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Chief reports about 148 applicants, warns new state hiring rule affects laterals
Summary
The police chief told the meeting the department has about 148 applicants and 15 lateral candidates, and said a state law now requires departments to recover hiring costs for officers with under three years’ service. He also described a series of interagency meetings aimed at addressing crime spilling from Indianapolis into nearby suburbs.
The chief reported that the department will hold physical-agility and written tests on Saturday and said the department currently has “about 148” applicants, an uptick the chief described as roughly a 40% increase from recent recruit lists.
The chief also said the applicant pool includes “15 lateral transfers.” He told the meeting that a state law enacted last year requires departments to recover hiring-related expenses when they hire an officer who has completed less than three years with a prior agency. “If we hire them ... they have less than 3 years on, we can't hire. Because if we hire them, we and the same thing applies to our officers with other agencies. We make them sign a contract now that state law went into effect last year where if we hire a ... a police officer from another agency that has less than 3 years on, we have to pay all of their expenses up to the point that the market has to incur,” the chief said.
The chief gave a recent example to illustrate the impact: he described sending an individual through the police academy who graduated and then accepted a sheriff’s department job the next day, an outcome he said led the department to add the contract requirement for new hires. The chief characterized the department’s first-year investment in a recruit — training, vehicle and related costs — as “about, what I'm guessing, under $100,000.”
On regional response, the chief said he and the mayor have been attending a series of meetings that began with local chiefs and will continue with prosecutors, judges and legislators. He said four meetings are scheduled through October, with the next on Aug. 3. “We need to figure out how the crime in Indianapolis is spilling over to the suburbs,” the chief said, describing the gatherings as an effort to coordinate responses while avoiding blame.
The commissioner who spoke earlier said the department will amend its rules and regulations to conform with a recently passed ordinance once the chief provides the ordinance number for reference; the chief said he will supply that number. The meeting did not record any formal policy change beyond directing staff to incorporate the ordinance number into the rules and post the updated regulations.
