Pubdate: Thu, 23 Nov 2000
Source: Salt Lake Tribune (UT)
Copyright: 2000 The Salt Lake Tribune
Contact:  143 S Main, Salt Lake City UT 84111
Fax: (801)257-8950
Website: http://www.sltrib.com/
Forum: http://www.sltrib.com/tribtalk/
Author: Kevin Johnson, USA Today

LABOR SHORTAGE HITS POLICE DEPARTMENTS

Police departments across the nation, struggling to hire tens of thousands
of new officers in a tight labor market, are having to wade through a
depleted talent pool in which recruits are more likely than ever to have
used drugs, to be out of shape and to lie about their pasts.

From New York City to Phoenix, Ariz., police officials say it's never been
more difficult to find promising recruits. They blame a booming economy that
has created higher-paying alternatives to police work, forcing recruiters to
turn to candidates who in past years would have been rejected out of hand.

That has led to unprecedented recruit washout rates at a time when police
agencies are rushing to take advantage of the Clinton administration's
six-year, $8 billion grant program aimed at putting 100,000 new cops on the
street by the end of this year. The program will fall short of its goal --
as of June about 68,000 officers had been hired or reassigned to patrol duty
under the initiative -- largely because of problems in recruiting qualified
officers.

"Across the country, everybody is talking about the overall shrinking of the
applicant pool," says Thomas Frazier, director of the Justice Department
office that administers the grant program. "It is a major concern."

Federal officials have extended the grant program for two years, so the
pressure is still on departments to beef up their forces.

But reports from several urban departments that have been particularly
aggressive in pursuing new officers reveal some of the new challenges that
recruiters are facing. In part, they also highlight continuing questions
about how law enforcement should deal with post-boomer generations of
recruits who increasingly are likely to have grown up experimenting not just
with marijuana but with more addictive drugs such as cocaine, heroin and
methamphetamines.

Large percentages of police candidates -- from 30 percent in Chicago to
nearly 80 percent in Baltimore -- fail to become officers because they admit
to recent drug use or are caught lying about drugs and other aspects of
their lives.

In Chicago and Baltimore, hundreds of applicants are eliminated each year
because of such issues. Despite increasing numbers of applicants in
Baltimore -- from 1,800 in 1998 to 3,000 in 1999 -- the city isn't finding
it any easier to hire acceptable candidates.

Across the country, rising washout rates have become particularly noticeable
in the past six years, authorities say, as departments have intensified
their efforts to fill additional jobs funded by the federal grants.

A few police departments immediately disqualify candidates who report any
past drug use. But most now have policies that acknowledge the impact of the
drug culture and tolerate limited marijuana use if it took place several
years before a candidate applied to be a police officer. Recruits who have
used harder drugs are more likely to be rejected automatically.

"As the years go by, the levels of drug use are growing all the time,"
Phoenix police Sgt. Gil Soto says. "We've had some people say, 'Well, it's
just meth [methamphetamines].' Meth is a very dangerous drug."

Soto estimates that about 70 percent of the hundreds who apply for Phoenix
jobs each year have at least experimented with drugs. Although there are no
comparable statistics, Soto believes the portion of drug-using applicants
has increased in the past five years.

Many of the failures on mandatory polygraph exams stem from questions about
past or ongoing drug use, police say. Baltimore police Sgt. Sherina Long
says that during a recent interview, a candidate flunked after admitting he
had used marijuana the previous night "just to calm his nerves. At least he
was honest about it."

Phoenix recruiting officer Ron Meraz estimates that 30 percent to 50 percent
of recruits in that city fail the polygraph test. "I think there are some
people who think they can actually beat the background check," city
personnel analyst Adele Luffey says. "It's amazing."

More and more, police recruiters also say they are confronted with couch
potatoes.

In Chicago, where police estimate that one in 10 candidates actually make it
through the recruiting process, officials say the number of candidates who
are dropped because of drug-related issues is rising. But they say the
largest portion of applicants they reject can't get past the department's
basic agility requirements.

"We're not talking outlandish, Olympic-qualifying events here," Chicago
police Cmdr. Bill Powers says. "It's a mile-and-a-half run, some sit-ups and
stretching. They even have time to prepare. That's what shocks me."

In some cases, officials are trying to increase the talent pool of recruits
by lowering admission standards that were raised several years ago in an
effort to improve the quality of officers.

New York City's 40,000-officer police department, which this year fell about
300 hires short of filling 1,600 new academy positions, recently dropped its
minimum age for recruits from 22 to 21. The department also is allowing some
recruits to substitute work experience for the previously required two years
of college.

The changes in admission requirements have raised concerns that the
department might be sacrificing quality in pursuit of warm bodies.

"The public won't catch on [to the struggle to find police recruits] until
it's too late," says Capt. John Driscoll, president of the local Captains
Endowment Association, which represents supervisory-level officers.
"Everything is nice as long as crime is down. But what happens when there
aren't enough police to answer the calls?"

Some police chiefs do not believe that lowering standards is the right
approach.

"I still believe our police officers should have to meet a higher standard,"
says Dave Kurz, police chief in tiny Durham, N.H., whose department's patrol
force has increased from 15 to 18 because of the federal grant program.
"That's more of a problem today because of the conduct that now passes as
acceptable. What I do is try not to hire myself a problem."

Phoenix police recruiters have gone far out of town in their search to fill
openings. They have traveled throughout the West and Midwest -- Seattle, El
Paso, Texas, Colorado Springs, Colo., Gallup, N.M., Chicago and Oxnard,
Calif. -- usually testing about 75 prospects at each stop.

In Oxnard one recent weekend, police officials hoped the presence of a U.S.
naval base there would provide a target-rich environment for finding
prospective cops.

The good news: On test day, all but three applicants passed written and
agility exams, the best passage rate of any out-of-state group Phoenix
police have tested this year.

The bad news: Only 22 applicants showed up, even after Phoenix had spent two
weeks and thousands of dollars touting the recruiting effort in radio and
newspaper ads in California.

The only woman among the surviving 19 prospects was Katherine Beck, 27, an
auto-parts delivery person from Simi Valley, Calif., who sported a silver
nose ring and a T-shirt that read "You Suck." Beck acknowledged that she had
been convicted on a drug offense in 1994, and arrested again three years ago
for alleged public drunkenness.

Despite her nonconformist appearance, Katherine Beck was, in the eyes of
Phoenix police recruiters, a good candidate and passed her tests. "I'm
completely stoked," Beck said.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Andrew