thedrifter
04-20-07, 07:51 AM
Oakland expands recruitment drive for police officers
Chip Johnson
Friday, April 20, 2007
The Oakland Police Department is looking for a couple hundred good men and women to help in the battle on crime -- and what better place to start than the Marines?
Recruiters from the city have begun making regular visits to Camp Pendleton, where Marines are trained and where they end their military duty, police Sgt. Jon Madarang said. Police agencies in Southern California have done that for decades.
"Police departments from all over California and out of state regularly visit Camp Pendleton," said Lt. Lawton King, a base media officer. "It's very common to see police officers explaining career options to Marines as they near their (end of active service) date."
Oakland's push is part of an expanded recruiting drive to fill a shortfall of nearly 200 officers and an attrition rate that for years outpaced recruitment as the city battles one of its most intractable problems -- crime.
The situation around the state is just as dire: About 105 California cities are recruiting police officers, and, in the next five years, there will be a demand to fill 68,000 positions expected to be vacated by retiring officers, according to a state law enforcement commission.
It's been about 18 months since Oakland started an aggressive program designed to allow recruiters to go far beyond the nine-county Bay Area, which for years has been the target area. And the recruiting push is not aimed only at candidates with military experience.
In the last year, Oakland police recruiters have visited college campuses in Washington state and attended police and fire Olympics competitions. They also recruited candidates at Gay Games VII in Chicago last summer.
The effort is bolstered by a $500,000 advertising campaign. City Marketing Director Samee Roberts said the department has set up a jobs Web site -- www.opdjobs.com -- and placed ads in law enforcement journals and in 50 newspapers from Redding to Riverside.
Billboard and bus ads have been posted in far-flung locations, including Detroit and parts of New Jersey, Madarang said.
The theme of the campaign -- "It's more than you think" -- could apply to an officer's income (Oakland pays well), the nature of police duty in the city or its well-known crime rate.
So far, the push seems to be working. The department's monthly written tests now draw about 50 recruits a month, and demand has created a waiting list to start the process.
The department's goal is to graduate 100 recruits from its academy program by the start of next year, he said.
When they make the trek to Camp Pendleton in northern San Diego County, Oakland recruiters take written exams and physical testing equipment to start the process the moment a candidate makes a commitment.
In addition to the military base, the department has begun visiting military processing centers around the state to welcome U.S. troops back home and make a job pitch to them before they make a decision about whether to leave the military or re-enlist.
The department will be ably represented at a military job fair scheduled for San Francisco on May 1.
Oakland's police department has not been able to keep pace with retirements and disability leaves that, on average, result in the loss of about five officers a month.
Such attrition only exacerbates the shortage of officers that the department has not been able to replace, despite its best efforts. The department has about 720 sworn officers, and reaching the city's target of 803 officers is at least two years away, said Officer Roland Holmgren, a spokesman for the department.
The department's latest recruiting drive is solely focused outside the Bay Area. But Madarang said qualified local candidates remain a top priority for the department, which has designed recruiting materials to generate local interest in the career.
These days, Oakland's department also urges officers who serve as chaplains to carry the message of employment to the churches and congregations they attend in an effort to find quality candidates.
And in partnership with another city agency, the Police Department has produced a DVD that is distributed to community groups in the East Bay. The thinking is that there may be a few good candidates among the civic-minded citizens who regularly participate in community projects and events.
Madarang says the department is looking to expand its recruiting effort soon to southern U.S. states, where many former military veterans live. Eventually, that effort could expand to colleges and other institutions in the South.
Decades ago, another department did the same thing, with disastrous results.
Former Los Angeles Police Chief William H. Parker recruited hundreds of Southern whites, many with military experience, to his force. Their cultural differences -- and animosities -- toward black Americans were cited as a factor in the Watts riots of 1965, at the time the largest civil riot in U.S. history.
But that isn't likely to happen in Oakland, given the oversight of its Police Department that was part of a $10.5 million settlement in the civil case accusing alleged rogue officers known as the Riders of roughing up residents in 2000.
And given the city's problems in keeping its police force fully staffed, it needs all the good men and women it can get.
Chip Johnson's column appears on Tuesdays and Fridays. E-mail him at chjohnson@sfchronicle.com.
