Police shortages, fitness standards relaxed

[Xtreme]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19116778/

good article on msnbc.com about how the nation is going through a shortage of police recruits, how the standards are being relaxed to draw in more experienced and world-wise people vs. a push-up machine right out of college. here's an excerpt...

A federally funded study last spring by the Police Executive Research Forum, a Washington advocacy group for police chiefs and commissioners, found that 10 percent of the nation's police departments had severe shortages of officers.

New York City is looking to hire 3,000 officers. The Los Angeles police want 1,000 more cops; Houston needs 600; Washington is short 330; Phoenix is down about 200; and the Boston force is about 100 officers below its 2000 level.

Among the reasons: The strong economy is offering other job possibilities, aging cops are retiring, starting salaries are low, and the Iraq war is drawing off both would-be police recruits and police officers who are in the National Guard and Reserves.

"There's a real demand for really good people, and there's a limited supply," said Chuck Wexler, director of the Police Executive Research Forum. "Cities are having to take a second look at their recruitment standards."

interesting... for those of you job seekers this should be good news.

- mike

[JSD73]

And they're still being ultra picky.

[SlowDownThere]

There is a similar article here on O.com about the same thing. In that article it describes how low the fitness standard has become. They are testing people with 50 inch waists!

Relaxing the age requirement is a good thing. There are lots of otherwise qualified candidates out there that would become good cops. But new hires with 50 inch waists?

[JSD73]

Yeah...that's a dispatcher qualification!!




Did I say that out loud?!

[SlowDownThere]

Yeah...that's a dispatcher qualification!!




Did I say that out loud?!

Yeah, I think so.

[Nickmerill]

Funny, every department I want to join has strict fitness standards and marine bootcamp type PT. I wish they'd lighten up

[exComptonCop]

Funny, every department I want to join has strict fitness standards and marine bootcamp type PT. I wish they'd lighten up

Imagine that, wanting to hire fit people...they should be flogged

[exComptonCop]

Yeah...that's a dispatcher qualification!!




Did I say that out loud?!

When I worked the hood, the qualifications for non-sworn personnel (didn't say dispatcher) were "from the pound, or by the pound"

[FutureLE]

It said one dept lowered its pushup requirement from 30 to 15 in one minute.. Pretty sad.. they couldnt find people that could do 30 pushups

[wildestkabs]

I can do 65 pushups at one time. I haven't timed myself but I am pretty confident that I can do more than 30 in one minute. I also can do plenty of situps in one minute.

Needless to say, I am in good physical shape. I am dedicated to serving the community and want to be a law enforcement officer. I am confident I will be a good fit.

Unfortunately, in my state (AZ), I cannot be hired as a police officer. I am not a U.S. citizen.

However, the AZ Dept. of Corrections, Maricopa County Sheriff's Office and the different cities that I have applied with, will all hire detention officers, who are permanent residents (people with green cards). There are some SOs and some other cities that I have not checked with yet, but I am sure they will hire me as well, as a detention officer, if I have a green card.

In addition to this, some states like CO, will also hire me, as a *police officer* even though I am not a citizen.

So if I can be hired -without being a citizen -as a detention officer in AZ, or as a police officer in another state - then I can damn well be hired as a police officer in the state of AZ. This also means, that AZ not hiring police officers who are not citizens, is definitely *not* a security or a quality issue, because that wouldn't explain why then, the same agencies are willing to hire me in detentions, or why some other state can hire me as a cop, with a green card.

I seriously believe police agencies (like here in AZ) need to relax the citizenship requirement. They then would have a lot more dedicated, qualified, serious and physically fit applicants like me.

[JSD73]

I'm not 100% sure but I think you have to be a citizen of the US in order to be police officer in ANY state.

[wildestkabs]

I'm not 100% sure but I think you have to be a citizen of the US in order to be police officer in ANY state.

Thats not correct. If I recall correctly, there are 14 states which don't have that requirement. Keep in mind that these are not the entire states, but typically there would be several cities within the state, which would not have that requirement.

Take CO for instance. Denver has a US citizenship requirement. But check out Colorado Springs PD website. They don't have that requirement. And this is just one example.

Here is a link the CO springs website. Check out bullet point # 5:

Emphasis is all mine:

You must be by the date of hire a US citizen, *permanent resident alien, temporary resident alien, applicant for temporary resident status, refugee or asylee*. All applicants that are offered employment must provide documents to establish their identity and employment eligibility for authorization to work in the U.S.

http://www.springsgov.com/Page.asp?NavID=1558

[Xtreme]

i think the purpose of this article was to show that departments were considering other factors BESIDES just how many push-ups you can do. the fact is, any academy can get anyone in enough shape to do the job. what they can't do is grant them life experience and such.

and the other reason i posted the original article was to show that there are dept's out there with severe shortages.

- mike

[wildestkabs]

i think the purpose of this article was to show that departments were considering other factors BESIDES just how many push-ups you can do.

And what I mentioned was yet another "factor", that departments could consider. Thanks for the article, though. Very interesting.

[Mystikal]

Here is a link the CO springs website. Check out bullet point # 5:

Emphasis is all mine:

You must be by the date of hire a US citizen, *permanent resident alien, temporary resident alien, applicant for temporary resident status, refugee or asylee*. All applicants that are offered employment must provide documents to establish their identity and employment eligibility for authorization to work in the U.S.

http://www.springsgov.com/Page.asp?NavID=1558

Better have a clean background and a top notch credit score... oh, and make it the first time... otherwise you'll get a "we can't stop you from testing but don't bother wasting our time... or yours" letter