Out-of-state police department targets Western Pennsylvania for potential officers

Three and a half hours from Greensburg is a county that will pay a starting salary of $53,000 to Western Pennsylvanians who are willing to work as a police officer near the nation's capital.

A little closer to home, local police agencies are having a hard time filling vacancies.

The Arlington County, Va., Police Department, which sits across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., is advertising job opportunities via billboards in Westmoreland County.

One billboard on Business Route 66 north of Greensburg advertises police jobs in Arlington County with a simple message — “Duty. Honor. Commitment.” The posted website, ACPD.Jobs , takes inquirers to a departmental website with more information.

The billboard is part of a larger marketing effort to generate interest in policing jobs in Arlington County, an area already populated with transplants from other states, police spokeswoman Ashley Savage said.

“Our advertising campaign expands on the previous successful hiring of candidates from the Western Pennsylvania region who have proven to be hardworking and dedicated officers,” she said. Prior recruiting efforts were limited to career fairs, colleges and universities.

The department's billboard campaign eventually will cover territory from Youngstown, Ohio, to Cleveland and from Pittsburgh to Harrisburg, Savage said.

Arlington County is looking to fill vacancies and felt the need to expand its search for qualified candidates, she said. The department is considered at full strength with 370 officers. It has about 340, she said.

“Ultimately, law enforcement as a field is having some staffing issues,” she said. “We have a number of retirements coming up in the next couple of months, and we will always lose people through attrition.”

Savage said the campaign is not meant to poach candidates from Western Pennsylvania but rather to attract people who want the amenities and lifestyle of the Washington metro area.

“If people are looking for that style of living, we think Arlington County is a great place to live and work. If people prefer Western Pennsylvania, we hope they will serve with their communities there,” she said.

Happy to stay

Frank Newill, director of the Westmoreland Municipal Police Officers' Training Academy, said he doesn't think many Western Pennsylvanians will take the bait.

“They're that desperate for cadets that they have to come to Western Pennsylvania?” quipped Newill, who was not aware of the billboard campaign.

The supply of qualified candidates is not meeting the demand from local departments, Newill said. The Westmoreland police academy, one of 22 in the state, has a current class of eight part-time cadets. Enrollment is likely to grow in June when full-time students begin their classes.

The academy, part of Westmoreland County Community College, graduated 32 cadets in 2017 — 14 part-time students and 18 full-time students.

Many graduates find part-time jobs with local departments, often working more than one job to make ends meet.

“Better than 50 percent of our cadets won't move. They're looking for a local job,” Newill said.

He said he recently told a Westmoreland County cadet about an opportunity in Green Tree, but the cadet felt the Allegheny County borough was too far away.

“He doesn't want to pick up and move with his kids,” Newill said. “As far as moving is concerned, that doesn't seem to be a popular thing.”

A nationwide ‘crisis'

Police departments across the country are showing signs of “desperation” in their search for officers, he said. The shortage of qualified candidates has to do partly with the demands of the job, partly with the stringent entrance requirements and partly with increased public scrutiny of law enforcement, he said.

“There's the issue of society's view of the police officer. You'd have to be blind not to see it,” Newill said.

The Police Chief magazine, a publication of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, last year called the recruiting situation nationwide a “crisis.”

Out of 50 applicants, the Westmoreland academy might get 22 qualified cadets, not all of whom will meet the physical requirements, he said. The academy recently lowered its admission age from 20 to 18.

“You have to start pulling from all kinds of places to get people, but you don't want to recruit just anybody. You still want to maintain your quality control,” he said.

New hires in Arlington County are immediately sent to the Northern Virginia Criminal Justice Training Academy in Ashburn, Va., where they draw a salary during their six months of training. Cadets then spend 13 week in a field training program, where they are paired with a veteran officer and rotate through all three shifts, Savage said.

Stephen Huba is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-850-1280, shuba@tribweb.com or via Twitter @shuba_trib.