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Home My WebLink AboutCSS 2023-01-23 Item 1B - Update - Police Department RecruitmentW i City of Tukwila Allan Ekberg, Mayor INFORMATIONAL MEMORANDUM TO: Community Services and Safety Committee FROM: Chief of Police Eric Dreyer CC: Mayor Ekberg DATE: January 16th, 2023 SUBJECT: PD Recruitment Update ISSUE Law enforcement agencies have seen difficulties over the last several years with recruiting quality law enforcement officers. Creative ideas and focused efforts on recruitment strategies will be essential for any agency to be successful with its hiring moving forward. BACKGROUND Recruitment in Washington has been impacted state-wide. The Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs reports that there has been a loss of 800 officers in Washington state, entering 2023 with an approximate 7.5% reduction in law enforcement. The Tukwila Police Department has had both success and failure when trying to address recruitment for our commissioned officer positions over the last several years. As we entered 2022, recruitment was somewhat stagnant, for every officer that was hired, one seemed to leave. Our recruitment efforts were not prepared for the challenges of the law enforcement hiring environment of the preceding two years. Prior to 2022, we had a part-time recruiter that was efficient in traditional ways of recruiting for law enforcement; however, we have since realized that a single recruiter working part-time on recruitment was not enough to manage the recruitment needs of the Department in the environment that we were in and still are facing. We were forced to get creative and be willing to make short-term sacrifices for long-term gain. DISCUSSION Tukwila Council and the community have provided the support and resources needed to be competitive with other law enforcement agencies in the region, placing the police department in a position for positive recruitment and retention of its officers. To take advantage of this position, the police department has made significant changes to our recruitment and hiring programs. To address the change in the law enforcement recruitment environment, we moved one of our commissioned officers from Patrol to a full-time recruiter position on a temporary basis to supplement our recruitment team in the Professional Standards Division. We then analyzed our recruitment and hiring processes from the beginning (when a position opens) until the end (when a new officer has passed probation and is successfully working on their own.) We have taken a holistic approach to recruitment, hiring, training, mentoring, and officer wellness to address both recruitment and training to provide Tukwila with the best officers to serve our community. We fully recognize that modern-day recruiting efforts are heavily dominated by online recruitment platforms such as ZipRecruiter, Linkedln, Monster, etc., as well as online marketing and advertising efforts, in which Tukwila participates. But the truth remains that any organization cannot neglect the need for proactive face-to-face interaction with positive rapport building as 11 12 INFORMATIONAL MEMO Page 2 part of recruiting efforts, especially when a career in law enforcement demands face-to-face interaction as a primary function of the job. With the current competitive recruiting environment, candidates want to join an organization where they feel welcomed as a new member of a team and where they will feel appreciated for their contributions to the community. Therefore, we have developed a more personalized approach to recruiting applicants to inspire them to join our Tukwila family. With a regional testing center (Public Safety Testing, an independent law enforcement applicant testing site) in Tukwila, we have been sending a team of recruiters on testing days to personally engage with potential applicants. In addition, we have sent recruitment teams to other testing sites in the state, including some universities and the JBLM military base. We provide tours of the Justice Center and ride-alongs for the applicants. They are evaluating us, as well, and we want them to understand the culture and community that they will be joining. We have streamlined each stage of the hiring process (Testing center - Oral board panel — Civil Service Certification - Chief's Interview - Background Investigation — Medical & Psychological) and created a more efficient transition from one stage of the process to the next to minimize any downtime. We continue to work closely with the Civil Service Commission as they provide oversite for the hiring process and certifications of each eligibility list. Additionally, we are proposing to Council an amendment to the Tukwila Municipal Code Civil Service process that will aid in finding qualified applicants and expedite the interview process. The police department is already seeing the benefits of these changes to our recruiting. We finished 2021 with seven frozen positions plus four vacancies, for a total vacancy deficit