Savage CSO

[savagecop]

http://cityofsavage.com/employment

We have posted a CSO position. Our last officer posting hired 2, one of which was our CSO, and one external. This is a great department to be a CSO at. A lot of flexibility and freedom. Schedule is flexible, but typically M-F days.

While a CSO position is not a "guarantee" spot into an officer position, 5 of our last 7 officers have been CSO's. And our last 4 CSO's were in the position for under a year before being promoted. If you are in school, please apply. If you are done with school and are looking for an "in," please apply.

Any questions ask

[Maverick90]

Applied already, just had a couple questions. What is the process after the application is submitted? Written test to interview(s) or? And secondly is the department ok with POST eligible candidates looking to put in their time until a promotion is available?

[savagecop]

Process should be only 2 sets of interviews then medical, psych background. That is how the last processes went. There is a new Sgt in charge of our CSOs but I don't think that would change anything. HR does first review\screening of applications and sets up interviews. As far as being Post eligible they are fine with it, but we do not want to be a stepping stone. They want a cso that wants to be a cso for our department and an officer for our department.

Try calling to set up a ride along with an officer. I don't know if they are doing them but you can always ask.

[Maverick90]

Will do, I appreciate the info!

[Empire01]

I went through this process in 2012. Seems like a great department, would have loved to work there.

And savagecop is right, the Sgt in charge of the CSO's when I went through didn't sugar coat it when I met with him at my background meeting. You'll be looked at as a potential officer candidate for their department.

[Maverick90]

Any idea as to why you didn't move on with them Empire?

[Empire01]

Yep, haha. Didn't pass the psych.

Opened up other doors for me though. Got offered a cop job earlier this week. Keep trying even if some don't work out... After a while, one of them will.

[Maverick90]

Thanks for the reminder Empire, I'll keep plugging away!

[Maverick90]

Got the interview !

[Maverick90]

Just got a call back canceling my interview. Apparently those done with school are over-qualified and not the targeted candidate.

[savagecop]

Wow. That kind of surprises me. Sorry for the way you were treated, not too cool to schedule and then cancel. I wonder if there was a new directive on how they wanted these to go. A few of our former CSO's were done with schooling before they started, so it must be a somewhat new way to weed people out. Surprising to me...being done with school shows a little more maturity and there is no uncertainty that can come with unfinished degrees.

Good luck!

[Maverick90]

Thanks savage and no worries just wish they would make it a requirement to be in school vs an unwritten guideline. But hey on to the next!

[savagecop2]

It should be noted that the people making the decisions on this process have historically screwed a lot of things up. HR is heavily involved in the process, and there is no talking between the City and the PD. The PD just gets handed a list of applicants that will be interviewed. This issue has been addressed, as officers are generally pretty plssed off that some non-cop REMF is making decisions like this with no LE input. I know of several applicants that have been told to F-off and never got an interview that should have been given outright job offers. Thus far, there has been no change in what is going on.
I suspect that this was an HR decision, which would certainly not surprise me. That said, the upper echelon gives guidelines and HR follows the guidelines based on their interpretation. I'm sure there's likely some culpability on both sides of the fence for welching on an interview opportunity.

More than anything, it's unprofessional. In a more professional move, you should have at least been allowed to interview and then evaluated based on that.

I will say this though- there has been pretty fast CSO turn over to licensed LEO with our agency. I suspect that they may be looking for someone that is going to be an actual CSO for any length of time.

Either way, you got shafted and I feel for ya. Par for the course far too often in the LE world these days. Back in the day it used to be a wholly internal process for hiring anyone for LE. Now it's all about involving HR and multiple divisions to make it as official and "governmental" as possible. As we all know, governmental entities have a innate knack for f*cking up a cup of coffee and complicating everything they touch. We've had some good hires over the years, but there have been missed opportunities that were squarely the fault of our ridiculous process. Sadly, this is par for the course in the metro.