Does Your ETHOS Score Transfer Between B.C. Departments?

If you’ve already written the ETHOS exam for one B.C. municipal police service, the natural next question is whether you need to write it again for another one. Several agencies say yes, your score can transfer. None of them say the same thing about how, and a few don’t address it at all. Treating this as one uniform rule is the mistake. The real answer depends entirely on which two agencies are involved.

What each agency’s own page actually says

• Surrey Police Service: explicitly accepts ETHOS scores from other B.C. municipal agencies, valid for two years, with proof required alongside your application.
• Delta Police Department: its own FAQ states that “Ethos exams written for a municipal police department would qualify for transferability,” but doesn’t publish a specific expiry window.
• Metro Vancouver Transit Police: a prior result “may be accepted,” in its own wording. That’s not a guarantee.
• West Vancouver Police Department: accepts a score only if it was written within the preceding 12 months, the narrowest window of any agency that publishes one.
• Port Moody Police Department: scores from another department may transfer, but you need to sign a Consent to Collection and Disclosure form so the prior agency can release your result.
• Victoria Police Department: accepts a score from another B.C. agency, valid for three years, with a certificate included in your application.

Why this varies so much

No official source found anywhere states a single body that owns or standardizes the ETHOS exam’s score-transfer rules across B.C. Each department appears to set its own acceptance policy and validity window for a score earned elsewhere. That’s consistent with how differently each agency also describes its own pass threshold: most publish 60%, but Victoria and (by report) Saanich set the bar higher, and Delta distinguishes a 60% floor from a roughly 70% competitive result. There isn’t a single BC-wide standard to memorize. There’s a set of individual agency policies you need to check one at a time.

What to actually do

• Before you rewrite anything, check. If you already have a passing ETHOS result, contact your target agency’s recruiting unit directly and ask whether they’ll accept it, and what documentation they need.
• Keep your original result. Several agencies ask for a certificate or documented proof, not just your word.
• Don’t assume a long shelf life. West Vancouver’s 12-month window is much shorter than Surrey’s two years or Victoria’s three. If time has passed since you wrote it, that alone might mean a rewrite regardless of which agency you’re applying to.
• If you’re applying to more than one agency at once, check each one’s transfer policy separately rather than assuming one answer covers all of them.

What this article is not

This is a summary of what each agency’s own published page currently says, checked directly against those pages. It isn’t a guarantee that a specific agency will accept a specific score, and recruiting policies change. Confirm directly with your target agency before treating anything here as settled.