CPD, Highway Patrol seek new recruits

Testing sites will be located around Missouri from Feb. 20 to April 10.

By Eric Rees

Published Feb. 12, 2010

Due to staff retirements and officers moving to new positions within departments, the Missouri State Highway Patrol is looking for new officers and hosting recruiting events around Missouri in the coming months.

The department is looking for qualified troopers to join the first recruiting class of the year, a highway patrol news release stated. Testing sites will span the state of Missouri from Macomb, Ill., to Kansas City and will take place from Feb. 20 to April 10.

"This is something we do every year," Highway Patrol Capt. Tim Hull said. "We run two classes a year so it's something we continuously do, but we're very picky who we put into this positions."

Recruits must have a minimum of 60 hours of college credit or two years of active duty military service with honorable discharge as a pre-requisite, the news release stated. Two years of post-certified, full-time law enforcement experience will also be accepted for new recruits. Hull said these requirements help to find the best recruits.

"It's to their benefit to have that training already," Hull said. "It helps them do their job and helps in being trained for the physically demanding academy."

The Columbia Police Department has eight spots that need hiring but three spots are open to recruits. The other five available positions are for officers on military leave. CPD is another office that uses an academy to train its new recruits.

"The academy that we normally use is the Law Enforcement Training Institute," CPD spokeswoman Jessie Haden said. "It's housed in the Hearnes building. That's where we usually send our recruits."

Haden said recruits that have already been trained in academies are usually hired first for financial reasons but said if the department has a good applicant they want to hire, CPD will hire the person and send the applicant into training.

Hull said the recruitment process takes six months from the time the first test finishes. The department has many different tests for the recruits ranging from background checks to physicals and psychological tests before they get to the hiring process.

"We are very competitive salary wise now," Hull said. "We do a lot of recruiting and spend a lot of time going to job fairs and armed forces bases for people that are looking to get out of the armed forces."

The Boone County Sheriff's Department also uses this method for finding new people. Major Tom Reddin of the sheriff's department said it uses other methods to hire since they don't have an academy.

"As far as patrol spots all our positions are filled," Reddin said. "The highway patrol has an academy while we don't have that. We attend job fairs and also have a meet the department program."

The Highway Patrol has a similar program called Community Alliance. The program meets once a week and civilians get to go through some of the training officers do, Hull said. The group gets to "see how the patrol operates and shoot weapons and shoot radar with an officer" during these events.

"We've refocused that program for colleges that have criminal justice majors," Hull said. "And we also have one for high school students in case that's the career that they'd like to get into."

Hull said all of this recruiting is so the department can get the best possible recruits.