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Dayton Urban League key in police recruiting effort

‘Too important not to do,’ president Gillespie said.

Record number apply for police jobs as Dayton aims to diversify its ranks

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By Lucas Sullivan and Doug Page
Staff Writers Updated 1:17 AM Friday, July 30, 2010

DAYTON — William Gillespie is nothing if not effervescent and that’s been enough, at least so far, to help Dayton attract young black men and to become police officers.

Gillespie, president of the Dayton Urban League, has been stride-for-stride with the police recruiting department, grabbing the arm of any young black or Hispanic person he thinks is 34 years or younger and encouraging them “to get up and start change.”

“This is too important not to do something,” said Gillespie, after a recent meeting where police Chief Richard Biehl encouraged local minority groups to help his department recruit minorities. “Diversity on the police has been a problem since I worked for the city years ago, and we need to fix it,” Gillespie said.

Police recruiting director Sgt. Rhonda Williams said the Urban League has been instrumental in getting a record number of applicants for police recruits thus far.

Williams needs all the help she can get after the department kept its recruiting program dark and unfunded for months, then allocating $25,000 in May after Biehl announced that the U.S. Department of Justice had given its blessing for the city to begin hiring for police recruits.

That left Williams and her ad hoc staff of about a dozen officers less than two months to recruit minorities before the July 14 application window opened.

Williams had more manpower and funds in 2006 when 87 black applicants took the police civil service exam, compared to 432 whites. Of the more than 700 police and firefighters employed by the city, less than 75 are black.

The city has spent $550,000 to settle terms of the DOJ’s lawsuit, including revamping the police and fire civil service exams. The exams will also be graded on a curve and the results must be approved by the DOJ.

Officials have said if there is not enough diversity among those that pass the test, the DOJ could halt the hiring process and start it over.

Retirement hit

Starting Jan. 1, hundreds of years of police experience will walk out the door of the police department.

Thirty-one senior police officers have to retire in 2011 because of a state deferred retirement program. Given the number of normal retirements, early retirements and long-term disabilities, Biehl expects the department will shrink from 380 officers to fewer than 350 — possibly as few as 330 — in 2011.

Under the Ohio Police & Firefighters Pension Fund DROP (Delayed Retirement Option Plan), those officers with at least 25 years on the job and who are at least 48 years old are offered financial incentives to stay on the job for up to eight more years. Those that signed up for the plan when it first became available in 2003 are now forced to retire.

“The DROP will have a big effect,” said Mike Hilt Sr., commander of the Greene County Career Technology Center’s Criminal Justice Academy. “Folks we’re training now will be vying for those jobs statewide.”

According to OPF pension fund, 779 police and firefighters in the DROP statewide must retire in 2011.

A police recruit class will likely not graduate until February 2012, joining a department with the fewest sworn officers in decades.

It’s the economy

The starting salary for a Dayton police officer is $23.37 an hour, or $48,612.50 annually, plus full benefits. With double-digit unemployment, it is an attractive package.

The record number of applicants “goes with the times, unfortunately,” said Hilt, who has worked in law enforcement for 38 years.

“Some people are looking at it as a job. We look at it as a career, as more than a job,” he said.

How to apply

Those interested in applying to become a Dayton police officer can apply at  www. jobs.cityofdayton.org. Applicants must be 20 to 34 years old and have a high school diploma or GED. Applicants must also have a valid driver’s license and no felony or domestic violence convictions.

Questions? Call the city at (937) 333-2300.

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