YPD to start hiring process

July 26, 2014 at 12:00a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

The police department will begin the next step in the hiring of new officers early next month.

Staff Inspector Lt. Brian Butler said the department is looking to add up to a dozen officers as soon as possible and will start interviewing finalists from those who passed a civil-service test June 14.

Butler said 104 out of 144 candidates who took the entry-level exam for the police department passed it, but under state law, only the top 25 percent of those who passed can be interviewed.

Butler said those candidates — 26 in all — will fill out applications, then be subjected to background checks as well as other tests. He estimated the time to run through checks on each candidate to be between 40 and 60 man-hours.

Butler said the new hires are expected to offset at least five upcoming retirements and also will help Chief Robin Lees form his new Community Policing Unit.

The unit will be made up of veteran officers whose duties will be devoted exclusively to the ward they work in, whether it be crime or blight issues, and they will be working closely with the council member for that ward as well as its block watch and other neighborhood groups.

Officers who work in the unit will not be answering 911 calls so they can concentrate exclusively on the issues in the wards they are assigned to.

When the new officers are trained to work their beats, then the officers who volunteered to work the community policing unit will shift into that role.

The last time the city hired officers was in November, when they added four, part of 10 hires in 2013. Since 2008, the department has added 28 officers as older officers have been retiring.

The department currently has about 150 officers.