TIM MAYER

Staff Writer

CARLSBAD -- A cooperative effort by Palomar College and police departments in Carlsbad, Oceanside and Escondido may become part of a statewide example of how to attract top police recruits in a tough job market.

For the past several years, the three relatively small police agencies have worked together to advertise and coordinate administration of the state standardized written and physical agility tests twice-yearly at the Palomar campus in San Marcos.

That allows the agencies to save money and manpower and combine resources to advertise and attract prospective recruits from a wider area, said officials.

"Maybe one agency has $2,000 to $3,000 to spend on advertising. If you pool the resources, then maybe they have $6,000 to $9,000 to advertise in more areas," said Lorraine Brealey, Palomar College's public safety director.

Sgt. Tom Jones, who heads up recruiting for Oceanside's 167-officer force, agrees. "Each agency chips in amounts (for advertising) and you hit marketing methods a smaller department wouldn't be able to," he said.

More chances for more jobs in three different agencies -- each of whom may only have three to 10 openings per year -- also attracts more candidates, said officials.

The Saturday tests held at Palomar College typically attract from 350 to almost 500 candidates.

Oceanside and other departments also test and interview independently for candidates, but "when we do it in-house, we will get 100 to 150 (candidates)," Jones said.

Combined testing "draws a lot of people," said Sgt. Marc Reno, in charge of recruiting for the 100-officer Carlsbad department.

"The benefit for the candidates is it gives them a shot with three different agencies," said Sgt. Dana Ray of the Escondido Police Department's training division.

The North County police recruiting program and other similar efforts have attracted the attention of Lori Lee, a Vallejo Police Department sergeant and special consultant to the state's Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training. The agency sets standards for training and hiring of police officers and has also become involved in an effort to improve recruiting.

Lee is spending a year researching successful methods being used by police agencies to attract recruits.

Lee said low unemployment rates and competition with private agencies has for several years made it difficult for some police agencies to find qualified people who want to become police officers.

"Law enforcement recruitment across the state, and in many other states, is pretty rough right now," she said. "For agencies that are not impacted as dramatically, we are searching out what works for them and attempting to translate and relate it to other agencies as examples to follow."

"Any sort of consolidated effort (such as North County) seems to benefit both the agencies and candidates involved," she said. "It's somewhat of a 'one-stop shopping' method for the candidate who is interested in multiple agencies."

Asking good candidates, who can easily qualify for jobs in the private sector, to become police officers can be a challenge, said officials.

"Everybody has a hard time finding applicants who meet all the criteria," Ray said. "Other jobs available out there, you don't have to work graveyard, you're not working swing shift, and you usually have weekends off. As a police officer, you are not going to have weekends off until you have some seniority."

"It's very difficult for police departments to compete with private industry as far as pay and benefits," Brealey said. "With this generation, it's, 'What are you going to offer me? Where's the profit-sharing? Where's the child care that other businesses are offering?'"

Another challenge is how to compete with larger agencies that not only may offer higher pay and more benefits, but also spend a lot of money finding candidates.

One example is the Los Angeles Police Department, which has a force of 10,000 police officers, and has openings for about 1,000.

"That's what you are competing with when you are looking at small agencies," Brealey said.

"You get the larger departments, they fly recruiters out to military bases overseas,"

Ray said. "We don't have the funding to do that."

Palomar College and its police academy are offering a class taught by Carlsbad and Escondido officers for prospective candidates preparing for the law enforcement exam, Brealey said.

Those interested may contact the college at (760) 744-1150 ext. 2288 or www.palomar.edu/police.

For information on the next combined written and physical agility tests, call (760) 931-2220.

Contact staff writer Tim Mayer at (760) 901-4043 or tmayer@nctimes.com

4/29/01