CLEVELAND (WJW) — As the city of Cleveland deals with a shortage of police officers, a new recruiting class began Monday. City leaders say this class is seven times larger than the last Cleveland police academy in December.
Fifty-two new recruits make up the155th Cleveland Division of Police Academy.
Wayne Drummond, Cleveland’s interim public safety director says he credits mayor Justin Bibb’s RISE initiative for increasing the number of applicants who want to join the force. It includes a $5,000 signing bonus and other perks that prospective applicants might find attractive.
“To have the academy salary go up from $15 an hour to $24, it’s significant, it’s huge, he said. “Coupled with having the maximum age go up over 40 years of age to 55 … again we have 10 recruits that are 40 years of age.”
The city of Cleveland is still nearly 200 officers below what the city council has budgeted for.
Drummond says adding 52, considering they all successfully make it through the roughly 8-month academy, would have a big impact on the safety of Cleveland streets.
“It’s huge, we’re talking about 52, 52 more that we didn’t have,” he said. “We have the 52 that will get dispersed in the five neighborhood district. I can tell you unequivocally from being a district commander, being a deputy chief, being a chief.”
“My overall view is I’m glad, I’m happy to have a class this size,” said Andy Gasiewski, president of the Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association. “I applaud the city for making its efforts to increase the pay and incentives to become a Cleveland police officer, and I would just like the final outcome to be a little quicker, but we’re just gonna have to wait,”
Gasiewski agrees that mayor Bibb’s RISE initiative attracted more recruits for this academy, but he adds that about 35 officers have already left the force for one reason or another … and the current 52 in training won’t hit the streets until near the end of this year.
Meanwhile, Drummond says when this current class graduates, it should bring Cleveland closer to its goal of the maximum number of officers in the budget.
“We’re budgeted for 1,350 officers, we’re currently at 1,153, so we add the 52, it takes us over 1,200, actually 1,205 and that puts us not too far off from our numbers,” said Drummond.
“In any process of going through some training, sometimes people don’t make it, so you could start off with 52, you might end up with 49 or 48,” said the CPPA president.
Drummond says he hopes to have several academies this year, with a total of 180 new officers trained or in training by the end of December.
Kevin Freeman
Source link
.jpeg)
