New Haven Independent

The job: New Haven police officer. The department’s hiring.

The woman in the photo, Assistant Police Chief Stephanie Redding, made a pitch Tuesday for people to consider a career with NHPD as the department kicked off a new recruitment drive with a press conference at 710 Sherman Parkway, home of the police training academy and shooting range. (The press conference took place during a lull in the shooting.)

The department hopes to lure enough qualified candidates to fill two consecutive classes of 35-45 recruitments, with the first class beginning training in April.

It’s all part of a two-year effort to boost the 382-member force by 150 cops and make it the largest in the state.

That has proved easier in concept than in deed. The first recruiting drive since City Hall announced that goal aimed for 45 new cops. It netted only 29 qualified prospects, out of 130 who originally applied. Those prospects (including the recruits pictured here standing behind the speakers at Tuesday’s press conference) are currently in training.

“The challenge for us is not so much budgetary — although we are sensitive to that,” Mayor John DeStefano said Tuesday. The challenge, he said, is finding enough recruits.

Toward that end, the city is offering adult education classes, free for city residents, to help prospects pass the civil service exam. The department also plans to hold open houses in city neighborhoods in July and August.

Anyone interested in applying for the new class can call Scott Nabel at the department at 946-6264 or check the city website’s police recruiting section starting later this week for more information.

Assistant Chief Redding said departments nationwide are having trouble attracting new cops. “It’s just not a job people are as interested in,” she said.

So what’s her pitch to prospective recruits?

“It’s an honorable profession,” Redding said. “It’s a great way to raise your family. And live your life.”