TULSA, Okla. — As police departments struggle to increase their pool of applicants, Broken Arrow Police are making changes to their requirements. They're hoping to bring more recruits.
"Nationally, recruitment is low, and there's a lot of agencies doing what they can to improve that," Officer Johnathan Kelcka, with BAPD said.
Klecka is in charged of recruiting new talent for the city's police force, but his job has become harder over the years. He tells me historically, it wasn't unusual for their department to have up to three hundred applicants for one academy year.
"We're looking to hire 12 to 14 in this next group and we're hiring an academy start in the 24th of this month, and we're having 10 starting now," Klecka said.
In an effort to bring in more cadets, Klecka said he's trying new tactics, including recruiting candidates with a military background. Klecka said many service members get out of the military ready to trade their military uniform for a blue one.
"We've gotten that question a lot here. Hey, will my military time account for anything?" he said.
Now it will.
Previously, all applicants were required to have at least 64 hours of college credit from an accredited college or University or an associates degree.
But now, "if you have three years of full-time active duty and with an honorable discharge, then you can actually get half of the college requirement taken away, which would be 32 hours," Klecka said.
Another change, their program now allows for lateral transfers. The starting pay range for those officers will be between 58,000 and 74,000 dollars a year. It's how Klecka ended up at BAPD.
"I really enjoyed my time at my other department, but when there is a big opportunity here for specialties, you know, I'm able to be here at the training center full-time. I wasn't able to do that at my previous position," Klecka said.
Although the pay incentive was not offered when he applied, he knew it was a good idea.
" I had to ask myself, is going through the academy worth it and hands down it was," Klecka said.
After announcing these changes to their recruitment process, Klecka said they've seen between 20 and 50 percent more attention from interested applicants. And they're hoping to see more in the coming days. If you want to know more about getting started at Broken Arrow Police Department, click here.
Stay in touch with us anytime, anywhere --
- Download our free app for Apple, Android and Kindle devices.
- Sign up for daily newsletters emailed to you
- Like us on Facebook
- Follow us on Instagram
- Follow us on Twitter
