APD Annual Reports - 2013 Annual Report | Page 17

Support Quality Education APD is excited to announce a new academic program with the Arlington Independent School District (AISD) and the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA). This new APD program, Hometown Recruiting, puts the police department in a great position to hire the best and the brightest from our community. In a continuous effort to build upon our effective partnerships with AISD and UTA, we have initiated several academic programs designed to identify and capitalize on the talent and diversity that makes Arlington great. Hometown Recruiting allows students to receive preferential hiring incentives upon completion of a baccalaureate Criminal Justice degree program at UTA. These incentives include receiving a guaranteed interview in APD’s hiring process, ensuring employment opportunities in police academy classes for the top performers in the program based upon academic standings, and recognition at department annual award ceremonies. There are also other tangible and intangible benefits that students can capitalize on including accruement of up to 9 college credit hours as an AISD student that can be transferred into the UTA degree program, savings of up to $3,808 in tuition costs, and multiple mentoring and coaching opportunities throughout the program. Hometown Recruiting has three major components. The first component is actual admission into the dual credit technical program at AISD. Students can earn dual credit while still in high school that can be applied at UTA. There is also an AISD Police Academy that is offered during the senior year which is structured APD Hometown Recruiting Program AISD AISD Police Academy similar to a basic police