Police academy delay may strain force

Some Wilmington council members worry that a delay in starting the police academy will hamper the city’s efforts to reduce crime as officers leave the force and retire.

The academy was expected to be in session now, but has been moved to December because the department has not received the desired number of applications, a senior department official said.

The city has 295 officers on the streets, but can have up to 320. Police Chief Bobby Cummings told City Council there were 306 members of the force in May – when he sought funding to conduct a new academy class.

Department leaders hope the academy graduates will put the city at full strength.

“We really have to start the academy because nine months from now, we’ll be down 30 again,” Council President Theo Gregory said. “We need police officers on the street. The most paramount problem in Wilmington is public safety.”

Gregory said he understand the need to have the best candidates, but there is a need for future officers to be in the pipeline.

The academy will take in about 30 candidates, local police union president Harold Bozeman said. If all of them graduate, he said, it would put the city above its authorized number of officers. But he added that would balance out through attrition.

The current shortage comes at a time when the city has become one of the nation’s most violent per capita. Wilmington is on pace for 2014 to become its deadliest year. So far, there have been 21 people killed; the record is 27 people killed in 2010.

While unsure of exact figures, police spokeswoman Sgt. Andrea Janvier said Wednesday that the force ended up receiving between 400 and 500 applications for the academy.

“We want to make sure these candidates we hire have clean backgrounds and are conscientious workers,” said Bozeman, who has maintained contact with members of the academy’s recruitment team. “We end up hiring 10 to 15 percent of candidates. You don’t want to hire the wrong kind of person.”

Councilman Robert Williams, a former city police officer, recalled the department receiving about 500 applications when he went through the academy in 1989.

The number of applications, however, dipped to less than half when the economy improved in the following years, he said.

“If you’re hiring 30 police officers, and you only have 100 applicants, it’s difficult to say every third person is getting a job,” he said. “You may have to compromise in some areas, but you don’t want to compromise if they’re not qualified. I want them to get the most qualified, able-bodied, enthusiastic applicants they can get.”

Mike Lawson, who headed the police union during the last academy class in 2013, said the department had less than 500 applicants and 26 people graduated.

The academy runs for six months, but applicants must go through a screening process comprised of written and physical exams, interviews with command staff, a background check, polygraph test and an interview with Cummings before becoming an academy recruit.

The screening “weeds out” unqualified candidates, Bozeman said. He added that candidates drop out during the academy as they “get in there and decide it’s not for them,” he said.

The Fraternal Order of Police contract dispute and the requirement that city employees live in Wilmington for the first five years of their employment has hampered recruitment efforts, Bozeman said, after talking with members of his union.

Like all city employees, Wilmington cops, who are working on contracts that expired in 2011, are entering their sixth straight of year not receiving a cost-of-living pay increase. The FOP is seeking a raise in its next contract.

Bozeman said many potential applicants live just outside the city and have found little reason to uproot their families simply to meet the residency requirement.

While he understands the need to thoroughly screen candidates, Williams said some issues could still result from delaying the academy.

“It takes six to nine months to get them acclimated once they come out of the academy,” he said. “So any delay is going to be detrimental to public safety.”

Councilman Mike Brown, chairman of the public safety committee, is confident officers will continue to “put their best foot forward.” But he added that the level of crime over the years has dictated the department’s manpower.

The authorized strength was under 250 three decades ago, but went up as crime continued to rise, he said.

“Because people will be retiring, you’re going to be losing officers on a regular basis ... but we have to replace what we’re losing,” Brown said. “When they were accepting applications and all that other stuff, they were already down 12 to 14 officers.”

Contact Yann Ranaivo at (302) 324-2837, yranaivo@delawareonline.com or on Twitter @YannRanaivo.