Safety First

Hiring candidates to be police and corrections officers, and firemen is a time-consuming, expensive and extremely important endeavor.

| 2018 Q1 | story by Mike Anderson | photos by Steven Hertzog

Safety First: EMT members learning how to use new state of the art equipment to save lives in the field.

How do you put an elephant in a refrigerator? Take your time, because your answer might influence your chances of becoming a firefighter in Lawrence. And, it’s not just about your answer. Chief Mark Bradford, for the Lawrence-Douglas County Fire and Medical Department, is also looking at how candidates answer the question. He’s looking at posture, eye contact and how an individual relates to the interviewer (him). He has to look for all of these things and more, because the position he’s hiring for is no ordinary job. In fact, he’s not offering jobs. He’s offering careers. He needs to find that small group of people living on this earth that can handle the mental and physical toll of protecting and saving lives on a daily basis for years to come.

For the Lawrence Police Department, the Douglas County Corrections Division and the Lawrence-Douglas County Fire and Medical Department, the process of recruiting, hiring and training individuals is extensive. In fact, extensive might be an understatement. The training process for the police department takes 24 weeks, the hiring process for the corrections division involves 20 steps, and the physical requirements for the fire department would make The Rock blush.

Interviewing

Let’s start with the Fire and Medical Department. It is looking for people who are honest, trustworthy and self-motivated. Interviewers ask questions about credibility and accountability. For example, at some point during the hiring process, someone will ask the candidate to put himself in the following scenario: “You’re at an EMS (Emergency Medical Services) call at a residence, and you knock a $100 bill off the table. What do you do? What do you say?” Chief Bradford knows no one is going to say they’d put it in his or her pocket, but it’s about how they react to finding it and knocking it off the table. They are trying to find out who has trust. As Division Chief Shaun Coffey puts it, “We’re going into people’s homes at their most intimate time, and they are very vulnerable at that time. They have to have complete trust in us … we’re often meeting people at their worst day, that’s why we look for qualities of trust and compassion.”

The Fire and Medical Department also looks for commitment to service in a candidate’s background and how he or she deals with stress. They’ll ask questions like, “If you’re in a stressful family situation, how do you deal with that?” Perhaps most importantly, they want to know if the person is outgoing and interested in the team environment. “A question I’ll always ask is, “Do you like reading a book, fishing by yourself, out walking in the woods by yourself, or do you prefer to be involved in a pickleball game at the sports pavilion, getting involved in a pickup game or being with your family and friends.” That separates those people who want to isolate themselves; that doesn’t work in the fire service,” Chief Bradford says. In the fire service, employees never go anywhere or do anything by themselves. Even during training, they are never doing anything as an individual.

Preparedness

But, based on the physicality of the training process, trainees will need some help. Chief Coffey works in the training division. Here, he works trainees through drills and challenges similar to what’s called the “Firefighter Combat Challenge.” It also goes by another name: “the toughest two minutes in sports.” It is basically a firefighter obstacle course that involves five different events. These events include 1) carrying a 42-pound pack up four flights of stairs, then, once at the top, 2) hoisting up a rope carrying a 42-pound weight. Once that is completed, trainees run down the stairs having to hit every step on the way. At the bottom of the stairs, they 3) use a sledgehammer to move a 160-pound steel beam a distance of 5 feet. Then, they 4) run a zigzag around cones before grabbing and dragging a fire hose 75 feet, where they then have to turn the hose on and hit a target. Finally, trainees 5) drag a 170-pound 6-foot mannequin 106 feet across a finish line. Oh, and they have to do this with full gear and mask on, which basically means they’re breathing through a straw with 70 pounds of equipment on their back. And, it should only take about a minute and a half.

Physical endurance and strength is definitely paramount in the fire department. There isn’t much time for warming up and stretching. There isn’t much time to get ready mentally or physically. Firefighters have to be prepared to go from a deep sleep to fighting a fire with maximum effort in 7 minutes.

Recruiting

If you think the pool of candidates to choose from is pretty small, you’d be right. Not too many people have the mental and physical abilities to do this job. And, every department in the metro is fighting for these candidates. Chief Bradford and his staff are fighting competition from other fire departments in Johnson County and around the state. In some ways, he is like a college basketball coach. He tries to recruit 18- to 21-year-old athletes from high schools and junior colleges. In fact, his department has hired athletes from the University of Kansas and Haskell Indian Nations University. The only difference between he and most college coaches, however, is that he now has to offer signing bonuses. Because the pool of applicants is so small, and the competition so fierce, the Fire and Medical Department is now offering money up front for people who join. “This idea of signing bonuses was never heard of five years ago,” Division Chief Coffey explains. While the idea of signing bonuses may be unique to fire departments, the competition and difficulty to recruit is also a concern for the corrections division.

Recruitment for the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office (DGSO) Corrections Division can also be tough. The job certainly can be stressful and demanding. And, it can be difficult to find recruits. But, the biggest problem Lt. Randy Cheek and his staff have is education. The media doesn’t exactly paint the career or the facilities in a good light. Aside from Tom Hanks in “The Green Mile,” there are not a lot of great corrections-officer role models in television or film. This has led Lt. Cheek to build a recruiting team and get more exposure for his division out to colleges, job fairs and military transition fairs. Much like the Fire and Medical Department, the Corrections Department is looking for people who want to make this job a career. It is looking for people who have high trust, high integrity and great communication skills.

