California Police Chief- Fall 2013 CPCA_2018_Winter Magazine-FINAL | Page 29

A
s police chiefs, you are directly responsible for
the organizational structure of your department
and know how important recruitment, staffing and
retention are for your team. Today, consider the use and
further development of professional civilian staff.
Historically, many law enforce-
ment agencies utilized sworn staff for
a variety of administrative functions
from officers, supervisors, managers,
or deputy chiefs involved with every-
thing from dispatch and records to
human resources and training. Typ-
ically, civilian staff being utilized for
entry level staff positions in Records,
Dispatch and Clerical, with civilian
leads or supervisors. A police officers
education, training, and work inter-
ests are distinct for specific roles and
responsibilities. Why would we then
assign them to an administrative divi-
sion or unit? Especially, now, when it
so hard to find qualified candidates for
the position of Police Officer.
Recruitment is difficult. During
two recruitments last year, the Pacific
Grove Police Department received
81% more applications for Police Ser-
vices Technician than we did for Later-
al Police Officer/Academy Graduate.
This equated to 76% more applicants
that ended up on the eligibility list;
with everybody we recommended for
hire, passing backgrounds. Although
the Police Recruit opening garnered
nearly the same number of applicants
as Police Services Technician, 50%
more made it onto the Police Services
Technician eligibility list. Addition-
ally, we found the fail rate for Police
Recruit backgrounds much higher.
The average total salary of a
police officer or deputy in California
is $122,000 1 . As you already know,
professional staff
salary is much
less. In Pacific
Grove, a Police
Officer earns ap-
proximately 68%
more than their
civilian peers.
In addition, the candidates we
hired for civilian positions had college
degrees, most with a decade of non-
law enforcement professional work
experience or more, and they were
genuinely excited and honored to
serve. Their work ethic and positivity
are infectious.
The position I hold currently was
originally Commander. After my
predecessor left, the Chief at the time
removed one Commander from the
budget and added Police Adminis-
trative Services Manager. I manage a
division responsible for police records
management, property and evidence,
animal services, parking, information
technology, budgeting, clerical sup-
port, procurement and recruiting, and
report directly to the Chief.
At first, the transition for veteran
police officers was difficult. Howev-
er, at the time, many sworn ancillary
assignments included property and
evidence, training management,
procurement, information technology,
quartermaster, and recruiting, plus,
all civilians were directly supervised
by sworn. So, in addition to respond-
ing to calls with limited staffing, they
handled administrative tasks. We had
professional staff vacancies which
caused our civilian field staff to be
temporarily assigned to Records.
WINTER 2018 | California Police Chief
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