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Police and Firefighter Hiring Trend Continues

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Earlier this year I wrote about the Turning Tide in Police and Firefighter Hiring. As weJobs reach the midyear point, police and firefighter hiring trend appears to be accelerating along with a couple of interesting twists.

Class of 20 Immediately Following 40

Kansas City is planning a recruit class of 20 new police officers immediately after wrapping up its current academy class of almost 40 cadets, one of its largest classes. The department reports that last year it had 400 applications for the police academy. Recruiters this year are looking for a new incoming academy class of about 20 people, but so far the applications aren’t pouring in like they were last year. It is still early in the process and the numbers of applicants will surely rise.

Read more from Kansas City: HERE

Salaries Remain Strong

In New Jersey the Rutherford mayor and council have approved hiring new police recruits after several years of a hiring freeze. While the recruits are in the academy they will earn $27,242 and within eight years the new officers could earn up to $99,639 per year.

Police Chief Russo said that he hopes this is sign of change for the police department, which has not had the ability to hire new officers for a number of years. “To be honest, said Russo, I’m not looking to get back to the 49 officers that we had when I first started. I just want to be able to staff all of the shifts without having to constantly dip into overtime.”

Read more details from Rutherford:  HERE

Diversity in Hiring Continues

In Erie, PA nearly 300 applied to become City of Erie firefighters. The strong diversification trend continued in Erie where officials say the pool includes African American, Latino and female candidates. Preliminary results show that the pool includes 20 women; three African-American men; three Latinos; one African-American woman; and three who listed their ethnicity as “other.”

An ongoing recruiting effort continues as it as for the past few years. Erie has printed brochures detailing application requirements that are distributed throughout the community, including local churches. To expand its reach, the city has also advertised on its website, www.erie.pa.us, and in Pittsburgh, Buffalo and Cleveland newspapers.

Read more details from Erie: HERE

New Firefighter Hires Help ISO Rating

In Springfield, FL the commissioners voted to hire six new firefighters before the June 1st deadline set by Insurance Services Inc. (ISO). In October ISO informed the commissioners the city’s rating would increase — homeowners would pay more for insurance — without the additional firefighters to meet staffing level requirements.

With the decision to hire six firefighters the commissioners also approved a budget to spend  $12,042 to equip the new firefighters with coats, pants, suspenders, boots, helmets, gloves and shields.

Read more from Springfield: HERE

Increased Hiring Brings Competition

The economy is moving slowly toward recovery and in law enforcement, like many industries, jobs are beginning to open up again.

Bigger departments are opening their doors to new hires and many local officers are ready to take them up on the promise of higher pay, lower cost of living and more action on the job.  Unable to compete, local departments are again beginning to struggle to keep well-trained and qualified people on staff.

Its been recently reported that Denver PD ended a more than four year hiring freeze last fall and was on track to bring on 100 new officers in 2013. Many of these larger agencies will pull new hires from smaller agencies who cannot compete with salaries, benefits and in some cases more career opportunities.  

A new patrol deputy for the Summit County Sheriff’s Office (Colorado) can start off at an annual salary of approximately $45,000. Denver PD pays a police officer 4th grade more than $51,000 and salaries are set to increase next year. (According to the departments web sites.)

Read more: HERE

Firefighters and Paramedics Finding Higher Paying Jobs

In the past three years, Georgetown County, SC has lost nearly 100 firefighters and paramedics to higher paying jobs. Some took jobs in places as close as Horry County, where starting salaries are about $5,000 higher than in Georgetown County.

Leaving For More Pay

One firefighter/paramedic took the same position in Montgomery, Md., for a salary of $70,000. That’s $11,000 more than fire chiefs, the highest paid firefighting employees in Georgetown County, earn. Another firefighter moved to Florida to make surfboards. He now makes more money than he did at Midway Fire Rescue.

Read more from Georgetown: HERE

Will Police and Firefighter Hiring Continue?

I think yes. After tracking police, fire and all public safety job growth there is an unquestionable national up-tick in job hiring across all areas, disciplines and specialties. Another trend worth mentioning is the number of veterans turning to jobs in public safety after their honorable careers. Well trained vets along with the dramatic growth of college curriculums in fire and police science programs (I will be writing more about community college programs in the near future) will make competition tough for applicants but offer a huge benefit for counties and cites.

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