Ellie
Chip Johnson
Friday, April 20, 2007
The Oakland Police Department is looking for a couple hundred good men and women to help in the battle on crime -- and what better place to start than the Marines?
Recruiters from the city have begun making regular visits to Camp Pendleton, where Marines are trained and where they end their military duty, police Sgt. Jon Madarang said. Police agencies in Southern California have done that for decades.
"Police departments from all over California and out of state regularly visit Camp Pendleton," said Lt. Lawton King, a base media officer. "It's very common to see police officers explaining career options to Marines as they near their (end of active service) date."
Oakland's push is part of an expanded recruiting drive to fill a shortfall of nearly 200 officers and an attrition rate that for years outpaced recruitment as the city battles one of its most intractable problems -- crime.
The situation around the state is just as dire: About 105 California cities are recruiting police officers, and, in the next five years, there will be a demand to fill 68,000 positions expected to be vacated by retiring officers, according to a state law enforcement commission.
It's been about 18 months since Oakland started an aggressive program designed to allow recruiters to go far beyond the nine-county Bay Area, which for years has been the target area. And the recruiting push is not aimed only at candidates with military experience.
In the last year, Oakland police recruiters have visited college campuses in Washington state and attended police and fire Olympics competitions. They also recruited candidates at Gay Games VII in Chicago last summer.
The effort is bolstered by a $500,000 advertising campaign. City Marketing Director Samee Roberts said the department has set up a jobs Web site -- www.opdjobs.com -- and placed ads in law enforcement journals and in 50 newspapers from Redding to Riverside.
Billboard and bus ads have been posted in far-flung locations, including Detroit and parts of New Jersey, Madarang said.
The theme of the campaign -- "It's more than you think" -- could apply to an officer's income (Oakland pays well), the nature of police duty in the city or its well-known crime rate.
So far, the push seems to be working. The department's monthly written tests now draw about 50 recruits a month, and demand has created a waiting list to start the process.
The department's goal is to graduate 100 recruits from its academy program by the start of next year, he said.
When they make the trek to Camp Pendleton in northern San Diego County, Oakland recruiters take written exams and physical testing equipment to start the process the moment a candidate makes a commitment.
In addition to the military base, the department has begun visiting military processing centers around the state to welcome U.S. troops back home and make a job pitch to them before they make a decision about whether to leave the military or re-enlist.
The department will be ably represented at a military job fair scheduled for San Francisco on May 1.
Oakland's police department has not been able to keep pace with retirements and disability leaves that, on average, result in the loss of about five officers a month.
Such attrition only exacerbates the shortage of officers that the department has not been able to replace, despite its best efforts. The department has about 720 sworn officers, and reaching the city's target of 803 officers is at least two years away, said Officer Roland Holmgren, a spokesman for the department.
The department's latest recruiting drive is solely focused outside the Bay Area. But Madarang said qualified local candidates remain a top priority for the department, which has designed recruiting materials to generate local interest in the career.
These days, Oakland's department also urges officers who serve as chaplains to carry the message of employment to the churches and congregations they attend in an effort to find quality candidates.
And in partnership with another city agency, the Police Department has produced a DVD that is distributed to community groups in the East Bay. The thinking is that there may be a few good candidates among the civic-minded citizens who regularly participate in community projects and events.
Madarang says the department is looking to expand its recruiting effort soon to southern U.S. states, where many former military veterans live. Eventually, that effort could expand to colleges and other institutions in the South.
Decades ago, another department did the same thing, with disastrous results.
Former Los Angeles Police Chief William H. Parker recruited hundreds of Southern whites, many with military experience, to his force. Their cultural differences -- and animosities -- toward black Americans were cited as a factor in the Watts riots of 1965, at the time the largest civil riot in U.S. history.
But that isn't likely to happen in Oakland, given the oversight of its Police Department that was part of a $10.5 million settlement in the civil case accusing alleged rogue officers known as the Riders of roughing up residents in 2000.
And given the city's problems in keeping its police force fully staffed, it needs all the good men and women it can get.
Chip Johnson's column appears on Tuesdays and Fridays. E-mail him at chjohnson@sfchronicle.com.
Ellie