Police recruiters
view trip as success85 applicants were tested
in Oregon in the first
out-of-state effort
Honolulu police said that despite some bad weather, their first out-of-state trip to test potential recruits was a success.
Police officials tested 85 applicants in Oregon earlier this week as they try to make taking the Police Department's written exam easier for out-of-state applicants.
HPD recruiters said more potential recruits might have showed up for the testing at the Portland Airport Sheraton hotel Wednesday and Thursday if it were not for weather delays elsewhere on the mainland.
"We heard it was the cold weather," said Lt. Robert Tome, of the HPD Career Center. "At least six people called to say they couldn't make the testing because they couldn't get flights out of Chicago.
"We had 120 people confirmed to take the test before we went up there. But overall we're very pleased. ... It went much better than we suspected."
Last month, HPD officials said the trip was being spurred by a number of online inquiries after HPD posted vacancies on its Web site in August. It was a reversal of fortune for the department, which in the past has been raided by other law enforcement agencies, usually with the lure of better-paying jobs and a lower cost of living.
In 2000 the Oregon State Police and the Portland Police Bureau came to Honolulu to recruit HPD officers. In 1998 the King County Sheriff's Department recruited here to fill 60 vacancies.
Tome said an Oregon county police department was also testing applicants in a room nearby in the same hotel during the time that the HPD test was being given.
"Our guys said that one day they had 15 people show up to take the (Oregon county) test, the next day it was about five people," said Tome. "We had 85 in two days. I think we did much better."
The trip is intended to help HPD fill about 260 vacancies out of 2,056 authorized positions. There are 138 recruits training at the academy in hopes of filling some of those vacancies.
HPD officials also said the department has lost an average of 157 officers a year from 1999 to 2002. This year, 160 officers are eligible for retirement.
Tome noted that it will take many more trips to come close to filling HPD's vacancies. Out of the 85 who took the test in Oregon this week, an estimated 50 percent to 60 percent are expected to pass.
"And then after that, they have to pass psychological exams, background checks, polygraph tests," said Tome. "We've still got a long ways to go."
