City Seeks To Fill Police Staffing Shortages

From Brian Lockhart, CT Post:

The response to the city’s latest police recruitment drive–launched in April–seems to reflect a national trend departments are facing when it comes to difficulties hiring.

According to Mayor Joe Ganim’s administration, 419 candidates submitted applications by the June 4 deadline.

Scoring on the in-person written exams, which ran from June 19 to July 3, will be completed by mid-July with oral tests to follow. Of the 419, 132 are city residents and 89 are women, City Hall said.

However in 2015 when then-Mayor Bill Finch launched a search for new officers, his administration boasted that 1,013 candidates initially came forward, 800 of those made it to the oral interview stage, and that 762 qualified for the academy pending background checks, physicals and other requirements.

The Ganim administration wants to hire 60 new officers and Acting Chief Rebeca Garcia could use that manpower. This week she said that the department’s optimum strength is 426 officers, but as of June 30 she had 349 men and women under her command.

Full story here.

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4 comments

  1. They are 77 short but are only looking to hire 60. Is that some kind of new math?
    By the time they get around to hiring, they will probably be short another 10.
    Is this the automatic OT?

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  2. Mayor Joe Ganim, tell us why the Bridgeport Police Department was NOT INVOLVED with the Hearst Connecticut Media over the past nine months compiled and examined more than 1,800 internal charges of alleged officer misconduct at 30 local police departments primarily in Fairfield and New Haven counties. The internal investigation cases covered the period from 2015 to 2020. How can the voters have respect and trust in you as mayor and Acting Chief Rebeca Garcia with the management of te BPD? There needs to be an outside investigation into the recent police corruption scandal because the FBI didn’t perform an internal look into the civil service testing.

    “CT’s secretive police disciplinary system rarely leads to serious punishment”
    Bill Cummings
    June 23, 2021
    Updated: June 23, 2021 8:56 p.m.

    https://www.ctpost.com/projects/2021/police-misconduct/?src=ctphpdontmiss

    Police officers across the region have been caught engaging in a variety of misdeeds in recent years — ranging from being late for duty to improper use of force to breaking into cars.

    But superiors rarely handed down the most serious forms of punishment, a Hearst Connecticut Media Group investigation of hundreds of cases found.

    Instead, through in-house proceedings shielded from public scrutiny, departments often resorted to discipline that experts say is more of a slap on the wrist and insufficient to halt or reduce future misconduct.

    Hearst Connecticut Media over the past nine months compiled and examined more than 1,800 internal charges of alleged officer misconduct at 30 local police departments primarily in Fairfield and New Haven counties. The internal investigation cases covered the period from 2015 to 2020.

    Among internal charges that were sustained, meaning misconduct was found, about three-quarters resulted in a verbal warning, reprimand, counseling or order for more training.

    About one quarter of sustained charges drew a suspension from duty, while about 1 percent resulted in the officer being fired.

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