honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted at 12:08 p.m., Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Maui Police Department looking to fill 57 slots

By LILA FUJIMOTO
The Maui News

WAILUKU – The Maui County Police Department is offering signing bonuses and reimbursement for some moving expenses as it gears up for another daylong recruiting session to try to fill 57 vacant police jobs.

The session is scheduled for April 28 at Baldwin High School, with registration at 7:30 a.m. for new applicants. Testing begins at 8:30 a.m.

Those who pass a written test will be interviewed that day by a board of top-ranking police officials, with some conditional job offers expected to be made.

The department has 57 job openings for police officers among its 367 positions, for a vacancy rate of nearly 16 percent.

"We're going to need a lot of people," Sgt. Jamie Becraft, an MPD recruiter, told The Maui News.

Applicants for police jobs must be at least 20 years old, have a driver's license and be a high school graduate or have the equivalent of a high school diploma. They also must be legally qualified to carry a firearm.

"We're not looking for perfect people, by any means," Becraft said. "Everybody has made mistakes in their life. What we're looking for is people with integrity."

He said integrity has been an issue with some applicants who haven't been offered jobs.

"When you lie about the things you've done in your past, that makes you a present-day liar and not ready to be a police officer," Becraft said. "We're looking for the person that's learned from their past."

Last year, MPD initiated a signing bonus of $2,000 upon successful completion of one month of recruit classes and another $500 after graduating from recruit school and successfully completing field training.

MPD also will reimburse up to $2,500 in expenses related to moving and obtaining the job for those who are hired, as well as up to $500 for a full physical exam required for employment, Becraft said.

Starting pay for police officers, including a standard of conduct differential, is more than $42,000 a year, he said.

"The people that are applying are not as concerned about pay as they are about working in their community," Becraft said. "They seem more community oriented."

The daylong session condenses into several hours a hiring process that usually takes months.

In theory, those offered jobs April 28 could start within three months, Becraft said.

But the job offers are conditional because those selected also will have to pass thorough background investigations, along with psychological, polygraph and drug testing to be hired, Becraft said.

For those offered jobs, the first part of the psychological testing will be done the following day, April 29.

Becraft asks anyone interested in applying for a police job to call him at 244-6392 or to send him e-mail at joinmpd@mpd.net.

For more Maui news, visit The Maui News.