The City Council approved recruiting new police officers to
replace retiring, injured officers at its meeting Monday, which
could give Hollister’s overburdened detective staff a boost from
two to three detectives by the end of the year.
The City Council approved recruiting new police officers to replace retiring, injured officers at its meeting Monday, which could give Hollister’s overburdened detective staff a boost from two to three detectives by the end of the year.
The approval will allow the police department to recruit officers as positions are vacated due to retirement.
One officer who has been on the injured list for almost a year is slated to retire next week, and Police Chief Jeff Miller anticipates another injured officer will retire shortly. Miller said healthy bodies will take some of the pressure off the overworked officers on patrol and in the detective’s bureau, which has a backlog of almost 1,000 cases.
“We would have one on (patrol)… and move one of our experienced officers into detectives,” he said.
The department, which has 32 sworn officers on staff, is operating at approximately 50 percent under the state Peace Officer Standards and Training organization’s recommended ratio of 1.5 officers per 1,000 people. Hollister has only .8 officers per 1,000 people, Miller said.
Five officers are currently on the injured list. The two retirements, along with the return of two more officers with short-term injuries, will leave the department with only one injured officer, Miller said.
Filling vacated positions will increase police services and can help assuage the department’s hefty overtime budget, said City Councilman Tony LoBue.
“I’m definitely for it. The overtime budget is to the tune of $300,000, and it could help ease that obligation we have,” he said. “They do need it… We need to make sure we have enough officers to cover caseloads and maintain the safety of the community.”
While Councilman Robert Scattini favors recruiting new officers, he also supports a clause that states the Council can halt the process or not fill the vacated positions as the city tries to rein in spending.
“It’s got to be there because it gives us the opportunity that if we can’t afford it, as bare bones as it is, to stop if we desire,” said Scattini before the meeting. “People are screaming about public safety and we need them… but what do you do if you don’t have the money? You cut. You do without.”
If the Council did decide to suspend the recruitment process, it would mean fewer services and the inability to relieve overtime and caseloads, Miller said.
“The biggest thing is morale and effectiveness, though,” he said. “It would further plunge us into the hole and vicious cycle of burnout, injuries and mistakes.”
The department is working on a plan to begin the lengthy recruitment process, which could take up to five or six months, Miller said. In the meantime, the retirement of two officers will have a negligible effect on the department because they haven’t been on active duty, he said.
Recruiting officers will scout local academies and neighboring departments and compile an eligibility list of qualified candidates. Then each one of those candidates will be screened, Miller said.
“We don’t make it easy to get on it,” he said. “They have to demonstrate they have the characteristics and ability to be effective and contributing members of our department.”
The candidates are subject to an extensive background check, which includes a criminal history, job history, education, character references and a lie-detector test, Miller said.
Background checks can take anywhere from four to eight weeks, and once the list is whittled down to the most qualified applicants, he or she is invited for an interview with Miller and the two captains.
If the applicant is a “good fit,” a medical and psychological evaluation is performed and the new officer begins a 10 to 16 week-long field training program, he said.
“Assuming we hire two officers,” Miller said, “if we progress at a reasonable pace through all the testing, probably sometime in November or December they’ll be out on the streets as solo units.”
