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CT POST: City police try three recruitment drives

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City police try three recruitment drives

By Brian Lockhart

Ned Gerard / Hearst Connecticut Media

Recruits from the Bridgeport Police Academy cheer during a fitness competition with recruits from the Bridgeport Fire Department on Sept. 30.

BRIDGEPORT — An aggressive police recruitment effort that began in spring 2021 and wrapped up last month resulted in 21 hires, and a pool of 196 potential candidates that will certainly be whittled down in the coming weeks.

Incoming Police Chief Roderick Porter in an interview Monday acknowledged Bridgeport’s department has seen better numbers in the past. Still, he said, “Having 200 in the process right now is positive.”

The force has been grappling with a loss of manpower blamed on retirements and transfers to other municipalities, and filling those openings has become more difficult here and nationally.

Outgoing Acting Police Chief Rebeca Garcia has said she has around 290 officers, 130 short of what she and the union have argued is the ideal number.

In April 2021 Mayor Joe Ganim’s administration launched a recruitment drive that fell well short of previous years’. So this past June another was undertaken and, when that ended in August, a third hiring effort was immediately started. That third round ended Oct. 30.

According to the personnel office, the city hired 21 new officers from the 2021 pool, 13 of those last December and eight in July of this year.

Personnel Director Eric Amado in an emailed statement said 93 candidates emerged from the search that began this past June and the goal is to have an unspecified number in the academy next spring.

“These 93 candidates were administered oral interviews Oct. 18, 19 and 20,” Amado wrote. “All 93 are currently undergoing preemployment screenings as mandated by the state Police Officer Standards and Training Council.”

Meanwhile, Amado said, the city received 103 qualifying applications for the recruitment that wrapped up at the end of October, with a written examination for those contenders tentatively scheduled for Dec. 3.

Porter, a just-retired Bridgeport police captain whom Ganim earlier this month selected to run the department following a monthslong national search, is scheduled to be sworn in Dec. 1 and receive a five-year contract.

Porter has listed dealing with the manpower shortage as his top priority and on Monday acknowledged that the last group of 103 candidates “will be dwindled down somewhat” following the written test.

“(But) I’m encouraged,” Porter said. “I hope we’re able to get some people out of those numbers to put a couple of classes in. Going forward, recruitment’s gotta be a constant thing.”

Attracting talent is another matter. City officials have argued that, due to nationwide controversies that have placed more scrutiny on law enforcement, it is no longer as attractive a career.

Garcia and Bridgeport’s police union have also said the expensive cost of health insurance has made it harder to lure and retain police officers in Bridgeport. The Ganim administration has signaled it is looking to cut those costs as part of a new police contract currently under negotiation.

On top of those issues, Bridgeport’s force has also faced some high profile scandals, controversies and internal turmoil over the past few years. Porter said he hopes that now that the search for a permanent top cop is over, potential recruits will give Bridgeport more serious consideration.

“I do think the stability will bring some positive efforts toward us attracting people who want to come to our department and also stay,” Porter said.

Recruitment efforts could also be impacted by a staffing study to assess the force’s structure and needs that the City Council has been pushing for after it was recommended in 2020 by an outside consultant, former Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey. Amado said seven vendors submitted bids and those submissions are being evaluated.

City Council President Aidee Nieves, a Democrat like Ganim, on Monday expressed frustration with the slow pace of the study, arguing it should have been completed by now so that Porter could use it as he takes over from Garcia and so any recommendations could be wrapped into the police union contract talks.

“This staffing study was requested a year and a half ago,” Nieves said. “It needs to be done. It should have been done. It should have been a priority.”

As for the overall recruitment results from 2021 and this year, Nieves said she wishes the numbers were more robust.

“They (Amado and other city staff) worked really hard at it,” Nieves said. “I wish we had more applicants.”