Just one officer shy of full staff, the Portland department will be able to better interact with the public, it says.
DAVID HENCH Staff Writer
Portland Press Herald (Maine)
PORTLAND, Maine — Portland residents can expect more traffic enforcement, liquor-law stings and neighborhood patrols in coming months as the city’s Police Department fields its fullest complement of officers in years.
The graduation of five officers Friday and the hiring of two officers in the next week will leave the department just one officer shy of its full strength of 167.
''We’ve had times over the past seven or eight years when we may have had as many as a dozen openings, plus people out on extended leaves. ...We’ve been down 20 people at a time,’' said Deputy Chief William Ridge, head of the investigations bureau. ''I don’t have a memory of us ever being at full strength.’'
Changes in the testing and hiring process have improved the department’s ability to attract and retain good people, and the result is police officers’ greater ability to interact with the public, the department said.
''It allows us to conduct ourselves in a proactive manner rather than being totally reactive,’' said Deputy Chief Joseph Loughlin, head of the operations bureau.
With the patrol teams fully staffed, officers can focus on getting to know the people and solving problems in the geographic area they are responsible for, rather than always responding to calls for service.
The means more enforcement of traffic laws such as those on speeding, more investigations into stores that sell alcohol to minors and increased patrols through neighborhoods ''in hopes of heading off criminal problems before they occur,’' Loughlin said.
In Maine and across the country, recruitment remains a constant challenge for police agencies.
''It’s an ongoing battle with some departments,’' said Robert Schwartz, executive director of the Maine Chiefs of Police Association.
Maine State Police are picking up seven new troopers with Friday’s graduating class, once they complete the additional seven weeks of training. That will bring the state’s largest police agency to 312, with 12 vacancies, said state police Lt. William Snedeker.
''You almost never can hit full strength. It’s the nature of the beast,’' said Snedeker, noting that filling vacancies with overtime is a routine part of the job.
South Portland will have filled 48 of 51 positions with Friday’s graduating class, said Lt. Frank Clark. Three more recruits are in the midst of the hiring process but won’t be available until after they finish their academy studies at the end of this year.
Small departments feel the shortages most severely, Schwartz said.
''If the large departments like Portland, Bangor and Lewiston are down two or three people, they can generally function. The small departments of two or three people, they’re the ones that have a real problem,’' he said.
For years, places such as Portland and South Portland would lose promising recruits to small departments, which would hire them after 2? weeks of training, giving them a paycheck and experience while they waited for the twice-annual, 18-week Criminal Justice Academy to be held.
Major municipal departments that don’t deploy so-called ''reserve officers’’ were at a disadvantage because candidates would take another job rather than be unemployed until the academy starts.
Portland changed its hiring practices more than a year ago to become more responsive, Ridge said.
Rather than holding a civil service examination once or twice a year, the written test is held whenever the department needs to recruit a class. Successful candidates who pass the rigorous physical, psychological and background screening are hired right away and assigned to desk jobs that familiarize them with the department while they wait for the academy to be held.
Small departments don’t have that luxury and typically must put an officer to work on the street - often on their own - if the person is on the payroll.
The number of applicants is still much lower, but those being hired are high-quality candidates, Ridge said. The strength of the economy means many people who might consider a job in law enforcement are drawn to the private sector, he said.
''In a good economy, people coming through the door, this is what they want to do,’' Ridge said.
Portland’s success could be at the expense of some other department.
''Everybody’s applications are way down, and you’ve got the same people competing for jobs at all the area departments,’' Schwartz said.
Portland should enjoy its full staffing while it can, because with the potential for retirements, career changes and relocations, it may not last.
''Just when you think you’re getting caught up, somebody decides to retire and you’re down another person,’' Schwartz said. ''If things hold true to form, Portland probably won’t be up to strength for too long.’'
''I don’t have a memory of us ever being at full strength,’' says Portland Deputy Chief William Ridge.
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