New Haven Independent

A new class of aspiring cops started the Police Academy last week, with dwindling numbers that fell short of the city’s goal, reported police spokeswoman Bonnie Winchester Tuesday.

This year, police and fire recruitment drives have changed in two ways: The tests are no longer pass/fail, ending the days where top brass could reach into giant pools of those who passed and hand-pick candidates. Also for the first time, to encourage local membership, those living in New Haven were given extra points. Here’s how the drives are shaping up.

Blue “Drought”?

Recruiting a hefty class of new cops was a big part of the mayor’s crime initiative intended to answer an uptick in homicides and a citywide cry that “community policing is dead.” Aldermen agreed with the vision and approved adding $1.2 million to this year’s budget to make way for a class of 45 new recruits.

But at a time when the policing profession is out of favor nationwide, the city couldn’t find enough capable, willing applicants to meet that goal.

Instead of taking the old pass/fail test, which a judge tossed out after a Naugatuck man took the city to court, recruits get a percentage grade on their written exam. So this year, the test churned out a long, ranked list instead of a single pool.

A total crop of 130 recruits passed the written, oral and preliminary agility tests. The first 102 of the 130 were invited back to the police department for psychology, polygraph and extra agility tests, according to Winchester. Each test knocked out a few names. Some got offers elsewhere.

“We were hoping for 40, but we didn’t have the list to support that,” said Winchester, who’s been organizing the recruitment drive.

As of Tuesday, 29 aspiring policemen remained in the police academy class. They started training Feb. 20, scheduled to hit the streets by December.

As for the extra seats the city had hoped to fill? The police department will return to the few remaining untapped names on the recruitment list and try to send them up to Meriden’s police academy in May. Winchester said 20 viable candidates remain available for that path.

The Fire Drive

Of the roughly 1,100 firefighter recruits who recently poured into the Omni Hotel to take a written test, about 700 have been invited back to take oral exams on March 5, reported Assistant Fire Chief Ron Dumas (pictured at top of this story) at a Board of Fire Commissioners meeting Tuesday. The force has 25 open seats waiting to be filled, he said.

Dumas didn’t have stats on how many of those hundreds hailed from New Haven. This year, New Haveners taking both the fire and police entry level written tests will be given five extra points if they can prove they live in the city.

Patrick Egan (pictured), president of the firefighter’s union, had questioned such “preference points” when the debate popped up last year. He said he doesn’t have a problem with the number of points that was settled on.

He did have one suggestion for top brass conducting the fire recruitment drive: How about adding a polygraph (“lie detector”) test? Shouldn’t firefighters be “as honest as possible,” given the power that they’re given to enter stranger’s homes? Dumas said a quick poll of 10 other fire departments revealed the lie detector test wasn’t standard practice, but he said the suggestion had not yet been ruled out.