Understaffed local police departments looking to hire officers

BY ANDREW WALTERS AND MALINDA OSBORNE SVN REPORTERS Thinking about a career change? The Sterling and Amboy police departments are understaffed and looking to hire. At various times over the last six years, the Sterling Police Department has been three to six officers short of full-staffed, and finding qualified men and women has been a challenge. "Right now, we are three officers short," Police Chief Ron Pottoff said Monday. "It is something that has been going on (in departments) all over the country." In the 12 years he has been chief, staffing has been a consistent problem, Pottoff said. "State Police has taken I don't know how many from us over the last 35 years. Whenever a job opens up there, guys go for the better money," Pottoff said. The department will put up a display in the Coliseum this week, the same one it uses when attending job fairs at state colleges, in hopes of attracting job candidates. The Amboy Police Department hasn't fared much better. Despite passing a utility tax increase three years ago to fund another full-time position, the department has had a tough time keeping fully staffed. The tax revenue, which brings in about $54,000 a year, is supposed to pay for a $27,000-to-$30,000-a-year position, plus benefits. This is the second year in a row the department has lost a full-time employee; it has gone from four full-time officers to two. Both officers left for higher-paying jobs at the Dixon Police Department and the Lee County Sheriff's Department. Amboy Police Superintendent Paul Smith said his department has tried to have officers who work for other departments also work part time for Amboy, but they usually burn out and quit the part-time work. Not having enough officers has meant 682 hours of overtime. "The money we're spending there could help pay partially for a part-time officer," Smith said. In addition, the smaller force means the department can't provide around-the-clock police protection. Of the 8,760 hours in 2007, the department only was able to provide services 71 percent of the time.
"We're not getting 24-hour protection like we were hoping to do ... The fine money has gone down," he said. The department also hasn't solved as many cases as it would like. "We cleared 78 percent of criminal investigations. We feel it should be more than that," Sgt. Jeff Blake said. "I know we're not going to reach 100 percent, but I know we can do better." Monday, the City Council gave the department the go-ahead to start accepting applications for a full-time and a part-time officer. That way, if a qualified candidate is found, the force will have time to send them to training in the spring. "We're getting along, but eventually it's going to catch up with us," Smith said. "It starts wearing and tearing on you." Although both Dixon and Rock Falls departments are adequately staffed at this time, Chiefs Gary Coppotelli and Beto Perez also have struggled to find recruits. "We are full-staffed right now, but three of those people are still in training," Coppotelli said. "Ten years ago when we would hire, there would be 50 to 60 people trying for the job. Over the years, that has dwindled. At one time we had seven or less people on our list." Turnover is a big issue in Rock Falls, Perez said. "I think that you find that in most rural departments, a lot of people will want to go to bigger departments for more money." Like Dixon, Rock Falls will be full-staffed when its latest recruit finishes the academy. Sterling usually has three shifts a day consisting of three officers and a sergeant, but Pottoff would like to add another patrol officer to each shift to help keep up with a growing number of calls. "With all the drug activity and gang activity, they stay pretty busy. We got guys working a lot of overtime," Pottoff said. "Call volume has also gone up over the years." The usual avenues the department uses to search for qualified candidates has turned up little. "We go down to Western (Illinois University) when they have job fairs, and we advertise in as many newspapers as we can. I don't know what else we can do," Pottoff said. Lately, the issue has not been finding people to apply, but finding the right people. When the department periodically holds informational meetings about being an officer, 50 to 60 people show up, but only about half apply. Of those, only 15 to 20 take the written test and most of them don't make it through the background check and mandatory lie detector test, Pottoff said. To qualify, an applicant must have no felony convictions or history of drug use, among other things. If the applicant makes it through screening and becomes a recruit, he or she will be sent to the Police Academy for training, at the city's expense. "It is terribly challenging," said Clifford Garriott, chairman of Sterling's Police and Fire Commission. "We are looking for people who are first-class citizens to start with." In an effort to attract more applicants, particularly new college graduates, the department this year raised the base officer salary to $35,100 a year. That's up from $33,000 in 2006 and puts Sterling in the upper end of the pay scale for comparably sized departments in the state. Having been in the same situation at times over the last few years, Coppotelli sympathizes with the situation in Sterling. "You just have to try to reach out to places everywhere. You really have to advertise and sell your agency," he said.