Finding Minority Police Officer Candidates

[jay]

One city councilwoman admitted that two of her relatives took jobs with other area police departments.  One now works for the Warren PD and the other works for the Liberty Township PD.

[Rick Rowlands]

One of the downsides of free will is that you can't make people do what they don't want to do.  Most inner city blacks would rather be on the other side of the badge apparently. 

Just hire the best candidates that apply.  Period.

[Towntalk]

You only want city residents to get city jobs, but 90% of the city residents want nothing to do with jobs with the city, but there are many people here who whine about pay raises for city workers, so the city is damned if it does and damned if it doesn't. The Chief can't go out and force people to become police officers, and our tax base (city income tax) can not sustain the kind of pay raises that would draw the best of the best, and there is no way that the city can prevent other departments from grabbing up our best officers.

[jay]

The city's race to the bottom of the wage scale may be saving money but it's not getting the city good police department candidates.

[Towntalk]

Are not our young people worth the investment?
How many of our youth end up in the courts, and how many of them could have gone in a different direction through one of these programs?
If it's the cost that bothers you, why are you not against the programs in our schools such as sports, music and drama? These programs aren't free, nor do they prepare most of the kids for a college education. Think of all the money that our school system could save if they dropped EVERY extra curricular program.

[jay]

It takes the expenditure of tax money and manpower to run any cadet program.


Another thing working against our police department

The YPD has one of the lowest starting wages in the area.

[Towntalk]

JAY, YOU MISSED THE POINT COMPLETELY ... Is a Cadet in the Civil Air Patrol in the Air Force? No, he or she in in a program sponsored by the Air Force. A cadet program in any police departmant is a youth outreach program. The cadets have NO police powers and their activities are no different than the Eagle Program in the Boy Scout. This program gives the youth the opportunity to get to know the police and hopefully encourage some of them to choose becoming a police officer.

THREE EXAMPLES OF WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT:

http://discoverpolicing.org/find_your_career/?fa=opp_young_adults
http://strategiesforyouth.org/
http://www.golawenforcement.com/PoliceExplorer.htm

[jay]

The police department does not hire people right out of high school.  Candidates have college training in criminal justice courses.  They also have to have passed through the police academy.  They must also pass a civil service test and an agility test.  Eventually the candidates have to also pass a background test, lie detector test and psychological test.  There are also more steps to the process.

[Towntalk]

 Another problem:

http://wkbn.com/2015/01/14/ypd-struggles-with-numbers-diversity/


What is YPD to do when only one in five applying are Black? How is the city going to attract more Blacks when so few even apply? We all know that the courts are not going to change the residency rule any time soon so all our wishing is a waste of time and resources when we need to find a way to reach out to Black teens to consider a job in the Police Departmant. One idea would be to have a Cadet Police Program where high school students could join with a Police officer as the leader along with one of the Police Chaplins.

[jay]

Youngstown City Council has been discussing ways to increase the number of minority applicants for the Youngstown police officer exams.  In recent times, the vast majority of applicants have been from surrounding communities.  As a result, the top 25% of those passing the test are mostly non-minorities.

In addressing this fact, the Mayor of Youngstown made an interesting comment.  The state's meddling in city's residency rules has made the situation worse.