NPOST case studies
NPOST · Put your knowledge to work in context.
The National Police Officer Selection Test (NPOST) is an entry-level written examination used by many law enforcement agencies as one step in screening candidates for police officer and related public-safety roles. It is a basic-skills test, not a test of police procedure: agencies generally want evidence that an applicant can read accurately, write clearly, and handle arithmetic at the level the job demands before investing in academy training. The NPOST case studies are 5 cases and about 2,798 words.
1Overtime Split on a Two-Shift Detail
A unit has 7 officers available for a detail that runs 10 hours. Department policy pays the first 8 hours at 32/hour and any hours beyond 8 at time-and-a-half ( 48/hour).
616 words, about 3 min2Reading a Witness Statement for Contradiction
An officer is reviewing a written witness statement submitted after a store alarm activation. I had a clear view of the entrance.
655 words, about 3 min3Comma Splice and Pronoun Agreement in a Report Sentence
An officer drafts this sentence for an incident report: "The suspect was combative, he refused to comply with verbal commands, and when the backup unit arrived they observed the suspect still yelling and the officers had to restrain him." A supervisor flags the sentence as grammatically flawed and asks for a corrected version that preserves all the facts. The officer must also decide whether the sentence belongs in the narrative or the summary section of the report.
424 words, about 2 min4Writing the Facts Section of a Use-of-Force Report
An officer must write the facts section of a report after a use-of-force incident. The key facts: at 22:40 the officer responded to a disturbance; the subject was holding a broken bottle; the officer gave three verbal commands to drop it; the subject advanced two steps; the officer deployed a taser once; the subject fell and was handcuffed; EMS evaluated the subject and cleared him.
599 words, about 3 min5Tightening a Vague Sentence Under Word Limit
An officer must fit a summary into a 40-word limit for a database field. The draft is 61 words: "At approximately 3:15 in the early morning hours, the officer responded to a call regarding a possible burglary in progress at a commercial establishment, and upon arrival the officer observed that the front glass door of the business had been shattered and there was glass on the ground, and the officer then conducted a search of the interior and found no suspects present on the premises." The officer must cut it to 40 words or fewer without dropping any legally significant fact.
504 words, about 3 min