of eleven (11) officers. Working through 2022, and with the current budget for 2023, the seven frozen positions were added back to the budgeted staffing roster. Our current vacancy deficit is five (5) officers, keeping in mind that this number includes tentative job offers, which means that applicants must still pass the background check. {Refer to attached Staffing roster} Additionally, in anticipation of known and potential officer attrition during the budget cycle (such as retirements or resignations), the police department will assess the advantages of making job offers for commissioned "pipeline" positions. ("Pipeline" positions are authorized non -budgeted positions that are provided for the purpose of staying ahead of potential staffing attrition.) As discussed previously with Council, all entry-level candidates will need to go through the academy, which can delay when they can work on their own. However, four of the recent job offers went to lateral officers and certified entry applicants, which have already attended an equivalent state academy. The police department has its next round of oral board interviews of entry-level applicants scheduled for the 25th of January. We will continue to keep the Council informed regularly of our recruitment efforts as the year progresses. https://tukwilawa.sharepoint.com/sites/mayorsoffice/cc/Council Agenda Items/Police/Informational Memorandum - PD Recruitment Update.docx INFORMATIONAL MEMO Page 3 FINANCIAL IMPACT No financial impact. RECOMMENDATION Information only. Thank you for the Council's support. ATTACHMENTS Tukwila Police Commissioned Staffing Roster https://tukwilawa.sharepoint.com/sites/mayorsoffice/cc/Council Agenda Items/Police/Informational Memorandum - PD Recruitment Update.docx 13 14 TUKWILA POLICE COMMISSIONED STAFFING ROSTER January 16th, 2022 Administration 7 1 Dreyer, Eric #106 Chief 2 Lund, Eric #126 Deputy Chief 3 Rossi, Todd #146 Commander 4 Kraig Boyd #116 Commander 5 Rock, Dale #163 Commander 6 Delic, Andi #200 Commander Major Crimes Unit (Down -4) 7 Cullens, Ceith #164 MCU SGT 8 (Vacant) 23/24 budget bridge conversion MCU SGT 9 Donnelly, Steven #90 MCU 10 Danninger, Chris #166 MCU 11 Hisa, Patrick #198 MCU 12 Schlotterbeck, Michael #202 MCU 13 Akimoto, Ryota #226 MCU 14 Cruz, Dave #121 Temp Assignment to MCU 15 (Vacant) MCU 16 (Vacant) MCU 17 (Vacant) MCU 18 (Vacant) MCU Anti Crime Team (Down -6) 19 (Vacant) TACT SGT 20 (Vacant - Cruz Temp Assignment to MCU) 21 (Vacant) TAC 22 (Vacant) TAC 23 (Vacant) TAC 24 (Vacant) Linehan Temp Assign to Patrol VNET Crime Prevention Team (Down - 5) 25 Mettlin, Rory #136 SGT CPT 26 Rusness, Randall #178 CPT 27 Kunsmann, Erik #191 CPT 28 (Vacant) CPT 29 (Vacant) CPT 30 Valdez, Matthew #210 Community Laison 31 (Vacant) 23/24 budget bridge conversion Comm Liaison 32 (Vacant) -Tran Temp Patrol) SRO 33 (Vacant) - Schutt Temp Patrol) SRO Traffic (Down -1) 39 34 Devlin, Bill #142 SGT Traffic 35 LeCompte, Greg #86 Traffic 36 Hines, Eric #95 Traffic 37 Delic, Deni #231 Traffic 38 (Vacant) Traffic Professional Standards 39 Anderson, Zachary #161 SGT PSU 40 Thompson, James #224 Training Coord PSU 41 Masters, Victor #222 PIO/Recruiting 42 McAdory, Ryan #256 Temp Recruiting Patrol 43 Glover, Phil #105 Patrol SGT 44 Zaehler, Joseph #206 Patrol SGT 45 Harris, Isaiah #213 Patrol SGT 46 Vivet, Josh #155 Patrol SGT 47 Tran, Joseph, #204 Temp assignment to Patrol 48 Schutt, Marc #173 Temp assignment to Patrol 49 Gardner, Craig #115 50 Perry, John #144 51 Mackie, Erwin #145 52 Sturgill, Jamie #151 53 Richardson, Mike #157 54 Wollan, Jason #168 55 Hernandez, Ken #174 56 Suedel, Jami #212 57 Madriaga, Aaron A. #216 58 Hinson, Joshua W. #217 59 Linehan, Henry #223 Temp assignment to Patrol 60 Line, Zachary #227 61 Kim, Howard #228 62 Tiemann, Peter #229 63 Johnson, Dustin #236 64 Hunter, Brian #237 65 Matsuyama, Troy -L #238 66 Hodgson, Dakota #239 67 Thomas, Chris #242 68 Armstrong, Jessica #249 69 Zwicky, Aaron #253 70 Wells, Jarrett #255 71 Hiatt, Elias #257 72 Haye, Carlos #260 73 Castillo, Jermaine #261 74 Macon, Malcom #262 75 Collier, Chris #263 76 Chao, David #264 77 Gonzalez, Noe (Entry) Academy Nunez, Luis (Entry) Academy * * * Anderson, Demetris (Entry) Garcia, Maria (Certified entry) Wilson, Justin (Lateral) Henderson, Jonathan (Lateral) Jamali, Naseer (Certified Entry) Kennedy, Jamal (Entry) May start Date Roman, Jayda (Entry) Montano, George (Entry) * * * * * * * VACANT 6 (Battumur, Jack - Pending) (entry) * VACANT 5 * VACANT 4 * VACANT 3 * VACANT 2 * VACANT 1 PDR Specialist - 23/24 budget bridge conversion EM Coordinator - 23/24 budget bridge conversion PL4 (Pipeline — Non -Budgeted) PL3 (Pipeline — Non -Budgeted) PL2 (Pipeline — Non -Budgeted) PL1 (Pipeline"' Non -Budgeted) * = to be assigned to vacant postions Current Budget positions Job offer / waiting acceptance Color Codes - Key Vacant - Hirable Position Vacant - Unassigned specialty filled as staffing increases Background in progress Academy Hired - Awaiting FTO/Academy Bridge Conversion for 23/24 budget 15