Despite a national police officer shortage, the Aurora Police Department is having no problems recruiting new officers to fill its rising number of positions, according to department officials.
Aurora Police Chief Keith Cross, left, shakes hands with new recruits during a swearing-in ceremony in August 2023. Cross and other officials said the Aurora Police Department is not struggling to find recruits, despite a national shortage of police officers. , which was published in October 2023, said that police departments across the country “face an historic crisis in recruiting and retaining qualified candidates.
Those vacant positions are expected to fill up fast, he said. According to Cross, the department is planning to hire as many as 10 new officers next month and will do at least two more hiring events this year. One of those changes is a program offering incentives to seasoned officers from other departments if they join the Aurora Police Department in a process known as lateral hiring.
In fact, both Cross and Thomas were police officers at other departments before joining the Aurora Police Department over 20 years ago, they said. He said the new position, which is at the lieutenant level, will work with new officers to decide on a career path then offer them training and mentorships towards their goal. Some examples he gave of potential career paths include community policing, traffic enforcement and investigations.When existing officers or new recruits want to join the Aurora Police Department, they now have an easier time because of some changes made to the hiring process, Cross said.
However, these seasoned officers have their own unique challenges when coming to the department, according to Cross. He said they must adapt to the department’s standards of professionalism, something they may not have been used to in their past departments. He said the department already had a program for younger children – the youth law enforcement academy – and for young adults – the cadet program – but that the explorer program bridges the gap between the other two. When combined, these programs now gives young people interested in joining the police a clear pathway to becoming a sworn officer, Thomas said.
The department is still not as diverse as Cross would like to see it, but the department has come a long way in the past few years, he said. In this survey, those who interact with the police are given a call several days later to ask about their impression of the interaction, according to Thomas. He said some people are not called back, such as when they have been the victim of a violent crime and are at risk of being a victim again.
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