HomeMy WebLinkAbout2015 11-07 Police Departments say second-career recruits help diversify force STAR TRIBUNE Police departments say second-career recruits help diversify i
SOUTH METRO
Police departments say second-career
recruits help diversify force
State's police departments find second-career officers bring diverse
skill sets.
By Stephen Montemayor(http://www,startribune.com/stephen-montemayor/298000161/)Star
Tribune
NOVEMBER 7,2015—5:34PM
For 17 years,Matt Hedrick's calling was as a Bloomington pastor.Christopher Nelson
spent 15 years at his stepfather's Minnetonka marketing firm.Eventually the pull of law
enforcement proved too strong for both.
"Now's the tirne to do it or I might miss this window,"Hedrick said he remembered
thinking as he approached 40.
Hedrick and Nelson are now in their third year with the Hastings Police Department,
where they are both detectives.
Law enforcement leaders would like to make it easier for others like them to change
careers and enter the field,citing the life experience they offer and the potential to
diversify the state's force.
"While the challenges of police work are many...for these people that come into it late,
it was something in the back of their mind that maybe they didn't do,"Maplewood
Police Chief Paul Schnell said of such"second-career"officers.`"Their commitment to the
job can sometimes be different as a result."
Schnell hired Hedrick and Nelson when he was Hastings police chief in 2013.He is also a
part-time instructor in Metropolitan State University's law enforcement and criminal
justice program.
Second-career applicants are a priority for the Minnesota Board of Peace Officer
Standards and Trai�ning as it develops its strategic plan in the next three to five years,
said Executive Director Nathan Gove.
Agencies don't typically track how many officers came from other careers,but POST
board figures suggest the number could be significant.Of the 1,052 full-tune officers
POST licensed in 2013-14,more than 55 percent were 26 or older—including 151 officers
ages 35 to 59.
"I find it hard to believe they hadn't had[another]career since high school,"Gove said.
New group of candidates
Schnell believes chiefs are begui�ung to look at second-career applicants as a chance to
diversify the candidate pool.
"There's nothing wrong with the types of candidates we have,"Schnell said."But should
we target certain types of sldll sets that might bring bigger diversity?"
Minnesota State Patrol spokeswoman Tiffani Schweigart,also a second-career officer,
said the agency's Law Enforcement Training Opportunity Prog�am's current class
includes 11 military veterans,three women and a bilingual candidate.Since the State
Patrol began the program in 2009,Schweigart said,87 new hires have successfully
completed it to be�n new careers as state troopers.
The program,Schweigart said,"does allow us to be even more selective in our process
because it opens opportunity to a new group of potential applicants."
The State Patrol hires candidates with two-or four-year degrees and pays them a full-
time salary while they undergo roughly six months of training,Schweigart said.
But for those seeldng careers in police work,like Hedrick and Nelson,many must
balance night and weekend classes with family life and their current jobs.With 29
Miruiesota colleges offering programs,Gove said officials will be discussing whether the
path to getting a license can be more streamlined.
startribune.com/poli ce-departm ents-say-second-career-recruits-hel p-diversify-force/342637142/
Police departments say second-career recruits help diversify f
Nelson went through Metropolitan State's one-year program offered to those with a
four-year degree elsewhere.Hedrick,meanwhile,jammed 36 credit hours into his first
year at Inver Hills Community College because not all of his credits from a small Bible
school and Bethel University would transfer,he said.
`New life'
Becoming licensed often isn't the final challenge for second-career cops.Nelson said that
though he landed an interview in Hastings,he was concerned about the cost of this new
career,especially since his wife was a stay-at-home mom.He hoped to keep worldng in
marketing part time his first year to supplement the entry-level pay of$22.49 to$34.29
an hour,but he said most police job postings suggested secondary work wasn't allowed.
But after Nelson raised the issue during his interview,Schnell found the request
reasonable.
"If we want to get these types of candidates,we're going to have to be more flexible in
terms of finding ways to make this work for people,"Schnell said.
After all,he said,he wanted Nelson and Hedrick worldng at the department.Why did he
seek them out,despite Nelson's lirnited experience as a reserve officer in Hopkins and
Hedrick's lack of law enforcement experience?
`°The depth of their history and their experience is what stood out,"he said.
Nelson now agrees his background juggling tasks for clients readied him to manage
numerous ongoing investigations.Hedrick said the people skills he honed while leading a
church now help him get both victirns and suspects talldng.
Both have found new energy with the career change.
"Literally every day I can't wait to go to work.Every day is different,every call is
different,"Hedrick said."For me it was kind of,at 40 years old,just breathing new life
into me."
F
stephen.montemayor@startribune.com 952-746-3282
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