HPD to boost police academy classes?
The Chronicle's Monica Guzman reports that HPD is finalizing a plan to boost HPD cadet classes in order to address the worsening manpower problem:
If the city approves funding, HPD's 20 proposed academy classes could add up to 1,500 officers to the department between now and the end of fiscal year 2008 — nearly double the number initially planned.
Officials also will begin accepting applications year-round for seats in the department's modified entry academy class, a 13-week course designed to expedite training for peace officers from other departments. Classes will be scheduled to accommodate qualified candidates as they apply.
The low number of cadets enrolled in the first modified entry class this year highlights the difficulty in finding such candidates and the need for officials to do more to find them.
As Laurence Simon notes, landing recruits might be a bigger problem than anticipated. This can happen when growing problems are ignored for years by politicians, and then must be addressed quickly once they can no longer be ignored.
Guzman's reporting contained this snippet:
In addition to general funding, police officials may be able to use part of $20 million the city recently received from the Department of Justice, the bulk of which will fund a $1 million-per-month HPD overtime program whose FEMA funding expires at the end of the month.
In the Hutchison/DeLay/White/Hurtt press conference announcing the $20 million federal allocation to the city, Mayor White expressed his interest in using some of the money to boost cadet classes. Chronicle print readers wouldn't know that, however, because the newspaper inexplicably chose not to cover the news in its print editions.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/25/06 01:39 PM | Print |
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