skate, twice, a year apart.
  • What song gets stuck in your head on a quiet patrol? Whatever the bakery was playing at six in the morning.
  • Which piece of your gear squeaks, rattles or beeps at the wrong moment? My radio, in every quiet library.
  • Who on your shift tells the worst jokes on the radio? The dispatcher. We groan on an open channel.

The shift and the station 12

  • How do you and the next shift pass along what happened? A short talk in the parking lot, and notes in the log.
  • How long is a shift, and when does yours begin? Ten hours, starting before the sun.
  • How many people work at your station, and how many do you know by name? About sixty. I know all of them, and most of their dogs.
  • What do you do in the last half hour before going home? Finish reports and hand the car keys on.
  • What do you do on patrol when nothing is happening? Drive the long way round and wave at shopkeepers.
  • What does the station look like at three in the morning? Bright, quiet, and the coffee pot is never off.
  • What gets said at the briefing before everyone heads out? What the last shift saw, and who is covering which streets.
  • What is in the station that visitors never get to see? A room full of lost bicycles waiting for their owners.
  • Where do you eat on a shift, and how often is the meal interrupted? In the car, and more often than not.
  • Which day of the week is busiest, and which is quietest? Friday night is loud. Tuesday morning is ours.
  • Who answers the phone when someone calls for help, and how does the call reach you? A dispatcher, who sends it to my radio and my screen.
  • Who decides which part of town you patrol? The sergeant, on a board by the door.

The patrol car and the gear 14

  • Do you ever patrol on a bicycle, a horse or on foot, and what changes? On a bicycle in summer. People talk to you more.
  • How does your radio work when you are far from the car? It clips to my shoulder, and it reaches the station from most streets.
  • How many different sounds can your siren make, and when do you switch? Three on ours. I change it near intersections so people notice.
  • What are all the buttons between the front seats for? Lights, siren tones, the radio and the loudspeaker.
  • What do the patches and stripes on your uniform say about you? On mine, the patch names the department and the bars count years.
  • What do you check on the car before you drive away? Lights, siren, tires, and whether the last driver left crumbs.
  • What do you wear in the rain, in snow and in a heat wave? A long yellow coat, more layers, or short sleeves and a lot of water.
  • What does the computer in the car tell you? Where the call is, and what the dispatcher has typed so far.
  • What does the number painted on your car mean? It is the car's own number, so the dispatcher knows who is where.
  • What is kept in the trunk? Cones, a first aid kit, a blanket and a very large flashlight.
  • What is on your belt, and how heavy is it by the end of the day? A radio, a flashlight, handcuffs and keys. It feels like a second person.
  • What is the newest thing added to the car since you started? A screen with the map, where a paper one used to sit.
  • Which piece of equipment did you have to learn twice? The radio codes. They changed the year after I learned them.
  • Who cleans the patrol car, and how often does it need it? We do, at the end of the shift. On muddy days, twice.

Training 12

  • How do new officers learn the streets? On foot first, with a map folded in a pocket.
  • How do you practice driving with the lights and siren on? On a closed track, with an instructor in the next seat.
  • How do you train to talk with someone who does not speak your language? Short words, pictures, and a phone line with interpreters.
  • How long was your training before your first day on the street? About half a year at the academy, then months riding with a trainer.
  • What did you get wrong in training that you never got wrong again? I forgot to say where I was on the radio. Once.
  • What did you practice the most times before you got it right? Parking in reverse between cones.
  • What do you have to learn again every year? First aid, changes in the law and a driving refresher.
  • What do you tell a brand-new officer before their first night shift? Eat when you can, and write it down while it is fresh.
  • What was the hardest class at the academy? Report writing. I expected it to be the running.
  • Which fitness test did you dread? The wall. I am not tall.
  • Which lesson from school do you use at work that you never expected to? Writing. Every shift ends with a page of it.
  • Who rode with you in your first weeks, and what did they teach you? A training officer who made me say aloud everything I saw.

For a class visit 12

  • Can we hear the siren, and why does it change its tune? One quick burst. Cover your ears first.
  • Did you want to be a police officer when you were in our grade? I wanted to be a zookeeper. Some days it is close.
  • Do police officers work when it is a holiday? Somebody always does. We take turns, and we bring cookies.
  • Do you get to drive fast every day? Hardly ever. Most days I drive slower than your bus.
  • Do you have a partner, and do you ever disagree about the music in the car? Yes, and every single day.
  • How do you help people who are not in any trouble? Finding lost dogs, giving directions, and helping cars that will not start.
  • May we sit in the patrol car, and what are we not allowed to touch? Yes, two at a time. Everything except the big red switch.
  • What do you say into the radio on your shoulder? Where I am, and what I see.
  • What does the K-9 on some police cars mean? It sounds like "canine," a word for dog. A police dog rides in that car.
  • What is inside your notebook? Times, names, and a drawing a girl made for me last week.
  • What is the heaviest thing you wear? My vest. It is like carrying a full backpack in front.
  • Why does your car have flashing lights on top? So people can see us coming from far away.

For a detective 12

  • How did you move from patrol to detective work? Years in uniform, then a written test and an interview.
  • How is a detective's day different from what books and shows suggest? Fewer clever speeches, more phone calls and forms.
  • What changed about your working day when you became a detective? Fewer miles in a car, more hours at a desk.
  • What do you miss about being in uniform? The car. And people waving.
  • What goes on the whiteboard beside your desk, and who can read it? Arrows, initials and dates. Only I can.
  • What habit of looking has the job given you? I count the chairs in every room I walk into.
  • What has been on your desk the longest? One folder, and a cup of tea that went cold beside the phone.
  • What is the most patient thing you have had to do at work? Read a week of bus timetables to check one detail.
  • What kind of puzzle do you like when you are not at work? Jigsaws. Nobody phones a jigsaw.
  • What makes a good question when you need someone to remember something? One that starts with "tell me about" and then stops.
  • Which skill from patrol do you still use every day? Getting people to talk to me.
  • Who do you work alongside most days as a detective? One partner, and a room of people who are better with computers than I am.

How it works

The best questions to ask a police officer are about an ordinary shift: the first hour, the radio, the street they know best. The sheet opens on those. Six more groups run from funny ones to a detective's desk.

Read the full guide

Questions to ask police officers about their job

The shift and the station and The patrol car and the gear follow a working day: the briefing, who decides the patrol area, what the buttons between the front seats do. No question asks about a death, an injury or a case.

Cool questions to ask a cop on a class visit

For a class visit is in a child's voice: why the siren changes its tune, what is inside the notebook, whether the class may sit in the patrol car. The example answers are invented; on paper they sit on a last page you can leave out.

Questions and answers

What are funny questions to ask a police officer?

Ask about the odd corners of the job: the strangest thing handed in as lost property, whether an animal has ever climbed into the patrol car, who tells the worst jokes on the radio. Funny ones holds fourteen.

What are interesting questions to ask a cop?

Questions about what television leaves out: how a report is written so someone else can follow it a year later, what the radio sounds like on a busy night, which skill nobody taught at the academy.

Is there a list of 100 questions to ask a cop?

Yes. This page holds 100 in seven groups, listed under the sheet. For 50 questions to ask a cop, take Best to start with, Funny ones and The shift and the station: 24, 14 and 12.

Which 20 questions to ask a police officer fit one interview?

The twelve the sheet opens on, plus eight from The patrol car and the gear. On a class visit five is plenty: one for each child who wants a turn.

What does K-9 on a police car mean?

K-9 is a short way of writing canine, and a police dog is a dog trained to assist police officers. The class set asks an officer about it.

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