TIVERTON — The town's Police Department will be sending four recruits to the Rhode Island Municipal Police Academy in January to fill the ranks that are several officers short because of retirements.
Two men and two women will be the new recruits, with a starting date of Jan. 11, 2021. The Town Council unanimously approved the hirings requested by Police Chief Patrick Jones at its final meeting last week.
The force will have 27 officers at the beginning of December after Officer Liam Black retires. One officer, who was hired in July, is still in the police academy and is due to graduate in two weeks.
The Police Department budget provides for 31 officers, including the chief and deputy chief. The police contract calls for minimum manning of 27.
The four new recruits will spend six months in the police academy, then three months field training in town so they should be ready to patrol alone by next Labor Day.
Jones said it’s unusual to send so many to the academy at one time, but one of the two the town sent in January 2020, dropped out the first week. The town interviewed five potential candidates in the summer, but hired just one who started the academy in July.
That recruit was the only one of the five “deemed qualified,” said Jones. “I’d rather go without, which is what we did,” he told the council.
“We’re definitely getting a higher-educated recruit,” Jones said of the recruits that do apply. Of the four that will go the academy in January, three have bachelor’s degrees and one is working toward a bachelor's degree.
One of the recruits lives in Tiverton, another in Little Compton, one in Bristol and one in Dartmouth, Massachusetts. One of the recruits is currently a dispatcher in the town’s Police Department.
Jones said it is “incredibly hard” to find recruits.
“The nationwide sentiment impacts people who want to get involved in law enforcement,” said Jones. ‘It’s definitely a high-stress job” that carries a lot of liability, and the new recruits start at the bottom of the pay scale.
“A tsunami of issues,” Jones said of what police departments are up against nationwide finding qualified candidates and then retaining them.
In the two years and eight months Jones has been chief, he said nine officers left, which is a third of the current force. Some took jobs elsewhere, some retired and some resigned. By next year, another four or five are eligible for retirement.
The Link LonkDecember 02, 2020 at 03:05AM
https://www.newportri.com/story/news/local/2020/12/01/tiverton-police-department-send-four-recruits-academy/6476315002/
Tiverton will boost its police ranks with four new recruits - newportri.com
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