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Hiring is a challenge for law enforcement

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO — Hiring for law enforcement is challenging in a time when multiple reports of questionable actions are appearing on various news sources. One report is the death of Daunte Wright in Minnesota. These officers are guarding a perimeter fence as demonstrators gather on Wednesday.

Once again, law enforcement agencies in the United States are under scrutiny as the public reacts to the shooting deaths of Daunte Wright in Brooklyn Center, Minn. and 13-year-old Adam Toledo in Chicago and Army Lt. Caron Nazario being pepper sprayed in Windsor, Va.

In all three cases, the person who pulled the trigger was a police officer.

All of those took place while former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is on trial for the May 2020 murder of George Floyd, a tragedy that sparked nationwide protests.

The scrutiny does not make recruiting efforts easy for the Marshalltown Police Department or for the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office as both agencies are seeking to add quality people to their agencies.

MPD Capt. Brian Batterson and Marshall County Sheriff Joel Phillips said the number of interested people in a law enforcement career has already dropped significantly.

T-R file photo Through the years, as law enforcement agencies across the country struggle with demonstrators, the Marshalltown Police Department and Marshall County Sheriff’s Office have extensive histories of maintaining good community relations. This is done through a variety of events, such as Shop with a Cop or serving tables to raise money for Special Olympics.

“Who wants to be yelled at by the public and criticized every day,” Phillips asked. “It is a lot of burden for a young person.”

Batterson said the primary challenge is getting people to apply. When he started in 1991, he said it was not uncommon to get 200 people willing to take the test to become a police officer.

“Last August, we had 16 people show up,” Batterson said. “Other departments are struggling to get numbers of applicants.”

Why the significant drop, he is not sure, but it might be a combination of things. Batterson said perhaps people do not want to work certain shifts –such as overnight or weekends — or they do not want to want to be associated with law enforcement because of the negative trends in the public’s perception.

Phillips began seeing less interest in law enforcement about five years ago. He said people have become more focused on work/life balance. Because of that, he said some changes to work schedules for deputies have been enforced.

“You work six days on and then have three days off,” he said. “That way, you still get two weekends a month.”

Batterson said overall the MPD is not faced with such negative perceptions plaguing other agencies now. Community relations between the department and the public is good. Officers regularly interact with residents through a variety of social programs, such as Shop with a Cop. Sometimes MPD policemen will go to a neighborhood in town where there is a lot of children and they will provide little goody bags of toys and treats for the youth.

“We do not have the problems they have in Minnesota or Portland,” Batterson said. “We have really good support here and we do our best to be fair.”

The recent events of Wright, Toledo and Nazario have caused people to question training of police officers and the type of people who are hired.

Batterson and Phillips said all applicants go through a variety of steps to obtain a badge – testing, physical examinations, a polygraph, psychological evaluation and an interview. After all of that, and a person is offered a position, then training begins.

If there are hints of bias, racism or anger management issues, they are not given a job.

“We rely on the psychology test a lot,” Phillips said. “It is 460 questions and tells a lot. It is amazing how accurate that test is. We also see how candidates interact with others. We ask conversation provoking questions and pay attention to their answers.”

From the time of testing to serving as an active member of law enforcement, it is six to eight months for the MPD and one year for the sheriff’s office.

Phillips said his department is down two deputies, and with numerous agencies facing the same challenges, the competition to attract desirable candidates is high. The sheriff likes to highlight aspects of his department to entice people in. Phillips invites them for a tour of the facility, and points out the competitive wages and benefits. Plus, law enforcement personnel already in Iowa receive a bonus.

For the MPD, Batterson said they do not have any residential requirements and they are also looking to hire at least two more officers.

“You don’t have to live in Marshalltown, you can live anywhere, as long as you get to work on time,” he said.

Highlighting the brand new building, the up-to-date equipment and future growth in the department is also touched on.

“There are options such as detective, the SWAT team, bike patrol,” Batterson said. “There are a lot of things to break up the day.”

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Contact Lana Bradstream at 641-753-6611 or lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.

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