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Madison Township, Ohio, may soon end civil service exams for prospective police officers in an effort to ramp up recruiting and hiring.
According to officials, civil service testing has been a “hindrance” to recruiting and hiring police officers.
“It’s just putting us in the position where it’s making it so difficult to hire,” Police Chief Matthew Byers said.
Chief Byers urged township trustees during a board meeting on October 25 to approve a resolution to eliminate the requirements for police officers to pass the government employee exams.
“I think that, unfortunately, (civil service testing as a requirement for officers to be hired) has outlived its usefulness with our current situation,” Byers said.
Trustee Kenneth Gauntner Jr. said the township mandated civil service exams for police officers back in 1980 in an attempt to “professionalize” the department, but noted that the tests were not necessary anymore.
“It was a growing police department then, and (then-chief Patrick Walsh) was trying to professionalize the department,” Gauntner said. “The hiring wasn’t quite the way it ought to be. I think there was a lot of pressure being put on the police chief at the time to hire this friend or that friend, and what have you.”
“So civil service made a whole lot of sense back in 1980 when they did it,” he added.
However, Gauntner noted that fewer people are willing to sign up and take the tests, leaving recruits to flock to other agencies that don’t require the exams.
According to Chief Byers, only 11 people took this year’s civil service exam.
Background checks cut this list to eight potential candidates.
“I could hire any one of the top six,” Byers said, explaining that he could not hire other qualified candidates throughout the year because they were not on the civil service eligibility list.
“So it’s really handcuffing us,” Byers said. “It’s making an already truly difficult job, to keep our numbers up, more difficult.”
Officials argued that requirements also put the township at a disadvantage compared to other agencies that can recruit freely without requiring civil service exams.
Evan Francis, the chairman of the township Civil Service Commission, agreed with Byers despite his department being in jeopardy.
“Chief Byers is doing an outstanding job, but he’s basically hamstrung right now when it comes to hiring people on short notice,” he said.
Francis said the move would speed along the hiring process and would end the Civil Service Commission.
“So when we have police officer candidates coming along who desire to serve the Madison community, I think we need to (expedite) the hiring process, trust the chief’s knowledge of the community, and his experience as a police academy instructor and graduate of the FBI National Academy,” he said. “This change away from the Civil Service Commission makes all the sense in the world to me at this time.”
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