| Very few PDs are fully staffed and the DCPD has not been full staff since Ive been here. Currently, we are about 6 officers down. That might not seem like alot, but consider what it takes to get an officer on his own and on the street.
If we hire someone that either has no law enforcement experience or come to Dodge from a state where the LEO certificate will not transfer, they must go to KLETC for 14 weeks (sometimes longer if its over the thanksgiving and/or xmas holidays), DCPD gets them in as soon as possible, which means pretty much within the first 2-3 weeks after hire. When they complete their KLETC training (in Hutchenson, at our expense) they return to start the DCPD FTO program. Depending on the trainee, this can take 12-14 weeks or so. The trainee will be assigned to a FTO and will take calls as usual, but the pace is much slower. Do the math now. Just going on the low side and ONLY account for training, it takes 28 weeks or so to put an officer on the street, by themselves.
We may be 6 officers down, but realize that anywhere from 3-5 current staff are in the FTO program or waiting to go to the academy. Fully staffed would be no officers down and none in training. Never going to happen in Dodge. This town is TOO good of a training ground.
When larger cities are offering incentives to hire on ranging from moving expensies, signing bonuses in cash or deposits on homes, they are hard to compete with. Cities like Houston, Dallas and LA are short hundreds of PD at any given time. Some people on this board may not think so, but we have many very good police officers here in Dodge and they are being recruited by bigger, better paying agencies. Why? Because we get more OJT experience in one year, then most will get in five. Dodge will get every type of crime there is and most will get an up close and personal, hands on view withing the first year.
If Dodge wants to keep an experienced police force, we need to figure out exactly why they are leaving (no, its not all about the money, trust me on this) and fix it or, as is the current state, we will have only a handful of officers with more then 5 years LEO experience under their belts working in Dodge City.
Sorry about the ramble, but this might help with the question: Why?
P158
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