Farmington Feed: Police Career Transition Program
This is the Farmington Feed, bringing you information from the city of Farmington.
Caryn:Hi, and welcome back to the Farmington Feed. I'm Caryn Hojnicki, the city's communications specialist, and I'm hungry for an episode of the Feed. Today, I'm here with Sergeant Siem to talk about police officer recruitment. So as administrative sergeant for the police department, you're responsible for managing the new program called career transition. What else is on your plate?
Nate:Oh my. That position is it's it's fairly new. We just kinda reinstated it recently, a year and a half ago. And with it came kind of a smorgasbord, different things, including, managing training, and that's finding and signing officers up for training as well as tracking all of our training. The state requires us to, you know, intensively track and maintain training records.
Nate:So it's it's a pretty, important part of the position to make sure that we're in line with all the requirements for the state. I also manage the schedule, which is another
Caryn:Oh, that's probably huge.
Nate:Yeah. It's kinda, it's a big deal. It's a big deal that we are, you know, operating with enough staff to adequately respond to all of our emergency calls as well as doing all of our proactive enforcement and community engagement activities. So making sure that we have enough cops 24 hours a day to fill those roles is important.
Caryn:Oh, yeah. For sure. So how long have you been with Farmington PD?
Nate:This February will be 19 years.
Caryn:Oh, wow. Okay. So how did you get started in law enforcement?
Nate:Sure. Really, I it wasn't the thing that I grew up thinking about Yeah. Being being a cop. I I joined the National Guard out of right out of high school, and I was doing that and came back and was utilizing the GI Bill and going to school. And I took a law enforcement class.
Caryn:Mhmm.
Nate:And that's what got me going. And as I took that class and became interested and decided that this is something I might wanna look at for a career, and then I started progressing down that way. Got my degree down at Rochester Community Technical College, my associate's degree. And then after that, I had a short career in corrections. Mhmm.
Nate:And my first job as a police officer was with the Cannon Falls Police Department
Caryn:Okay.
Nate:Back in 2003.
Caryn:Okay. So just a little bit of experience there. Mhmm. Well, let's get to the main, topic at hand today, which is the career transition program. And it's new, so we wanna understand more about what's going on with it.
Caryn:So there's a need for more police officers. Correct? Is that just Farmington, or is it all over Minnesota and the US?
Nate:Right. Yeah. We are experiencing, nationwide a shortage of police officers due to, you know, varying reasons. Some, more obvious than others. But, we're we're not putting as many candidates through, law enforcement education programs here in Minnesota as we are losing officers to Right.
Nate:Whatever that might be, retirement or just leaving the profession.
Caryn:Yeah. We just had the of retirement here.
Nate:Right. Yeah.
Caryn:And so recruitment is done all all year long, you know, at every point. So how is this different? How is this different than the regular recruitment process?
Nate:Right. So it's been recruitment was so much easier in the past because there would be hundreds of applications for single positions. Even here in Farmington, we would get a 100 applications for one posting.
Caryn:Wow.
Nate:So there wasn't a much of a requirement for recruitment back then. It was a lot harder for these young officers to find jobs and
Caryn:Mhmm.
Nate:And agencies, especially here in the metro. This position was developed to try and address that need to get more candidates into law enforcement and look other in other spaces for it. Mhmm. And this is a career transition program. And, by definition, we're taking candidates that are in careers that transition into law enforcement.
Nate:So it could be a school teacher Mhmm. Or an engineer or a nurse or or anything. We're just trying to get nontraditional candidates into law enforcement to try and, look at a different pool of people to get more applicants in.
Caryn:Okay. So then who would be eligible for this program?
Nate:It's it's pretty open. Anybody that has a degree. Mhmm. So an associates on up Mhmm. Qualifies for this position.
Nate:That's one of the very slim requirements of it. If you have a degree, we can put you into our program that will lead to eligibility to be licensed in the state of Minnesota as a police officer.
Caryn:Okay. And then so how does a person go about applying for this program?
Nate:Right. We haven't narrowed down a specific time when this is gonna be posting. We're looking at mid to late November, for the posting to occur and then the process.
Caryn:So it'll be like a normal job posting?
Nate:Right.
Caryn:Okay.
Nate:Yeah. We'll be we'll be advertising for these candidates that we're looking for candidates with degrees and an interest in law enforcement that wanna participate in the program. And we can look forward to that happening, yeah, probably mid next month, 5 to 6 weeks out.
Caryn:Okay. Cool. And then so I I don't know there's like a formal title for all of this because, I know there's funding for this program as well. So how is it funded and what's that that long title?
Nate:Right. Yeah. This is the we we call it the IC POET as an acronym, but it stands for the intensive comprehensive peace officer education and training program.
Caryn:Yeah. That is a muffler. Yeah. Right?
Nate:So I'll refer to it as IC POET from now on. Yeah. But it is it's funded by a grant. So a few months ago, the the police department along with our grant writer applied for a grant from the state of Minnesota Okay. To fund the program.
Nate:And it's it's it's driven by the state. They're the ones that are they see the problem too. And it's a statewide problem, so they're, trying to give solutions to this. So we applied we applied for 2 positions
Caryn:Okay.
