![]() “Hiring a bad police officer from another agency can be a time bomb waiting to happen.” Should it have an impact on hiring? Absolutely not if you’re looking to hold people to a higher standard,” Wexler said. ![]() “Will that have an impact on hiring? Probably. Chuck Wexler, director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a Washington-based think tank, said police departments of all sizes are facing staffing crises. Kansas had about 8,244 law enforcement officers as of July, down from about 8,300 two years ago. The applicant pool may be especially limited in small towns, which often lack significant human resources operations capable of conducting deep vetting of job candidates. Like many professions, police departments are also struggling to recruit and retain employees. Other factors may also lead cities and police departments to not dig too deeply into applicants. Legislation to require police departments to review officer records and search the database has gone nowhere. While state officials do use the database, their searches only come after a hire has been made. Police departments are not required to run applicants through a national database that tracks officers who have been decertified by other states – a precaution that prevents officers kicked out of the profession in one area of the country from simply starting over somewhere else. And while law enforcement agencies must file a report every time an officer ends their employment that describes the circumstances of the departure, nothing requires departments to review those reports before hiring an officer, unlike in Missouri, which mandates agencies request a copy. Kansas police departments aren’t required to review the past personnel files of officers applying for jobs. Background investigators need to be trained in specifically doing a background investigation because it’s not like every other investigation,” said John Letteney, president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the police chief of Thomasville, Georgia. ![]() In turn, the lack of thorough background checks allows officers to keep troubling details hidden. While reforms in recent years have expanded the amount of information available on police officers, Kansas places few requirements on municipalities to actually access this information – let alone factor it in when making a hiring decision. The first installment examined how small towns in both states are susceptible to financial fraud and mismanagement. This is the second story in “Broken Government,” an occasional series from The Star investigating failures in all levels of government in Kansas and Missouri. Those interviews reveal Kansas has taken steps to prevent officers from withholding damaging information but doesn’t mandate local leaders thoroughly vet officers before sending them out into communities. The Star spoke with 20 current and former law enforcement officials, local leaders, policing experts and lawmakers.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |