The Clovis Police Department is offering a $10,000 bonus incentive for lateral and recruit police officer applicants.
The hiring and recruiting Sergeant for the Clovis Police Department, Jared Binford said the push to recruit more applicants to the Clovis Police Department stems from a “trend in law enforcement” that left most departments understaffed.
The hiring incentive offered to new applicants, which include lateral and recruit police officers, is not to be confused with a bonus, instead according to Binford it is “structured over a couple of years.”
In order to prevent applicants from applying and quitting after receiving their bonus, Binford said the incorporation of a structured plan would help minimize their exposure to such an event.
Binford said new recruits would be on a three year structured plan that would see their bonus incentive dispersed throughout certain milestones in their career such as passing training and completing their second full year of service. While lateral applicants would be on a two year plan with a similar structure.
Efforts have also been made to hire more recruits straight from the Police Academy, but an issue recruiters face is a strategy used by other Police Departments to increase their number of applicants.
According to Binford some police departments implement a strategy of recruiting applicants ahead of time to send through the Police Academy, after which the applicants would already have a job lined up, leaving other departments left to implement the same practice to keep up.
“Now people are getting hired ahead of time and then being sponsored and sent into the academy which didn’t used to happen, or it happened very rarely so people can get hired before going to the Police Academy, get paid while attending the academy and when they come out they have a police officer job as long as they pass the academy,” Binford said.
The need to fill positions, Binford said, started during the pandemic when the amount of recruitment became stagnant because of COVID-19 restrictions.
During their efforts of recruiting virtually and over Zoom, Binford stated, they kept some of their recruiting techniques from earlier in the pandemic to help accommodate the needs of applicants who may be out of the area in hopes of gaining new applicants.
In an effort to ensure applicants are successful, the Clovis Police Department also created a prep program that assists with building the mental and physical strength that meet the demand of the Police Academy.
Binford commented that the department noticed a lot of applicants were struggling with the functional fitness portion of training when they would attend the academy. So in an effort to help increase the number of successful applicants the department offers the prep program throughout the week taught by current law enforcement officers at no cost to applicants.
For those interested in applying to the Clovis Police Department, their information can be found at joinclovispd.com.