SWAMPSCOTT — The Swampscott Police Department had to create its own process for hiring new patrol officers after the town voted to leave civil service.
Interim Chief David Kurz was hired by the town to help establish a new process to hire officers, one that involves community members.
The town went through Municipal Resources Inc. (MRI) to hire Kurz, who was formerly a police chief in Maine and New Hampshire where there is no civil service, and has been working with MRI for 18 years on a variety of projects.
MRI works with communities to offer police services including interim staffing and mentoring, recruitment and assessment of personnel, internal affairs investigations, facility evaluations, grant development and more.
“A large part of my position here with MRI, as I’m working here three days a week as interim police chief, was to put in these new procedures now that they are out of civil service,” Kurz said. “They need to develop a process, or procedure, to make hiring and recruitment happen.”
Kurz and the police union have been working on this new hiring process, which was recently approved by the town, for the past couple of months.
“We have now activated that process,” Kurz said.
Positions for patrol officers in Swampscott have been advertised and posted online, on sites like Indeed and LinkedIn, where anyone can apply regardless of their background or experience.
Unlike the civil service process, applicants do not need to take a written test before pursuing an open police position in the town.
“It’s just like applying to FedEx or something,” Kurz said.
When applications come in, the department and town will look through them, weeding out candidates they believe will be the best fit.
When creating this new process, Kurz held citizen groups and meetings to see what kind of officers the residents want to see hired and what they want to see out of the police department.
“What I’ve learned throughout the years is that every town is unique and how they police is unique,” Kurz said. “We don’t choose different laws, but the focus and manner on how policing is done, what flavor it’s done, are some of the intangibles that we are going to bring to the town of Swampscott.”
Kurz said they have tried to encompass as much of the community’s input that they could into the process and the skill sets that they are looking for in candidates.
Once applications are reviewed, those candidates selected will take a test created by the department and Police Exam Solutions, LLC, which has a history of creating police exams for other departments in the state.
A passing grade for the test will be established by Kurz prior to the exam, with those candidates who fail being immediately disqualified from further processing.
This testing has been proven to be unbiased, which Kurz said is good because the town is looking to diversify the department.
After that, selected candidates will have to undergo a physical-agility test, which is required to get into the state’s police academies, and then a series of interviews.
Another difference between this new process and civil service is the implementation of an oral board.
The hiring process now includes an oral board that consists of three current officers and two residents; Kurz said board members will be chosen randomly from a pool of people recommended by the Select Board and other police officers.
Kurz has implemented an oral board in his previous positions, saying that some residents tell him they don’t know what makes a good police officer so they are not sure if they can be on the board.
“My response to them is, ‘you know what’s sitting before you, so is this the person that you want to come to your house to deal with your most intimate problem?'” Kurz said. “And if it’s not, then let’s go to the next candidate. I think that insight is invaluable to us as a police department.”
Those who pass this part of the process will then undergo a background investigation, and the final candidate(s) will be forwarded to Kurz for an interview.
After the interview, the final candidate(s) will meet with Town Administrator Sean Fitzgerald for a final interview.
The department will handle the entire process, following the rules and regulations that were created, and Fitzgerald will be involved only at the end when the department recommends the final candidates to send a conditional offer to.
“I’m hoping with all of this, we will be able to find a candidate that the town wants,” Kurz said.
“That’s why we exist as a department — to provide services to the town.”
Swampscott’s requirements to apply for the position include being legally authorized to work in the United States as a police officer; being at least 21 years of age; being a high school graduate or having a GED; being a non-smoker; not being a convicted felon, or having any equivalent convictions that would be a felony in Massachusetts; not having tattoos, body art, brands or scarifications that are considered offensive, extremist, racist, indecent, violent, or sexist; and applicants must possess a valid driver’s license; and must have the ability to obtain a Massachusetts Class A License to Carry a Firearm.
Open positions in the department can be found online by googling “police officer jobs in Swampscott, MA.”