Loading...
2022 Police Recruiting, Hiring, and RetentionCopyrighted February 6, 2023 City of Dubuque Action Items # 02. City Council Meeting ITEM TITLE: 2022 Police Recruiting, Hiring, and Retention SUMMARY: City Manager submitting information on police department recruiting, hiring, and retention. SUGGESTED Receive and File; Presentation Suggested Disposition: DISPOSITION: ATTACHMENTS: Description Type MVM Memo City Manager Memo 2022 Police Recruitment Hiring and Retention Staff Memo THE C DUjIBQTE Masterpiece on the Mississippi TO: The Honorable Mayor and City Council Members FROM: Michael C. Van Milligen, City Manager SUBJECT: 2022 Police Recruiting, Hiring, and Retention DATE: February 2, 2023 Dubuque WAWca 914 ii 2007-2012.2013 2017*2019 Chief of Police Jeremy Jensen and Assistant Chief of Police Joe Messerich are submitting information on police department recruiting, hiring, and retention. Chief Jensen will give a presentation. k�4 Mic ael C. Van Milligen MCVM:sv Attachment cc: Crenna Brumwell, City Attorney Cori Burbach, Assistant City Manager Jeremy Jensen, Chief of Police Joe Messerich, Assistant Chief of Police Dubuque Police Department Dubuque Law Enforcement Center THE CITY OF All AmerirxCity 770 Iowa Street DUB E � I `I I l i P.O. Box 8A Dubuque, IA 52004-0875 Office (563) 589-4410 Masterpiece on the Mississippi 2007-2012.2013 2017*2019 Fax (563) 589-4497 TTY (563) 583-1711 E-mail: police@cityofdubuque.org www.cityofdubuque.org January 30, 2023 TO: City Manager Mike Van Milligen FR: Assistant Chief Joe Messerich & Chief Jeremy Jensen RE: 2022 Police Recruiting, Hiring, and Retention This memo summarizes the hiring efforts and training of new officers since January 2022 along with the officers who resigned or retired from the department during that time. HIRING During calendar year 2022, the Dubuque Police Department extended 18 conditional offers of employment to applicants seeking a Police Officer position with the department. Of those 18 conditional offers, 14 applicants were hired. The applicants were hired off Civil Service lists derived from police applicant testing in the fall of 2021 and the spring of 2022. Two applicants did not pass a background investigation and their conditional offer of employment was rescinded. Two applicants dropped out of the hiring process. One applicant accepted a position with another law enforcement agency. Another dropped out of the process after his background investigation was complete citing his girlfriend's unexpected pregnancy and his need to move closer to family. An additional applicant stopped corresponding with the Support Services Captain during his recruitment. This applicant had passed the Civil Service examination but did not take the physical fitness test. Had this applicant taken that test and passed it, he would have received a conditional offer of employment. Of the 14 officers hired in 2022, 13 remain employed. The 13 remaining officers are either in field training or at the police academy. Three officers hired in late 2021 attended police academy and completed field training in 2022. They offered a much -needed boost to our staffing levels. Eight college students were hired as Community Resource Officers (paid internship) over the summer of 2022. One was hired as a Police Officer and is currently at the police academy. Another was hired and started as a Police Officer on January 17, 2023. The remaining Community Resource Officers returned to school. Some will be coming back next summer and will continue their employment as Community Resource Officers. Some are local students and continue to work as Community Resource Officers with reduced hours during the school year. RESIGNATIONS/RETIREMENTS E Eight officers resigned in calendar year 2022 and two retired. The majority of the officers who resigned (five of the eight) left for positions with other law enforcement agencies. The other three left because of a spouse's job or to be closer to family. It should also be noted that the PD offers and conducts exit interviews. There has been one resignation so far in 2023. This officer resigned on January 2nd to pursue a career outside of law enforcement. A second officer resigned on Jan. 13'. This officer has accepted a position with the Iowa State Patrol. A third officer gave notice that he intends to accept a position with a Sheriff's Office in March 2023. 2023 RECRUITMENT, STRATEGIC PLANNING, AND CHALLENGES As of this memo we are currently short 13 officers. We conducted new hire testing in April 2022 which resulted in a list of 21 individuals. The majority of the hiring listed above comes from that list. The officers we hired attended academies in May, June, and January 3, 2023. It should be noted that not all candidates get hired that are on a list as we still maintain the ideology of hiring quality officers over quantity. In November 2022, due to the expiration of the previous list, we tested again. This resulted in a list of 7 candidates (since the creation of the list, three candidates have withdrawn). We had 29 applicants with only 14 showing up for the testing. Interviews were conducted on January 26, 2023 with the hope of hiring candidates to send to the June 2023 Cedar Rapids Police Academy. The current list expires March 1, 2023. The academies have