Bowling Green Police Department is hiring

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – If you are looking for a career locally to serve and protect those around you, look no further.

The Bowling Green Police Department is in the midst of planning a graduation for the first class of the Bowling Green Law Enforcement Academy while, at the same time, they have opened the application process to become a police officer.

BGPD is looking for individuals with exemplary character, determination and a desire to serve.

Applicants must be 21 years or older, have a high school diploma and cannot have committed any felonies.

The starting salary is $42,015 with health and retirement benefits.

During a climate that may discourage some from wanting to join the force, Bowling Green Police Deputy Chief Penny Bowles hopes those who have the heart to serve, will.

“As far as why anybody would want to be a police officer, a lot of people are talking about, in today’s light, that, you know, maybe policing is not for you. But it is still an honorable profession. We have a great department here. We have a great community. We just want to hire good quality people that have a heart for service and have a good character. We’ll train them how to be a police officer. We have our own training academy here now and we just hope that we can get some good qualified applicants,” Bowles said.

The Bowling Green Law Enforcement Academy is currently underway with it’s first class of recruits.

One of those recruits encourages others to join the family of law enforcement at BGPD.

“It’s actually people here. It’s not just ‘Officer Whoever, Officer Whoever’ and they are just doing their job. It’s an actual person-t- person experience,” said Jaeden Brown, current recruit.

One officer, Jessica Rager, enjoys working in the city she grew up in, like many other officers at the department.

“There is a large amount of people that I graduated high school with that are police officers with me. So, we could go to calls together and we are helping people that we are actually familiar with and grew up around. Also, a lot of times, people who are victims of a crime, they may relate to one of us more because they remember us from when we were younger or a time that we’ve known them before becoming a police officer,” Rager said.

The last day to apply for the next academy is Nov. 20.

The first BGLEA class will graduate on Nov. 6.