illegal drug use

[DanK]

Our department has very strict emplyment standards relating to the use or possession of illegal drugs. We are finding it more and more difficult to find applicants who meet our criteria. (No felony possession or use and no marijuana in last 36 months and minimal usage prior to 36 months). I'm looking for solutions.

[Sparky]

Doesn't sound very strict to me.

Most agencies near me require NO past arrests for anything other than traffic, and THAT is a big maybe.

And NO illegal drug use AT ALL. EVER!

[PartTimer]

Originally posted by DanK:
Our department has very strict emplyment standards relating to the use or possession of illegal drugs. We are finding it more and more difficult to find applicants who meet our criteria. (No felony possession or use and no marijuana in last 36 months and minimal usage prior to 36 months). I'm looking for solutions.

Crap, I haven't EVER been arrested, except for traffic. Yet I can't get F/T anywhere up here. I think once I get squared away, I am movin!

[Blonde Heat]

It seems a long shot but you might want to try talking with the high-school kids about becoming officers. Sorta like the military does. It gives them eye opening view into the world of LE. And at the same time if they are looking for a career out of highschool they will refrain from drug use and getting into trouble. After all you guys have set them up by introducing them to the dare program. It just takes diligence on your part to make sure they stay out of trouble and then you get a better chance of gaining a more proper recruit. You have nothing to lose and much to gain. A better community and recruits with a little teaching.

[Joseph]

When I joined the New Orleans Police Department in 1968 they checked everything but your prostate and if it wasn't sitting ing the right position they told you bye. Down here now they lowered everything even the test in case of an ethnic background and you talk in slang and not American Enlish you can pass the test. The problem now is they can't even find enough recruits that can pass the lower criminal requirements to get on the department. Recently they had an article in our daily newspaper with the heading, TRYING TO CLEAN UP THE TARNISHED BADGE OF THE N.O.P.D. it was in a weekly paper called Gambit with a picture of a tarnished badge of the NOPD spread across the front cover. They had a black police officer that didn't past the physilogical part of the training with both police doctors noticing a problem with her. We have a black mayor that let her go to her own doctor who stated she was fit for duty so they let her go in the academy and on the street. Her and another officer were working a paid detail every other day. One day after she was reieved by the other officer she returned to the store and shot the oficer in the chest killing him. Her name is Anne Frank she then commenced to killing everyone else in the store except for one child that slipped into a freezer who one of the children of the owner. She then got in her marked police unit and responded to a call even though she was off duty in another district. The child ID'd her and she was convicted of first degee murder and death by lethal injection. She's appealing the case of course. Seems like the first 2 doctors were right but she wasn't discrimanated against. Now she asking on appeal that the first two doctors were right she should not have been allowed on the job.

[Blonde Heat]

What does being black have to do with her mental capacity? If she was not mentally fit to be an officer then it has nothing to do with the color of her skin. I am sure there are plenty of white, hispanic and asian officers who are a couple sandwiches shy of the picnic that might have slipped through the cracks too.

[Tazz]

Originally posted by ftrphxcop:
What does being black have to do with her mental capacity? If she was not mentally fit to be an officer then it has nothing to do with the color of her skin. I am sure there are plenty of white, hispanic and asian officers who are a couple sandwiches shy of the picnic that might have slipped through the cracks too.

Well the way i read it, it don't really mean anything that she was black. Except for the mayor being black and taking her side.If you lived in new orleans or even close like me. i think you would understand a little bit more about it. I'm not saying that your dumb or anything like that, please don't take offense to what i'm saying. As far as Anne frank goes, she ought to fry

[ 09-17-2001: Message edited by: T*** ]

[Niteshift]

That doesn't sound like a strict standard. When I started in LE, many depts. demanded no use at all and only a few would allow for some minor use before age 18.

[Blonde Heat]

I know what you mean about Louisiana. I visit once a year up in Monroe and Pineville. They have a large black population if thats what you are referring to. But i still think it has nothing to do with someones mental capacity. Your either Cop material or not. Simple as that.

[Blue Leader]

I have a lot of family in Louisiana (up near Monroe and Ruston actually) and one is a District Atty. he worked in Baton Rouge before moving up north 15 years ago.

Over the past 20 years, being black (African-American) may have EVERYTHING to do with wheteher you get a job or not at the NOPD. It may not speak to the mental issue but it speaks to the employment to begin with issue.

[Blonde Heat]

It might have something to do with the whole affirmative action thing. I personally believe that if you want to be an officer then fine try like everyone else but when you deliberatly take a mans job just because you are a woman then that just is plain wrong. Everything should be fair right down the middle.

[DesertRat]

Originally posted by ftrphxcop:
What does being black have to do with her mental capacity? .

It has had everything to do with being hired in many parts of the country during the past few years. It's called politics and you will get much more of an education in it than you ever wanted once you get on the job. The first time I contacted recruiters for my current department in the late 1980s or early 1990s, I had a college degree and several years experience. I was flat out told by the recruiter, "you are a white male with no military points, you will not get hired, don't waste your time coming down here to test." And, it was pointed out in the post, she was allowed to step out of the normal procedures so her hiring would be approved. That is what it has to do with it. We've had threads put up here about different "groups" of officers. It has been pointed out over and over again that most all of us agree, you either can do the job or you can't, but, we went through a period in law enforcement not too many years ago where if you were a part of the group that needed to have their numbers increased in that department, you were kept no matter how poorly you performed. I don't think it is a issue anywhere anymore, I hope not anyway, but for awhile it was scary.

[Blonde Heat]

DesertRat, That is affirmative action right?
I still do not see how that has anything to do with someones mental state. They would have done the same for a hispanic or white woman or black man too. I am all to familiar with how the white man has suffered with the affirmative action status. My uncles and a close friend suffered after over 30 years on the job for one company they got layed off and then it was terrible to find another job that wasn't already given to a minority because the company could get a tax break for hiring them instead of a white man. I think everyone should be given the chance to prove themselves but if you cannot handle the job it should not be at the expense of someones life which to me is exactly what the woman police officer did. She risked someones life because she caught a break and was given the chance to be a officer.