NOPD casting wider net for new recruits
5th July 2016 · 0 Comments
As it continues to find ways to bolster its dwindling ranks, the severely undermanned NOPD is asking military veterans to trade their green fatigues for police blues and a Crescent badge.
Starting this month, NOPD officials are heading to North Carolina military bases to host testing sessions for veterans.
“They have a willingness to serve their country and their community,” NOPD spokesman Tyler Gamble told WWL News last week. “Some of their training is really transferable to being successful here at the police academy.”
Gamble said applicants will be able to get most of the application process done in one day, with the hopes that this will get the department closer to the target of hiring 150 new officers this year. Gamble told WWL that one-third of the current 39 NOPD recruits have a military background.
“You know a lot of these guys and girls are looking for a transition from military life to their next career path,” said Gamble.
The NOPD’s manpower shortage has been blamed for many issues, including one of the worst police response times in the country.
Some government watchdog groups have pointed out that those response times would be even longer if victims and witnesses did not leave the scene of crimes because they grew tired or frustrated with waiting for the police to arrive. Those calls for NOPD assistance essentially fall through the cracks and are not factored into average response times.
Over the past few years the NOPD has tried a variety of strategies to bolster its ranks including convincing the New Orleans City Council to relax the city’s residency rule which requires cops, firefighters and EMS workers to live in Orleans Parish. The NOPD also persuaded the Civil Service Commission to do away with the requirement that NOPD recruits have completed at least 60 hours of college credit and had also offered bonuses to veteran NOPD officers who successfully recruit new officers to the force.
The department has also streamlined the application process — which is allowing it to more efficiently recruit, assess and hire officers as it is doing in North Carolina — and has also utilized the Internet to attract a larger number of out-of-state applicants.
Increased salaries is another way the City of New Orleans and the NOPD are reaching out to prospective new officers and those with military training.
In the first year of service after completing training, an NOPD officer can expect to earn just over $40,000. Officers receive a raise after the first year.
The Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office has also been struggling to find workers and recently hosted a job fair.
One applicant, Shakeitha Young, told WWL that there is one thing motivating her to apply.
“Helping people,” she explained.
Helping people may be a motivation, but so is money. With pay for a deputy working at the jail starting at around $12 an hour, finding willing and qualified candidates has been tough.
“We are attempting to fill our ranks as quickly as possible, we currently have a class of about 20 recruits,” explained Philip Stelly with the OPSO.
Stelly told WWL Tuesday that they’re hoping to find at least 30 new recruits like Joshua Chambliss, who’s been job hunting for six months.
“Nobody seems to be hiring right now, I’ve filled out application after application,” Chambliss told WWL.
The Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office said it is trying to make it just a little bit easier for people like Chambliss to gain employment by making changes like lowering the minimum age for applicants from 21 to 20.
“And we’re looking to folks who have at least a high school diploma,” added Stelly.
After several incidents of jail violence, a federal judge recently shifted more control away from Sheriff Marlin Gusman and to a future court-appointed director.
However, regardless of who is in charge they’ll need to find enough deputies and the money to pay them, to make the jail safer and compliant with federal standards for constitutional jailing.
This article originally published in the July 4, 2016 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
