By April McClellan-Copeland, The Cleveland Plain Dealer
Twinsburg, Ohio -- A group of black residents concerned about the lack of minorities in the city safety forces has prompted the mayor to add three part-time positions to the Police Department.
Mayor Katherine Procop said the jobs are open to anyone, but the city hopes to attract minority officers looking to supplement their income from jobs as full-time officers in other departments. The Police Department now has one minority officer.
Minorities make up 13 percent of the city’s population.
City Council late Tuesday night approved the 2004 budget, which in cluded $112,000 in the Police Department’s $4.4 million budget to pay for the part-time officers’ salaries, uniforms, equipment and training.
The three officers will work 32-hour weeks and eight-hour shifts, said Police Chief Richard Deal. Full- time officers work 12-hour shifts.
Applicants must be certified by the Ohio Police Officers Training Academy and pass background investigations, physicals and truth-verification exams.
The decision to create the positions came after Procop met with a group of black residents concerned about the few minorities in city government and on the safety forces.
Of the 80 full-time city employees, the Police Department has one Asian officer, City Hall has one black employee, and the fitness center has one American Indian worker and one Asian employee.
Among the city’s 40 part-time employees, the fitness center has one black employee and two black seasonal employees.
Recently, the city hired another full-time black worker for a Service Department job, Procop said.
None of Procop’s department directors are minorities. The city has stepped up its minority recruiting on local college campuses and at job fairs, she said.
“We have a very diverse community here in Twinsburg, and everybody needs to be represented,” Procop said. “That’s why we have made such a concerted effort at job fairs.”
The decision to add three part- time police positions has brought the city under fire from the staff of NS7, an electronic community newsletter, which fears “the high standards of the Twinsburg Police Department will be lowered because the candidates do not have to take a written exam or a physical agility test to get the position.”
But Deal said the positions will not compromise the department’s standards and will increase police coverage.
“Once they are hired, they won’t be given a gun and turned loose to go enforce the laws,” Deal said. “The officers will have to complete the field training program and other training. Our residents will not be stuck with someone substandard. I don’t care who they are.”