Want to be a Cop?

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Gary sadlemayor Jim Rose and company. We welcome Omaha Police
Department Captain Jay Levitt on an issue that has become
front and center really for the last few years, and
that is staffing in all kinds of law enforcement agencies.
And we know that OPD is down one hundred or
more officers below authorized strength. The city Council yesterday, as expected,

(00:25):
said amen to the latest salary increase. The mayor and
the chiefs said they want to be They want Omaha
Police Department to be the best paid of any law
enforcement agency in the state of Nebraska. And so the
campaign continues. Captain Levin, good morning, Good morning Gary, how
are you well, It's good to have you on here.

(00:47):
But the salary is not the only issue, right, What
is this campaign like the recruitment campaign.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
Well, yeah, obviously salary is not the only issue. We
have a whole list of benefits that you know, we're
trying to entice people to come join our police department with.
So our campaign is really kind of flooding the market
with letting everybody know that we are hiring, what we
do offer, what how we're different and better than other

(01:15):
agencies to consider, and you know, try to get our
numbers up. We've been hitting job fairs and career fairs
and universities and with our recruitment you over the last
several months, and we've really seen some positive results from
that with people signing up on our website waiting for
applications to be taken, and we started taking applications yesterday.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
That's good. This will be heard by thousands and thousands
of people and they may know someone who has an interest.
They may have an interest, and it'll also be on
a website and people here. So I'd like you to
kind of lay it out. If I'm a young person
and I decide I'd like to be a police officer,
are looking to take me through the process here from

(02:02):
the time I apply, assuming I'm accepted, what happens step
by step?

Speaker 2 (02:08):
Yeah, absolutely so here at the end of the application period.
We're taking application till the end of the month end
of May, and then a few days later is actually
a written examination, which is you know, basic skills and
English testing, language comprehension and stuff like that. You pass
that test, you take a physical agility test within a

(02:30):
week of that and that's a pass fail. Basically, an
obstacle course, and then that's where it kind of the
process kind of takes a little bit of time. That's
when you go on to a very extensive background investigation.
You're assigned an investigator as a swarm police officer, and

(02:52):
they look into everything in your background. There are some
automatic disqualifiers obviously which don't allow you to be a
police officer, but that back ground process it takes several months.
You'll be given a conditional offer after a chiefs Panel interview,
and then you take a psyche and medical test and

(03:15):
then from there you'll start the academy. Now, this the
best that we're taking applications for. It has an academy
start date of January. So that's one thing that we
haven't always known in the past, is exactly when an
academy starts when we're taking applications. But they've amended that
process as well, and so we've identified academy start dates

(03:35):
to two per year.

Speaker 1 (03:37):
Moving forward, What are the disqualifiers? The big ones.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
The big ones are obviously a felony conviction, any kind
of domestic violence conviction, drug use, hard drug use you're
excluded for. You can't have any hard drug use within
five years, even marijuana or a dui con You can't
have those within within the last two years. Otherwise we

(04:05):
can't even consider you as a candidate because that's that
is state mandated.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
Is there psychological testing? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (04:13):
Absolutely, After a conditional offer, you get a medical screening
and see a psychologist tool evaluate your readiness and ability
to be a police officer.

Speaker 1 (04:24):
Yeah, because it's not just for to make sure you're
not you know, you don't have a mental illness, but
also the temperament is important, isn't it, Captain. I mean,
if you're going to be out there, as we've heard
from the chief and others for many years, you're dealing
with people often at the worst times of their lives,
So temperament is a big deal. Is there a way
to measure that? Uh?

Speaker 2 (04:46):
Yeah, I mean through the background process, you're gonna they
review your social media, they talk contact your references, they
contact previous employers, just kind of get an idea of
who you are and how you live your life. And
certainly it's psychologists can look into that as well and
just kind of do the best they can to gauge
whether you're going to be a good fit, whether you're
gonna be able to handle the pressures, handle dealing with somebody,

(05:11):
like you said, that's having the worst day of their
life and you got to you gotta call them a
situation and get it under control.

Speaker 1 (05:17):
Is the physical testing independent of any gender considerations?

Speaker 2 (05:24):
No, The obstacle course is a past fail. When you
do get it's based on a time when you do
get start the academy. There is an additional test and
you take that first couple of days the academy based
on the Cooper standards push ups, sit ups, pull up,
smile and a half run, a couple other things, the.

Speaker 1 (05:45):
Same for everybody, right, men and women?

Speaker 2 (05:49):
Yeah, Well, those the Cooper standards are gender and age based,
so you have to there's a you have to have
a minimum standard a percentage over the entirety of the tests.
But those are based on age and gender.

Speaker 1 (06:02):
Okay, So then I got out of the academy in January.
How long does that take? On? How rigorous is it
and what happens?

Speaker 2 (06:08):
Basically, that's a twenty three week academy, and that's the
training academy classroom. So in that twenty three weeks, most
of its classroom materials, learning policies and procedures, and the law,
and you know how to do things by the book
as well as driver training, firearm training, defensive tactics training,

(06:30):
arrest and control training, just basically everything you'll ever need
to learn to get on the street. And then once
you graduate the academy, and then you spend fifteen weeks
on the street with a field training officer and then
you're evaluated through that entire process and at the end
of field training if you've demonstrated that you have the

(06:51):
proficiencies and passed all the tests, and then you'll be
out on your own as a one police officer for sure.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
What is the starting pay now, So with.

Speaker 2 (07:04):
What the city Council approved the other day, starting salary
day one, January twenty twenty six, when you sit down
in the academy will be seventy nine thousand, five hundred
Not bad, not bad.

Speaker 1 (07:18):
Hey, Captain thanks. We're going to have this up on
the website to direct anybody that I would like some
basic information on what's involved. And we appreciate the time
this morning, Captain Jay Levitt