The Hollister Police Department has been left short-handed
recently because of a rash of injuries and employee turnover that
has dropped staffing by nearly 20 percent.
The Hollister Police Department has been left short-handed recently because of a rash of injuries and employee turnover that has dropped staffing by nearly 20 percent.
With as many as six officers off-duty because of injuries and two vacant positions on the HPD’s roster of 37 officers, Hollister Police Chief Bill Pierpoint said the department is doing the best it can to maintain normal operations.
“We’ve had quite a few injuries recently,” Pierpoint said.
The injuries, most of which occurred while officers were on duty, has taken nearly one-sixth of the department’s patrol officers off the streets.
Pierpoint said that’s compounded by the constant effort to hire new staff.
“We just lost two people to retirement last week – Officer Gary Anderson and our senior records clerk, Jeannie Tyler,” Pierpoint said.
With a number of officers and support staff either retiring or moving to police departments in other cities, Pierpoint said the department is constantly on the hunt for qualified personnel.
“It’s difficult to get quality people,” Pierpoint said. “We’ve had an open advertisement for people ever since I’ve been here.”
In the five years since Pierpoint took over as chief, one of his primary goals has been to increase the number of officers patrolling the streets.
During Pierpoint’s tenure, the number of patrol officers has increased by nearly 50 percent, from 24 to 37.
“We currently have two vacancies that we’re trying to fill,” Pierpoint said. “It all takes time.”
It can take months to hire just one qualified police officer, he said.
Pierpoint said the department doesn’t simply hire people off the streets, and that even candidates who have successfully completed police academy training are not guaranteed a job.
Police officer candidates are screened by an oral board, which assesses them through a series of verbal questions and responses. The board is made up of three members – an HPD training officer, a training officer from an outside police agency and a citizen at-large.
Pierpoint said he felt it was important to include a Hollister resident on the oral board.
“The community needs to be involved because essentially these officers will be working for them,” Pierpoint said. “I’ll be administering, but they are essentially the boss.”
The board asks specific, yes-no questions to test a candidate’s decision-making ability and situational opinion questions to test applicants’ rational process.
Applicants must also complete a personal history statement before the oral interview. Provided by P.O.S.T. – Police Officers Standards and Training – the statement is compared with the answers on their application.
Meanwhile, a private investigator researches an applicant’s background, talking with anyone he can find who knew the applicant – family, friends, acquaintances, friends of acquaintances – even teachers.
“And all of that takes time,” Pierpoint said. “Out of the five people the board gave to me recently, only one was offered a position.”
New officers are considered “probationary” for 11 to 12 weeks, during which time they can be fired for almost any reason without question. Daily reports are filled out by a field training officer on their performance during this period.
