The news that a DPS officer hit a man on a bicycle with his patrol vehicle last summer stunned many people and raised questions within the Department of Public Safety about the legitimacy of the officer’s actions. After DPS determined the officer committed misconduct, a new question arose: What does DPS do to make sure the officers it hires are the right ones for the job?
The road to the badge is not a jaunt through the roses — it’s more like a belly crawl through the brambles.
Leaders within the department say there are many tests and challenges a person must undergo to begin training as a DPS officer, and potential officers who are allowed to go through training are continually evaluated for a one-year period before they are officially hired.
DPS Interim Director Tom Hicks said the application process is the first phase of recruitment, and it demands that applicants meet the minimum requirements to be an officer.
In order to qualify for an interview, Hicks said applicants must be 21 or older, have one year of law enforcement or security experience, have a valid Oregon driver’s license and a good driving record, and be able to successfully pass a criminal background check and a medical and psychological examination.
The individuals who meet these basic requirements take a video exam that consists of 54 scenario-based questions to test their decision-making skills, and the people who pass the exam are then interviewed by a panel of people.
Candidates for the job are also asked to sign a waiver allowing DPS to do a background check on them. Hicks said DPS conducts telephone interviews with an applicant’s family members and previous employers, runs a check on his or her credit history and looks into the applicant’s criminal background.
“What we’re trying to determine is if the person is being honest and truthful,” Hicks said. “That’s an important characteristic in an officer.”
The whole process usually winnows the applicant pool down to one candidate who is then hired on a one-year probationary period. The potential officer will not be commissioned until he or she completes the DPS Standards and Testing class at the Oregon Police Academy and the DPS Field Training and Evaluation Program.
Lt. Herb Horner said newly hired officers need the trial employment period because the standards and testing class is only offered during the summer. The class is five weeks long and teaches officers criminal law, procedural law, report writing, how to conduct an investigation and many other skills.
“Most of the training they have is exactly like the police have,” Horner said.
Horner said officers also learn defensive tactics such as “take downs” and how to disable someone who is armed with a knife; however, officers are also taught to only use force as a last resort. For example, Horner said that when officers-in-training are taught how to use pepper spray, everyone is sprayed so they know what it feels like and won’t be over-zealous to use it in the field.
“We really do try through the hiring process to get the best people we can,” Horner said.
Training doesn’t end after they finish their five weeks at the academy, Lt. Joan Saylor said. New officers must still go through several months of on-the-job learning in the Field Training and Evaluation Program.
Paired with a commissioned DPS officer, new officers learn the ins and outs of the University community in addition to being inundated with law enforcement-related information, like how to handle a student who is possibly intoxicated.
“It’s really a difficult process for folks,” Saylor said.
Hicks said the majority of the campus community do not realize how hard DPS officers work and what a demanding job it can be.
For example, Hicks said that for every four people who survive training and become a commissioned DPS officer, at least one person usually quits shortly afterward.
This can become an expensive loss because it costs roughly $7,000 to equip and train each individual officer. Hicks said DPS normally has to hire new officers every year and a 25 percent turnover rate is pretty common in most law enforcement agencies.
“We’re always going to have turnover,” he said.
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