Beverly Hills PD may have the best equipped....but best paid?? Not sure about that....& unfortunately their webpage doesn't say anything about salary...
http://www.beverlyhills.org/presence...erly_Hills_Cop
You want excitement & controversy...there's always LAPD!!! hahaha...
http://www.lacity.org/per/salary.htm
Or you can consider LA County Sheriff's...
http://la-sheriff.org/recruitment/deputy-recruit1.html
As for the CHP...
http://jobs.spb.ca.gov/openxrd.cfm?exc=4HP63
http://www.dpa.ca.gov/textdocs/specs/s8/s8446.txt
One of the things about the CHP, their entry examinations are usually more difficult than that of most of the local & county LE agencies in the state. Their written examination composes of the typical multiple choice questions along with I believe two essays in which you are heavily graded, (it's been several years since I've taken the test). Depending on how well you score on the written exam, that will place you either higher or lower on a Oral Interview Board...military experience/background gets you more points. Knowledge of a second non-native language is usually beneficial..your application will be processed faster if there is a need for that language.
There ARE other options to pursue a career in law enforcement, however not as a sworn police officer. You can become a CIVILIAN employee and work as a Criminalist, Crime Scene Technician, Fingerprint Analyst, Police Dispatcher, Custodial Officer, Community Service Representative & so on. Some of these positions even allow you to dress in uniform, wear a police badge and conduct investigations.
Click on the following for more info:
http://www.theiai.org/jobs/
http://www.theiai.org/links.html
Some of these careers require a college degree while others only require 60 college units. A high school diploma will suffice for others. You can also be as young as 18 to apply.
If you are interested in pursuing a career in law enforcement though, getting your degree in some sort of natural science such as Biology, Chemistry, etc will get you a better footing than majoring in Criminal Justice...the natural science degree offers you more opportunities in the law enforcement field especially if you decide you want to pursue other career options...like maybe work for a federal LE agency like the FBI....
https://www.fbijobs.com/
Anyhow, if you want to pursue a career in law enforcement, best bet is to start now. Either volunteer at an agency, (to get a feel like what the work is like & to talk with the officers to get their prospective) OR get hired at an LE agency as their support staff....that's how I started out. I wanted to be a cop years ago so I decided to get hired on as a records clerk to see what it would be like. After reading all those incident & arrest reports and talking to officers on the job, I decided against it.Took the advise of a buddy of mine & started taking Fingerprint Identification Courses & got into the fingerprint field. 15 years later & now I'm a Crime Scene Tech...been doing it for the past 10 years & loving it....
Anyhow....sorry for the long post....hope this helps...
Good luck with your career goals...
IdLaFie
...PD Crime Scene Tech