President's Message - September 2017

Recruiting in the LAPD

For the last several years, due to all the negative press coverage and other reasons, recruitment of qualified applicants has been very difficult for all law enforcement agencies across the country. Most departments across the country have numerous vacancies that are not being filled. As an example, LASD has about 1,000–2,000 deputy vacancies, therefore causing mandatory overtime for current deputies.

Our Recruitment and Employment division (RED) has done an incredible job. This division is led by one of the best captains on the Department, Captain Alan Hamilton.

Over the last year, Captain Hamilton, along with the relatively new Personnel Department general manager, Wendy Macy, have tried to improve recruiting and hiring, especially when it comes to our own LAPD family members and qualified applicants recommended by LAPD officers. We all have heard horror stories over the years how some of our own family members were treated by “the process” when applying to become an LAPD officer.

We all know the best recruiting person to really know what it takes to be an LAPD officer is you.

Recruitment and Employment Division
“We Are Hiring!”

RED is reaching out to the LAPPL membership to ensure the word is out that we are hiring. This past fiscal year was the most successful hiring year in a long time. In Fiscal Year 2016–17, the Department hired 566 new LAPD officers. That was the most since 2008! That was very close to the maximum number of officers who can be hired by the LAPD under current POST training guidelines. Looking forward to the current fiscal year, the need will continue to be great as we hire to maintain our sworn numbers above 10,000. RED and Personnel Department also will be responsible for hiring backfill officers for the new Transit Bureau sworn positions. These new positions will ensure adequate staffing for the recently ratified Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) contract to provide law enforcement services within the City of Los Angeles under MTA jurisdiction.

Mentoring
Many Department members are not aware that LAPD has a dedicated Mentor Unit within the RED Recruitment Section, with officers specifically assigned to guide candidates through the hiring process. There are currently seven officers assigned to track, motivate and assist the candidates currently in the hiring process, and each mentor is responsible for approximately 1,000 candidates. Seminars are available to prepare candidates for their interviews, as well as remediation should they have difficulty passing certain exam parts. Mentors are the link to LAPD candidate success and take their duties very seriously in their attempts to guide and assist the best and brightest to a career with the LAPD.

Recruiting
LAPD recruiters are the liaison between the public and the Department. Often referred to as the “poster children” of the LAPD, their job is to successfully identify quality candidates and to communicate via the most effective means available the value and the potential of the Department in their lives. Sometimes potential candidates don’t realize that they are a “fit” for the LAPD, and it is the responsibility of LAPD recruiters to show them that they are a “fit” and that they may find their future within the LAPD. RED recruitment eff orts are coordinated in conjunction with the City of Los Angeles Personnel Department recruitment staff that is responsible for Public Safety recruitment eff orts throughout the city.

Recruiters utilize social media, job fairs, college classroom presentations, parades and the like to connect and share the benefits, drawbacks and other information with potential future officers. After recruiters educate our audiences about what a career in law enforcement could mean for them and about our seven-step hiring process, they administer the City of Los Angeles’ Personal Qualifications Essay, more commonly known as the LAPD Written Exam. Candidates should be
successful as long as they can write at a 12th grade level and they meet the other minimum qualifications: 20 years of age, clean background suitable for law enforcement employment (no felony convictions or misdemeanors that would preclude possession of a firearm), U.S. high school diploma/GED equivalent and U.S. citizenship or an application to become a U.S. citizen.

The rest is really up to the candidate, with continued guidance and constant support from our mentors, who help guide the candidate successfully through to the front doors of the LAPD Police Academy and, hopefully, to a long and rewarding career with the LAPD.

Ten fast facts about recruitment on LAPD
They hired 566 new LAPD officers this past fiscal year. The vast majority of the recruits had college or military backgrounds, with many having advanced degrees and extensive military experience. This was the most officers hired since 2008. As of July 1, 2017, the Los Angeles Police Department has almost returned to its authorized strength of 10,000 sworn officers.

Has becoming an LAPD officer become easier? In Fiscal Year 2015–16, 2.82 percent of the applicants who completed the Preliminary Background Application either online or in person actually stood on the black line on day one at the Academy and became an LAPD recruit officer. Of those, 2.1 percent became a police officer II after completing their Academy training and probationary period. In Fiscal Year 2016–17, that number only changed slightly to 4.2 percent of applicants going on to the LAPD Academy. The process remains highly selective, competitive and still seeks out the best of the best to become LAPD officers.

Recruitment Section has been limited to recruiting mostly in Southern California due to budgetary constraints. The budget beyond normal operational equipment, supplies and personnel remains at zero dollars. The City of Los Angeles Personnel Department has assisted with limited funding for joint projects, but the days of having multimillion-dollar budgets for travel and promotional events are over.

RED has greatly increased its social media presence. RED can be found all over social media and has leveraged its social media presence to maximize its reach throughout the United States. RED also has its own YouTube channel and has been working to add high-quality content to draw in candidates who are interested in a career with the LAPD.

Since July 2016, LAPD officers have been re-integrated into the Background Investigation process. RED currently has nine PIII background officer positions and two sworn supervisors who supervise and conduct background investigations on LAPD candidates. RED also currently provides staffing for the unit that reviews the Personal History Statement of every LAPD candidate to determine their suitability for going forward in the initial application process.

RED Recruitment Section appears at hundreds of events throughout the year in an effort to personally meet aspiring candidates and put a personal touch on the relationship necessary to ensure that highly-qualified candidates are sought out to become LAPD officers.

The City of Los Angeles Personnel Department is the entity responsible for the medical and psychological examination that determines a candidate’s suitability for a police officer position. As such, the Department serves only in an advisory role as to the standards required to be met for employment. The Department does not make the final determination as to the medical or psychological suitability of an individual candidate within the process.

The current average time it takes for an applicant to get through the entire hiring process is just over 200 days. Both the Personnel Department and RED are working hard to greatly shorten the process in order to ensure we continue to compete for high-caliber talent in the competitive law enforcement recruitment atmosphere in Southern California and beyond.

The Candidate Advancement Program (CAP) continues to serve as the physical preparation program that is one of the best indicators of success for candidates entering the LAPD Academy. Nearly 100 percent of the candidates who regularly participated in the CAP program prior to entering the LAPD Academy are successful in completing the rigorous Academy training.

The membership of the LAPPL continues to be one of the best sources of highly-qualified candidates. LAPPL membership is often the best at identifying who should be chosen to sit in an LAPD black and white as our partners.

Please continue to refer qualified applicants to www.joinlapd.com!

As always, please feel free to contact me at [email protected], or call me at (213) 251-4554.