Police Department leaders are moving as swiftly as possible, they say, but their progress is hindered by extended-training periods, a competitive recruiting atmosphere and the meticulous nature of finding the right person for the job.
All of which means the Police Department won't have have any new officers on the street until at least next summer.
By that time, city and Police Department leaders hope that five recruits currently in a 23-week academy program in Devore will be fully functioning officers on the city's streets.
"Getting more police on the street is an extremely arduous process," said police Lt. Ted Henson, who is charged with implementing the hiring plan Chief Michael A. Billdt proposed to city leaders last summer. "And it is even more so, given that we are in a buyer's market for recruits statewide."
So goes getting men and women to join the ranks of law enforcement.
Longterm, if a proposed sales-tax hike to provide funding for another 26 officers is approved by city voters Nov.
7, the 40 police officers Mayor Pat Morris promised during his campaign will not be completely in place until June 2009.And that is fast. Putting a man or woman in a uniform for a job that doesn't require a college degree and pays an entry-level wage of $4,685 per month, or $56,220 per year, isn't hard, but finding the right one is.
Unlike just a few years ago, when budget crunches had county and municipal agencies statewide freezing hiring for public safety officers, the current trend is eager hiring to outpace attrition rates and increase ranks.
The Los Angeles Police Department is on an ambitious quest to boost its ranks by 1,000 officers during the next five years. Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton is under pressure to meet the goal, and his pace has recently fallen short of the 50 recruits needed to graduate from academies each month to meet it.
Just like in Los Angeles, but on a smaller scale, the money for the first 14 San Bernardino police officers is there. The struggle is finding the right people - the ones who have what it takes to get through 46 weeks of rigorous training.
Recruiting drives by the LAPD, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and other agencies have shrunk the talent pool. The San Bernardino County sheriff is on a similar hunt, as a combination of regional growth and generational cycles have his agency looking to pluck recruits from all over the state.
In 2005, 78 deputies left, the highest total in almost a decade, mostly for retirement or medical reasons, said sheriff's spokeswoman Cindy Beavers. Thus far this year, the Sheriff's Department has lost 61 more - a significant two-year drop in an agency of about 1,700 personnel.
"Recruitment is a major priority for the department," Beavers said.
With law enforcement one of the few public services that has experienced robust growth, and agencies throughout the region expanding, new challenges confront a police department like San Bernardino's when pressed to boost its police presence by steep climbs in crime rates like those that have hit the city in the last few years.
"It is increasingly difficult to get qualified police officers, and that is a reflection of how competitive the world of law enforcement has become as priorities at the local level have shifted heavily toward public safety," said City Manager Fred Wilson.
Billdt's hiring plan covers the next three fiscal budget cycles and calls for hiring 102 new police officers by June 30, 2009, to offset anticipated departures. The Police Department predicts about 20 officers per year leaving the force for retirement or medical reasons.
While 14 officers have already been budgeted, the other 26 positions await their fate Nov. 7, when the voters weigh in on Measure Z, a quarter-percent sales-tax increase, without which the officers can't be hired, Morris and Wilson say.
With support equipment, salary, medical care and other benefits, it costs the city about $100,000 to put an officer on the streets, Wilson said.
Without Measure Z, which is billed as a plan to - in part - fund 26 more positions, the Police Department is budgeted for 330 officers.
Billdt said he is focused on his plan.
"I need the 40 officers to develop and sustain our community policing models and to staff the beat plan," he said. "It's that simple."
But getting the officers isn't simple. Billdt said the first phase is applicant screening, a rigorous process that includes psychological evaluations, polygraph tests and comprehensive background checks. Few make the grade.
"We go with two out of 100 applicants, if we're lucky," Billdt said.
Applicants who emerge from the four- to six-week interview process are hired by the Police Department and sent off to the regional training center in Devore for a 23-week bootcamp-style introduction into the world of law enforcement. About 20 percent don't graduate, said Lt. Michael Mascetti, who runs the program.
The hiring process since July may be indicative of the challenge police recruiters face for the next few years as they try to expand the ranks from 312 to 356.
Since July 1, the Police Department has hired nine recruits. Two dropped out during their training at the academy, Henson said.
As of Friday, the academy was training five paid but still potential San Bernardino police officers, while the Police Department was training two non-sworn support personnel. Since the new budget cycle began in July, five San Bernardino police officers retired, Henson said.
The recruiting continues, and Henson said that in order to keep pace with Billdt's plan, the Police Department needs 34 to 36 people on track to become officers by year's end.
At the academy, the current status in local and county law enforcement is on display daily. Mascetti said recruits today are, on average, in their early 30s, a few years older than they were a decade ago.
"Today, we get people of all walks of life," Mascetti said.
Also, the course has become more lengthy and rigorous. What was once 16 weeks is now 23 and includes intense classroom work with military-style physical exercises. The facility, situated in the Devore area, hosts real-life simulations, including high-speed pursuit training, firearms training and hostage scenarios.
Classes today average about 110 recruits. Just five years ago, they averaged about 25 per class, Mascetti said.
The 23-week program includes 920 hours of training, a total that far exceeds state requirements for police officers. When Billdt went through a similar program in the mid-1970s, the course was only 13 weeks. The increase is reflective of the greater demand placed on officers, especially in terms of technology, today
BS Ranch Perspective:
Wait? are they saying to wait because they are not going to do the 14 in the budget? I say they should hire the more cops!! They need it, if there was a city in the IE that needed more police officer's it was the SBPD! They are preparing for the upcoming growth that the city is taking in the upcoming year, In the future years they will have to take on more, I am sure that they will be a 1000 strong by 2020. But who am I? I am just a dumb cop that worked the IE streets!!
BS Ranch
PS: Boy do I miss it!!
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