n By Kristen Munson
Staff WriterGilroy – With seven positions open in the Gilroy Police Department and hundreds of candidates applying – one might assume finding a suitable candidate would be easy.
But the Gilroy Police Department is facing a problem smaller agencies nationwide are having – a candidate pool spread thin by a demand for military and homeland security personnel – and watered down by high standards in the hiring process.
“We started off with 130 applications and out of that whole screening, we’ve hired one person,” said Sgt. Kurt Svardal, who sat in last week on the oral board portion of the hiring practice.
The department has four positions for police officers and three community service officer spots available.
The process is complex and can take anywhere from three to five months for officers who have already been through the police academy and up to nine months for those who have not, he said.
Candidates must first submit an application and enroll in an academy, followed by an initial background screening, an oral board test with a panel of in house and community members at large, as well as a written test, a medical test, a psychological exam, and a final background check. And during each round individuals are subject to elimination.
Of the 40 to 50 candidates interviews last week – 10 were left after the oral board round.
“Nobody’s perfect, but we don’t want to lower our standards. We have a definite standard that we’re going to adhere to,” Svardal said. “We like to pride ourselves in having very professional officers with ethics and integrity.”
According to a 2004 study by the Department of Justice, more than half of all small agencies and two-thirds of large agencies reported a lack of qualified applicants. Research indicated that some problems may be attributed to the increasing educational requirements for applicants, candidates being lured away to better paying jobs, and increased competition after Sept. 11, 2001 from other organizations such as the military and private agencies for homeland security needs.
“It is tough and it is time consuming, but the rules of hiring are different in our world,” Svardal said.
GPD does not have a high turnover rate of employees and is only expecting one individual to retire in the next year, so the concern to find individuals to fill the vacated spots is not urgent, he explained.
“The rules of hiring and firing are different in our world,” Svardal said. “Someone in law enforcement is never going to be a multi-millionaire. They’re going to be out there enforcing the law – they need to be trustworthy.”
The background check is the most telling portion of the application process, and can eliminate a candidate who has poor credit history or evidence of past moral digression.
GPD officials do not plan on altering hiring standards at this point.
“We don’t want any future employee problems,” Svardal said. “We really do put people under the microscope for good reason.”
