90.3 WCPN ideastream®: Cleveland Police Civil Service Deadline Is Friday
Cleveland Police Civil Service Deadline Is Friday
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Topics: Politics, Other
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So far, about a thousand people have applied to qualify for Cleveland’s police academy, as the application period heads into a second week. Ideastream’s Bill Rice has more. (Includes link to application schedule and locations.)
The last time Cleveland gave the police civil service exam in 2007, 1900 people took it. This year, Civil Service Director Lucille Ambrose expects there to be well over 3,000 taking the test. Part of the increase, she says, is due to the recent Ohio Supreme Court decision striking down cities’ rules requiring employees to live within city borders. That’s led to more applicants from surrounding areas. Ambrose says despite the court’s decision on residency rules, current Cleveland residents who apply do get a leg up.
Ambrose: “If they’ve lived in Cleveland for the past year they get ten bonus points on their passing grade, so that a huge benefit still.”
Likewise, past military service can get you five bonus points on the test.
Another reason for the increased number of applicants is the obvious: unemployment – which, by the way, gets you a fee waiver when you apply.
Ambrose: “There are quite a few people who have brought there unemployment papers with them, so we are seeing more of that than we did two years ago. Part of our numbers is due to our lifting the residency rule, and part of it is really economics.”
Between replacing retirees and an expected influx of federal stimulus money, the department could hire as many as 300 new officers in the next two years. In addition to passing the civil service test, applicants must submit to a variety of other examinations and a background check before they can qualify for the academy.
Bill Rice, 90.3.
Police civil service test applications are being accepted daily through the end of this week at the Convention Center in downtown Cleveland, and on select evenings at several alternative sites. For a list, click over to our website at WCPN.org.
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