Nate:Hoping that we would get those, you know, cautiously optimistic. And, thankfully, we ended up being awarded both of those grants. So they're both $50,000 grants.
Caryn:Okay.
Nate:Those grants are intended to fund the education portion.
Caryn:Mhmm.
Nate:So these, candidates, their education, which is approximately 24 week program
Caryn:Okay.
Nate:Is funded by this grant. It also funds that candidates, pay while in the program.
Caryn:So Okay.
Nate:As soon as they start the education portion of that program, they would start being paid by the city of Farmington a not yet designated wage, while they're going to school. So you're being paid to go to school and we're paying for all of the education on and all of, the costs that go along with that. Any books, any licensing programs.
Caryn:Okay.
Nate:All that stuff is covered by the police department through the grant.
Caryn:Oh, that's fantastic because education is expensive.
Nate:Right. And we're looking at those transition, people. They they may have a career in another field, a family, a mortgage, a car payment.
Caryn:Mhmm.
Nate:Not everyone can afford to just leave their career
Caryn:And go back to school.
Nate:And yeah. Go ahead and try something different. Yeah. Though many people may have that lingering feeling in the back of their head, like, I wish I had gone and tried law enforcement. But they just it's just not an option if you can't, find yourself in a position to afford that.
Nate:So this is a way for us to grab onto those people and say, hey. We can get you there. Yeah. Come with us. We'll get you taken care of.
Caryn:Yeah. That's awesome. So what should someone do that is interested in this program at this point?
Nate:Great. So we have information here at the at the police station on how the program works. Right now, I encourage people that ask or people that I talk to to come in and do a ride along with the police department.
Caryn:Oh, they can do that?
Nate:Right. Absolutely. Absolutely. We we host a lot of ride alongs. It's a big part of our recruitment program.
Nate:Mhmm.
Caryn:I did not know that.
Nate:Yeah. And we have a few wonderful officers that are, very accommodating, answer all of your questions Mhmm. Show you what it's like Mhmm. To be in a squad car for 4 hours.
Caryn:Yep. And I was just gonna say how long do they do it for.
Nate:Yeah. And
Caryn:after a full shift.
Nate:For 4 hours at a time.
Caryn:Okay.
Nate:And that gives a a couple things. 1st, you see what the Farmington Police Department environment is like. Mhmm. Our culture, our possibly future coworkers Yeah. Are like.
Nate:And and I I know that everybody will like that experience. And the other part is if you don't have any experience in law enforcement, it's important that you know what you're getting into.
Caryn:Mhmm.
Nate:Because we don't want people to see this as, hey, it's always been a dream of mine. I'm gonna go do it, Get into the program and then realize, oh, it isn't what I thought it was.
Caryn:Exactly.
Nate:Right? So we don't want people wasting their time
Caryn:Mhmm.
Nate:Doing something like this if it's not gonna work out work out for them. So, yeah, ride alongs are a really important part of the program.
Caryn:Oh, wow. That's so fun. Never thought about that. Is there anything else you want people to know about this program? And who do they go about contacting, or how do they contact you regarding it?
Nate:Sure. Yeah. For sure, I am point of contact for the police department. So it's sergeant Nate Siem. And email address is is good.
Nate:That's usually how I coordinate our, ride alongs.
Caryn:So,
Nate:you contact me. I can get you any information you want or give you all the information that we have and, work on setting up a ride along. It does require a quick background check. Mhmm. But it usually only takes a couple days if we can get you scheduled.
Caryn:Okay. And then anything else about the program?
Nate:Just just know that the police department is extremely excited about this program. We are, you know, always looking for new and diverse candidates for these positions. It's important for a police department to have different perspectives. And this gives us a chance to look at candidates with, you know, professional backgrounds in different areas, different life experiences
Caryn:Mhmm.
Nate:To contribute to our culture and and the way we do law enforcement.
Caryn:Yeah. Okay. Well, thank you so much for coming and informing us about this new program to help people transition into a law enforcement career, and we'll have, additional information coming out soon. When you when you receive it, we'll get it on our Facebook and our website and all that stuff. But before I wrap up today's episode, I do wanna mention a couple things that the police department is doing, and that's, of course, our Toys for Town.
Announcer:Mhmm.
Caryn:Request calls will start to be taken on Monday, November 4th, and that will run through December 7th. And wrapping day, the most important day
Announcer:Right.
Caryn:Of the year, is Saturday, December 14th, and that starts at 9 AM at Farmington High School. So just show up ready to rap.
Announcer:Right. Honestly, that's so much fun. It's such a great experience if you bring out, your family to come and help rap. It's it's great for everybody.
Caryn:Yeah. I did it last year. It was a lot of fun. Although, I think I probably wrapped the most out of my whole family. But because, you know, kids take longer.
Caryn:Right. Yeah. Well, that concludes this month's episode of the Farmington Feed. Thank you for listening. We look forward to connecting with residents with this podcast.
Caryn:If you have any feedback, guest requests, or ideas, email me at communications at farmingtonmn.gov. Don't forget to subscribe to the Farmington feed wherever you like to get your podcasts.
