Agenda - Council - 10/12/1999 - Laserfiche WebLink

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PC CASE #: 5 AUTHORIZE CITY TO ENTER INTO A JOINT POLICE OFFICER TESTING PROCESS By: Joyce Pruitt Hottinger, Administrative Services Manager and Dave Gustafson, Police Chief Background: The Police Department has requested at least one police officer within the 2000 budget. Realizing that this request has not been approved, but also lending consideration to how lengthy the police officer recruitment process can be, Staff is presenting an opportunity to lessen time and personnel expenses by working with approximately eight other cities to conduct a joint advertising and testing process for police officers. For police officer testing, there is only one applicant pool available. This opportunity would provide a list of police officer candidates for a fraction of the typical cost a city would incur by advertising alone. This type of voluntary joint testing process has been used successfully in 1997 with the cities of Blaine, Inver Grove Heights, New Brighton, Crystal, Rosemount and Fridley. Also in 1997, the cities of Hastings, Anoka and Apple Valley used a similarly successful joint testing process. It is important to note that this is not a joint powers agreement, and, thus, there are no contractual arrangements. The purpose is to have a list of available candidates readily available at a fraction of the cost. The proposed LEAP (Law Enforcement Applicant Profile) through Personnel Decisigns International, measures a wide range of attributes required for the position of a police officer, and has been validated on three occasions. A validation has been conducted for Rochester, for the Minnesota Patrol and, several years ago, for the New York Police Department. Furthermore, LEAP demonstrates less adverse impact against protected class individuals than most entry-level tests. Staff has listed out the details and process below. What is important to note, is that participating in this process by no means requires the City to hire a patrol officer. It will simply serve as a readily available tool, purchased at a relatively low cost, in the event the budget for an officer is approved. Following receipt of the scores, Council can then choose, if they desire to hire a police officer, how they will rank the candidates. An addendum inquiring about law enforcement experience, community activities, intercultural experiences, decision making and the like could be drafted. The addendum could be used to provide greater, weight to relevant job experience, if so desired, rather then weighing interview selection on a single test score. However, to repeat, participation in this testing process does not require the City to hire a police officer in 2000.