Village Approves Police Change To Hire Seasoned Police Officers

Oswego IL

19 February, 2021

12:30 PM

Description

OSWEGO, IL — The Oswego Village Board on Tuesday approved a policy change that will allow more seasoned recruits to apply for positions at the Oswego Police Department. The policy change adds a lateral transfer program designed to attract applicants who have already worked as police officers in other communities. Currently, most of the department's hires are new recruits who must go through the 14-weekpolice academy and partner with more experienced officers before they can patrol on theirown. A lateral transfer program would allow the Oswego Police Department to hire officerswho already have several years of experience at other police departments, starting them athigher salaries but saving on academy costs and getting them out on patrol faster. Nationally, police departments are facing an increasing shortage of police officers, with more than 63 percent of police departments surveyed in 2019 saying they had seen interest inavailable positions significantly drop. With a population that continues to grow, the challengeto recruit highly qualified, diverse officers is even more acute. In Oswego, about 43 percent of the village's patrol officers, many of whom were hired during the population boom of the 1990s and early 2000s, are planning to retire within the next five years. "By offering a lateral transfer program, we're not only able to benefit from the experience thatnew officer brings to Oswego, we're also able to better plan and avoid a shortage of officers inour department in the coming years," Oswego Police Chief Jeff Burgner said in a release. "We want to have as many tools available to us as possible to recruit the best quality candidates to serve ourcommunity." The policy change is just one tactic the Oswego Police Department is implementing to build upits staff of sworn officers. In early 2020, the department launched a research-based marketingcampaign at opdrecruits.com to attract a stronger and more diverse candidate pool andencourage more women and people of color to apply. Following the campaign, the number of women who took the police eligibility test increased by49 percent over past recruitment figures, and the number of candidates who identified asbelonging to a racial minority group increased by 38 percent. The department will continue to recruit entry-level officers on its same biennial testingschedule in addition to recruiting those more experience police officers hired through lateraltransfers. For more news and information like this, subscribe to the Oswego Patch for free. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app; download the free Patch Android app here. Don't forget to like us on Facebook!