set dates that provide hiring challenges. We need to reserve slots in each academy, with the expectation we fill the slots, i.e. they don't appreciate us reserving 6 slots then only sending three. They also dictate the amount of slots we can have. We only have a finite amount of training capacity. The ability to space hiring out helps this capacity, but historically he had to group hire in order to accommodate academy schedules. The New Police Officer testing as set out in Iowa Code 501 requires new police officers to pass an ILEA approved POST test. The passing score is set at 70%. Additionally, ILEA requires new candidates to pass a physical fitness test the ILEA has approved and established, prior to attending the academy. The physical fitness test is the Cooper Test which consists of a 1.5 mile run, pushups and sit ups, with the passing score based upon age and gender. Candidates can transfer a passing written score if that test was taken within a year of hire. However, the issue is that we must give them a start date before the test expires. We are exploring options with this which I will discuss later in this memo. In the opinion of our Legal Department, Human Resources, and Police Department, both tests are antiquated and not conducive to law enforcement. The POST test has not changed in years and is a hand written test. Most candidates do not pass the spelling, grammar, and/or math. Our informal analysis indicates testing does not take into account the current pool of candidates which relies on technology for math (calculators), spell check and various programs like Grammarly when writing papers. ILEA and the ILEA board has indicated that they have no intention of changing this, but "may explore" options in the future. ILEA has also stated that a majority of other states use the Cooper physical fitness test so they do not see a need to change. However, we are losing candidates because they do not initially pass the physical fitness test (we are currently giving three opportunities to pass). We believe a functional test is more worthwhile than a standardized fitness test. ILEA has communicated with us that certified officers in the State of Iowa do not need a written test or physical fitness test to be hired. However, this only covers the attendance at the ILEA 3 and does not cover out of state certifications. The City Legal Department interpretation of Chapter 400, the Civil Service Code is that all applicants, including certified officers, must take the test. Simply, this is not appealing to certified officers. With Dubuque being located on the border with Illinois and Wisconsin, it is hard to recruit certified officers from those states because they must take both the written and physical fitness test. Law Enforcement hiring is a slow process. Traditionally, after making a request to the Human Resources for hiring, they will then post ads for looking for candidates. We have only had a 30- day window for applications. This does not allow us to hire in "real time" or to actively recruit interested candidates that need a job now as opposed to whenever we test again. In 2023 this has changed to allow a continuous open application cycle, as well as streamlined hiring, to include open testing. For the past several years, the PD has developed a recruiting team, led by the Administrative Captain. The team consists of young, motivated officers. The team has identified key recruiting areas, which mostly consists of colleges. We have created recruiting brochures, videos, and talking points. The team will assign officers (usually alumni) to the colleges, set up a booth/table in a high traffic area (generally cafeterias or commons areas). If we get a name of a person interested, we actively recruit that person by staying in contact with them. Simply, we are targeting individuals more than blanket recruiting. Chapter 400 of the Iowa Civil Service code requires the Civil Service Commission to set a testing date. I prepare a memo requesting the Civil Service Commission to establish a date. Historically, the PD has used area colleges with indoor rec facilities to conduct the physical fitness testing. This worked o.k., but test dates competed against the schools use of the facility. Since the City took over the management of the Ice Arena we have been using that location for both the physical fitness and written testing. This has allowed us more flexibility in the date. Additionally, we look at timing with breaks, holidays, athletics, etc. Within the past year, Pam McCarron in the City Clerk's Office has received certification to score the POST test. This has been a blessing, as what traditionally has taken weeks to receive test scores, now takes hours. Once we have determined whom has passed both the written and physical agility testing, I then submit the list to the Civil Service Commission recommending certification of a list of up to 40 people, with an expiration date of the list. For several years we have only been establishing lists for 6 months, due to expiring the lists quite quickly. Historically, the Civil Service Commission was an ad hoc committee only meeting when there was an agenda and when their schedules allowed. In 2022, Adrienne Breitfelder introduced a modification to the City Ordinance that changed their