It’s a challenging time to do a challenging job in the United States: the occupation of police officer, long seen as a position of honor in any community, has come under scrutiny in recent years.
That scrutiny has had a measurable effect on the number of people who apply each year to become officers. This effect has been felt across the country, including in Hamilton.
“In the past, we never really had to do too much recruitment,” says David Schultz, a lieutenant with the Hamilton Township Police. “The numbers (of applicants) were generally high. They have decreased recently, so we are trying to reach out ahead of time, trying to make social media campaigns, release videos between now and the end of March.”
The push for March is because the Hamilton Police Department is a civil service agency, meaning that applicants for positions in the department must pass a test, the Law Enforcement Examination, administered by the state Civil Service Commission. The deadline for application to take the LEE is March 31.
Tests are administered each summer, with results typically not available until fall. “The whole hiring process for law enforcement is rigorous and lengthy, as you would hope it would be for law enforcement officers,” says Chief Kenneth DeBoskey, who succeeded retiring chief James Stevens last June.
Qualifications for successful applicants are set by the Civil Service Commission. Applicants must be U.S. citizens who are healthy enough to enter and pass police academy training. They must be fluent in English, between the ages of 18 and 35 at the time of testing, and be people of “good moral character.”
“We’ve experienced, as have many police agencies across the country, a decline in applications with us, which has resulted in a decline in the number of applicants we can consider,” DeBoskey says.
Those who are interested in applying must apply with civil service, which then contacts them to set a testing date.
The test is intended to identify the best candidates for a job in law enforcement, but it is by no means the only hurdle for law enforcement candidates. Only those who pass the test can be considered for hire by the police department, which puts candidates through its own hiring process.
A reduction in the number of applicants is challenging enough for police forces, but add in the civil service test and the effect of the downturn is multiplied. DeBoskey says Hamilton saw just 80 candidates pass the civil service test last year.
“Which is an alarmingly low number,” he says. “In the past, we have had hundreds of persons who have passed the test, which gives us a good pool of applicants to choose from.”
Candidates who meet every requirement set forth by the state and the township must then graduate from police academy training. Mercer County’s police academy is located on the campus of Mercer County Community College, and each year a number of new township officers graduate from its 21-week program, or from others like it throughout the state.
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DeBoskey says that despite the decline in eligible candidates, the township has still been able to hire its share of qualified officers. But, he says, it’s his responsibility as the leader of the department to ensure that Hamilton gets the highest quality of candidates for available positions as possible.
“A law enforcement officer has a tremendous amount of responsibility, to make arrests and potentially to use deadly force, so I have to have the best candidates possible for these positions, and the decline in the number of applicants is concerning to me,” he says.
There are other avenues by which the township hires officers.
“Usually there are two different types of candidates we receive,” DeBoskey says. “One is a civilian with no experience. The other may be a transfer from another law enforcement agency. That’s fairly common. Someone who’s already a certified police officer would not have to go through the police academy.”
While Hamilton has been able to maintain its staffing levels at appropriate numbers in recent years, there is churn every year as police officers retire, transfer to other jurisdictions, or move on for other reasons. To ensure that those numbers never drop below levels that would endanger public safety, the department is always actively recruiting for new members.
“We are trying a number of different recruitment methods, revamping our entire recruitment program to reach out to as many citizens of Hamilton Township as we can,” DeBoskey said.
The outreach has included visiting college campuses, contacting local media, contacting local religious organizations and school resource officers in an effort to identify more people who might be good candidates for a career in law enforcement.
The reason for the decline of applicants, DeBoskey says, is complicated.
“Some of it, I think, is cultural, something that police agencies are experiencing across the country,” he says. “Policing is not seen, over the last four, five years, as desirable a profession as it once was. But we are very competitive in terms of our salary and benefits that we offer, which we think should encourage people to apply for us.”
DeBoskey says a career in law enforcement can be rewarding in ways that other careers cannot offer.
“The average officer who spends time on the street has the opportunity to help somebody in life every single day, as opposed to lots of careers in the private sector,” he says. “This is a very rewarding career, a very fulfilling career, a very meaningful career.”
He adds that Hamilton Township, as the ninth largest municipality in the state by population, offers opportunities not available in every jurisdiction.
“We can offer lots of opportunities people wouldn’t get in other communities,” he says. “We have a SWAT team, we have community policing, we have six school resource officers. We have a special victims unit, a drone unit. We have a lot more to offer than other agencies, in my opinion, for persons or candidates who would like a varied law enforcement career.”
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Those interested in learning more can contact Lt. David Schultz of the Hamilton Township Police Department at (609) 581-4129.
The Hamilton Township Police Department.,
