But this isn’t about the pay,,, I’m
retired now and I get a decent retirement check each month…this post is about
hiring cops. When I had first applied to
police departments when I got out of the Army, the process—from the time you’d
put in an application to the time they’d put you into a uniform would take
between 6 months to a year! In those
days, for a good sized department with 6 openings, they might have 600 people
show up for a written test. They spent
most of the time weeding out those who should never be cops---missing body
parts, missing the IQ, missing the manners, missing the honesty and missing all
kinds of things.
But in the last years, we might have had
3 openings, and be lucky to get 6 people to even apply for the job. I figured it was due to not only the low pay
and high requirements, but that hour Human Resources office was less than
useless. I mean they only have to work twice- when somebody was hired and when
somebody was fired….in between they just went to meetings and seemed to never
be doing anything.
In it's day...it was a great car!
So to get decent cops, I’d go out and try
to recruit. I’d talk to other cops and
asked if they new anybody who’d want to work for us. Then I had my own way to screen them. A few years ago most government agencies
changed to doing everything online. You
go to a website and fill out the application etc.
So, when I was in my Sergeant’s office
and I’d get a call transferred in regards to somebody looking for a job, I’d
talk to them. I’d ask them if they had
this and that requirement, if they could pass a background check (that I’d do
in many cases.) and thing like that. If
they sounded good, then I’d ask: “Can you use a computer? Good, can you use Google? Good.
Now go find our website, find the HR part, and find the application and
fill it out. If you can’t do that, then
you’ll never be able to investigate even a simple crime and we can’t use you.”
That either got a laugh (good) or a
pissed off hang up (good, we don’t want you.)
Then when they filled out the forms, then
they got looked over, I got them from the HR office. I was always amazed at what HR thought was a
good candidate from just looking at the forms and what I thought was a good
one.
Then the interview. I always tried so hard to not laugh. …but
when a person who’s never been in any kind of uniform, and never under anykind
of life or death stress comes in and tells me how good they did in the police academy…”I
was the top in my class in pistol shooting…”
I’d ask: “so how many times have you been in a gun fight or had to draw
down on a suspect?”
The police academy is just a start. It’s how a cop works with people in the real
world that matters. Give me a cop who
just got a “B” in the academy, but can talk to folks and get them to talk to
him or her. Give me a cop who’s not
afraid, but still has common sense to ask for help and can help other
cops. Give me a cop who cares about
everybody else- before him/her self.
…and then there was the ones who said in
the interview: “I plan on being a detective in 6 months….”
I’d think: “really, who are you going to
take out to get that job?”
Too few times did we get a military vet applying. They were usually the best cops...but since we paid so poorly, we didn't get them very often. Now most vets know how to put up with crap, take orders and more important- Take Charge!
(Bonus Points for this police exam. What is wrong with the above patrol car? Something is missing...not the blotted out star)