meetings to monthly. This will help with the timeliness of hiring. The next step once the list is established is to conduct two to three interviews. The number of interviews is dependent on the number of candidates to be hired. If there are more candidates, we use the third interview (a group interview) to narrow the list. My philosophy is to have as many people interact with the candidates as to get the best "look" as the candidates. Again, we are not sacrificing quality for quantity. After the interviews, and discussion about the candidates, I then make conditional job offers, by submitting this request through Human Resources. The conditional job offer is important as it then allows the PD to conduct the background check of the candidate. The background check consists of multiple interviews, job history checks, driver's license and criminal history checks, n as well as the medical background, polygraph, and the psychological assessment (MMPI). In recent years, we have incorporated the Emotional Intelligence assessment in the psychological background check. The PD's background investigators, also travel to conduct these background interviews. If a person lives in St. Louis, they go to St. Louis to have face to face interviews. We have found references, co-workers, family, etc. are less likely to exaggerate and/or lie when we do this. This all takes approximately 6 to 8 weeks to complete, as we are reliant on appointments with third parties. When all of this is done, I can then hire the person. In 2022, 1 made conditional job offers and final offers that were 9 months out. I did this to accommodate graduation schedules and military exit dates. However, this did cause a problem due to the POST test time requirements. Due to the code requirement that candidates take the POST test within a year of being hired, transfer test scores caused us an issue, as the hire date was outside of the year since they took the test. ILEA advised that they would withhold the officers ILEA graduation unless we retested her. Pam McCarron and Joe Messerich travelled to the academy and administered the test. Thankfully, the officer passed. Once a candidate is hired, and not a certified officer, the candidate must attend at least 17 weeks at an academy. Upon graduation, the candidate then must take part in a 20-week field training program. The idea is that we fully train our officers and make them competent and comfortable for solo patrol. To be more efficient in training we are currently working on a fluid revamp of our field training program. Historically, the PD has put an emphasis solely on evaluation. We are now putting the emphasis on training with evaluation to test that training. Additionally, we are customizing training for the individual, based upon previous experience and timing of hiring. For example, our Community Resource Officer (CRO) positions have been a great "feeder" for our police officer hiring. We are now, doing more formalized training for the CRO's while participating in that program with the idea that this will reduce the actual field training time, when we hire CRO's as officers. In 2023, we will have a CRO that will complete the field training program before attending the academy. The question is often asked as to why we are in such a hiring deficit. In the early 1990's we had over 500 candidates participating in testing and now we are lucky to get 20. It is the perfect storm. First, it is not "worth it" to be a cop. In recent years, we have seen officers throughout the nation, criticized, extremely scrutinized, and even criminally charged for just doing their jobs. Of course, there have been bad officers acting criminally, that even caused deaths. This has not reflected well on the law enforcement profession. Informally, we have heard that we have lost candidates because of family and peer pressure due to the negative attitude towards the profession. In Dubuque, we are supported, however, we cannot stop this feeling from happening or bleeding into the candidate pool. Second, is the economy. The current economy is flush with high paying jobs and currently the market is an employee market. Government jobs are not appealing. In the early 1990's the economy was not the greatest, thus we had more candidates. Third, there are generational issues. Studies have shown that current generations will have ten different jobs throughout a career, and anytime there is anything that they don't like about a job, they move on. Finally, studies and predications are showing that people are not retiring from jobs after spending 30 years in one job. People are working longer and are not focused on the pension a 30-year career can provide. A recent International Association of Chiefs of Police article indicates that law enforcement needs to look at employees staying 5 to 6 years and not 30 years. We are already seeing officers moving on after their four-year training contract has expired. 5 I am optimistic about 2023 in what we have done and are doing. The goal is to be at full staffing. However, if this happens we will not feel the impact of full staffing until 2024 after these candidates have completed training. Realistically, staffing issues are not going away and we need to plan that this is going to be an ongoing issue for years to come.