Trying to discover one’s communication abilities is a big part of the hiring process. The Corrections Department wants recruits who can be assertive, can multitask and can de-escalate problems using words-or, as Sgt. Kristen Channel calls it, “verbal judo.” Being able to think quickly and de-escalate problems is the equivalent of the left-handed layup in basketball, a skill that is a must-have. “In this position, you have to say ‘yes’ and ‘no’ with the same enthusiasm,” Lt. Cheek explains. “You have to be someone who presents themselves as a leader.”

Hiring

Part of the 20-step hiring process includes polygraph reports, fitness testing, personal interviews, drug screenings and background checks. Officers call family, friends and even neighbors to learn more about prospective officers. By the end of the process, the DGSO Corrections will know if you never returned your neighbor’s shovel.

Psychological evaluations are also part of the hiring process. During the interview, psychologists hired by DGSO would ask questions about how candidates handle stress, what’s the most stressful situation they’ve been in and what they’d say in certain situations. The mental abilities of candidates are taken into consideration just as much as anything else. For example, at one point, candidates are asked to take a four- to five-hour psychological test. This test involves 1,100 questions that reveal what a candidate would do when no one is watching. A lot of the questions involve decision-making. Decision-making ability is an important part of the hiring process. As Chaplain Paul Taylor explains, “Decision-making appears throughout the evaluation process. This is a very relational position.”

Safety First

Training

Training for the Corrections Division involves a 10-week academy. The first four weeks involve the classroom, where Lt. Cheek puts recruits through defensive tactics and different scenarios. For example, if an inmate won’t lock down, is agitated and won’t calm down, how will a recruit de-escalate the situation with words? The phrase “Use your words” is stated often during these four weeks. During this time, recruits also take first-aid classes, physical fitness classes and the pepper spray challenge.

So they know what it feels like, all recruits must be pepper sprayed. They can also volunteer to be tazed. Apparently, every muscle in one’s body locks up for five seconds during a tazing, but, sometimes five seconds is all that is needed to detain an unruly inmate. “In all my years I’ve been doing this, I’ve only seen one person able to keep standing and actually grab something while tazed,” Lt. Cheek says.

The big day during the first four weeks comes when all recruits have to go through the pepper spray obstacle course. After being pepper-sprayed in the face and eyes from only a few feet away, recruits have to wait five seconds (apparently it takes a couple seconds for the pain to really set in), open their eyes, run an obstacle course and then try to physically restrain one of their superiors. Then, and only then, will they be allowed to deal with the unbelievable pain on their face. The goal here is to expose the recruits to the pepper spray so they will understand the behavior of someone who has been sprayed and familiarize themselves with the feeling of being indirectly sprayed.

The next four weeks involve shadowing an experienced officer in the field. And, the final two weeks are back at the academy with more scenario-based training. Recruits also familiarize themselves with different inmate programs, such as anger-management classes, high school diploma (GED), etc. Much like at the Fire Department and Police Department, recruits are never alone. There are 13 people on every shift, and everyone is out to support them. Chaplain Paul Taylor always has his door open. Every new officer is paired with a mentor. And, don’t worry, the volleyball courts are always open.

Much like the Fire Department and Corrections Division, the Lawrence Police Department is a very team-oriented place. Anybody looking for a place within the department must be proven a team player capable of making split-second decisions and able to adapt to his or her surroundings. This is why Sgt. Mark Unruh and his team are looking at everything during the interview process, including how a candidate enters the room. “Without sounding too rigid, I personally am looking for someone with command presence. I enjoy seeing someone walk through the doors prepared to engage with the interview board, look us in the eyes, approach us and introduce themselves,” Sgt. Unruh says.

“Further, I enjoy hearing the potential officer’s responses and learning about them through their thought process. More specifically, giving a response other than ‘yes’ or ‘no’ is a good thing,” Sgt. Unruh explains. While the police department isn’t asking any of the wall questions (such as the “elephant in the refrigerator”), they are doing background checks and psychological tests to determine a candidate’s mental and physical acuity.

The training process to become a part of the police department is what really separates the Police Department. Its training academy lasts 24 weeks. The police recruit training process encompasses more than 900 hours of classroom and practical instruction, with a diverse array of topics. During the academy, recruits are educated in law, use of force, officer safety and many practical applications of police tactics and tools. After the academy, the newly graduated police officers participate in the field-training program for a minimum of 15 weeks. Throughout this time, the department takes recruits through scenarios to help them become acclimated to thinking under stressful situations.

A recent change in police recruit training has been the focus on the emotional and physical health of the recruits themselves. Sgt. Unruh explains, “It has been demonstrated through the years that police officers benefit in physical and emotional health when taught techniques to deal with stress. This helps to develop more physically and emotionally fit police officers, which in turn benefits the community they serve.” A new training method, called the Reno Police Training Officer model, promotes coaching, teaching and training of new officers rather than merely evaluating them. Now, the focus is more on low-frequency, high-risk incidents.

Important and Costly

This process of recruiting, hiring and training individuals in the public-safety sector must be rigorous. These individuals will be required to keep people in the community safe. They’ll be called on to help people at their most vulnerable times. The hiring and recruiting process is also important because of how costly it is to train recruits. As Sgt. Unruh puts it: “Police recruit training represents an extremely large commitment of resources by the Lawrence Kansas Police Department but has continued to be a high priority for developing quality police officers.”

For most police departments in the Midwest, the cost to recruit, hire and train an officer may exceed $100,000. It’s a financial blow to all three of these departments to lose a recruit after or during training. This is why the Sheriff’s Office Corrections Division requires those completing the training program to work at least three years in their department before transferring somewhere else. For each department, the question becomes, “What goals have you had in the past five or six years?” As Chief Bradford puts it, “Have you tinkered around here and there, or have you accomplished your goals?”

How committed of a person are you? Because the commitment of these recruits leads to the safety of our city and county.