Youngstown recruiting new officers

YOUNGSTOWN - The city police department is gearing up for a new civil service test.

The department hopes to add five to 10 more officers from the next entry level civil service exam it gives Nov. 17.

One of the goals for the next batch of officers is to have more city residents, minorities, veterans and women take the test, police Chief Rod Foley said.

The department will be publishing brochures, posters and also talking to various community groups to help spread the word, Foley said.

Foley and his staff will also be meeting today with members of the department's chaplain corps and other area ministers to ask them to spread the word that the police department is looking for more officers.

Anyone interested in signing up to take the test should do so quickly because the Civil Service Commission is capping the number of applicants at 400, Foley said.

Butler said city residents get 15 percent extra points on the test, veterans get an extra 10 percent and applicants also get 10 percent if they already have their certification from the Ohio Peace Officers Training Academy. The number of extra points is capped at 20 percent, Butler said.

Since Foley became chief last September, the department has added 17 officers to the patrol division, including two who begin next week who were hired from a grant that is geared toward hiring veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Foley is trying to bolster the ranks because of a past hiring freeze and a wave of retirements as well.

The number of officers added from the new test will be determined by how many officers retire and the state of the city's finances, Foley said.

Foley said he does not want to bring in more than nine new officers at a time so they do not tax the department's field training officers.

All new officers are paired up with a veteran officer on each of the department's three shifts for a few months before they are allowed to work on their own.