Modesto Police Department has first full-time recruiter

No longer wanting to just keep on keeping up, the Modesto Police Department has its first full-time officer recruiter in Sgt. Chris Adams.

Adams, a 14-year department veteran who has been a recruiter as one of his collateral duties, started the position full time on July 11. He supervises a team of other sergeants and officers who do recruiting among other work.

“We don’t want to just keep up anymore,” Adams said in his office this week. “That’s how it was before – we would constantly, when we lost people, say, ‘Let’s try to fill that spot, fill that spot.’ We would go to events as the recruitment team to try to recruit people, but there was never any defined goal or vision. ...

“The goal, now that I’m in here, is to actively seek people, to think of ways to advertise that we never have before. ... We’re looking for events to go where we think we can find good qualified candidates (such as) colleges and academies.”

Adams, who has been involved in the Police Department’s Explorer post for five years and now is the program’s sergeant supervisor, added the department also will seek to develop officer candidates from within the community.

The Explorer program, for people 16 to 20 years old, will play a “huge” role in recruiting, he said. “We’re down seven positions, plus we’re now allocated for 22 positions approved. So we have a lot of ground to make up in the short term, but we have to think about long-term planning, too, and the Explorers is where the long-term planning comes in,” he said.

If the department is able to advance Explorers into cadets and eventually officers, he said, those hires will “understand our policies, our procedures, how the Modesto way is to do things, and they can appreciate that and it makes a very easy transition for us.”

To that end, the department also is boosting its recruiting for Explorers. Previously, most new members came from students hearing about the program and approaching the department. Now, Adams and his team intend to actively seek Explorers in ways such as making presentations at high schools.

The cadet program, for former Explorers 18 to 25 years old, is itself fairly new – it was approved by the City Council in November 2014. While Explorers are volunteers, cadets are paid, part-time employees who work in support roles, such as helping with parking enforcement and animal control.

“We found that at 21 years old when they aged out (of Explorers), we would lose some good people because they didn’t have anything to do in the meantime if they’re trying to go to school,” Adams said. By offering part-time work as cadets, “ you can grab those Explorers and hang onto them while they’re finishing their bachelor’s degree or whatever.”

WHY LEAVE?

The Police Department has roughly 180 officers and detectives. Other than retirement, the primary reason most give when putting in their resignations is to take higher-paying positions elsewhere, Adams said. “Usually it’s monetary, taking care of their families.” Some leave because they’re returning to areas where they have roots.

“There always could be people saying they’re leaving for reason X when it’s really reason Y, but we don’t see a lot of people, if any, running away from here because of the workload or issues that may come up personally for them.”

One big thing that should help toward keeping and attracting officers, Adams said, is a newly approved labor agreement that calls for Modesto police officers and detectives to receive pay raises as much as 11.5 percent over 2 1/2 years.

“Obviously, right over the hill we have Bay Area wages that we’re never going to be able to compete with. We’ll never be able to match those wages. So to be competitive, that’s very helpful,” Adams said.

WHAT MODESTO OFFERS

More than money, of course, draws people to law enforcement and keeps them on the job. A big part of his position, Adams said, will be marketing the department as a great place to work with a lot to offer.

“People don’t realize how big we are – Modesto is the 17th largest city in the state,” he said. “That brings opportunities that people might not have at smaller agencies, with specialized assignments. We’re part of a county dope team, a local one, gangs, detectives, SWAT, K-9 – everything an LAPD or San Francisco PD, a large agency, would have, we have those things here.”

Another draw is the support the Modesto Police Department feels from the community it serves, he said. “That’s a big sell, because going into law enforcement right now, with the climate nationwide, can be very scary for somebody young. But we have a very supportive community that takes care of us.”

WHAT IT TAKES

In entry-level officers, Modesto is looking for honest, hard-working people of integrity, Adams said.

“They don’t need to necessarily have the skills for the job yet. We can teach that. We can’t teach the character, though – someone with strong moral character that can make the right decisions,” he said. “We can teach you how to drive, how to shoot, how to deal with a domestic violence call and the laws, but you have to come in with a solid background and strong moral character.”

Recruiters also are looking for outgoing people who are good communicators, he said. And by bringing candidates up through the Explorer and cadet programs, the department believes it will find officers who want to make their lives here in Modesto. “It makes a better police officer when someone is vested in the community in which they live and work around,” Adams said. “I could easily recruit across the entire nation and find plenty of good people, but are those people going to be here in two or three years? … We don’t want to be a breeding ground, for lack of a better word, for police officers in other parts of the United States or even in California.”

The department needs more than entry-level officers, though, and recruiting veterans with five to 10 years’ experience at other departments is one of his biggest challenges, Adams said. “Those are the people we’re seeking either from other local agencies or as far up as Sacramento, as far south as Fresno.”

With so-called lateral hires, the department expects the same strong character as with entry-level officers, but also people with a good set of skills, “ready to hit the ground running,” Adams said.

Also important is the reason an officer wants to join the force. “We don’t want them running from something,” he said, “but coming here because they want to be a part of Modesto, not because you have an issue with your agency. ... That’s where our polygraph and our background check are huge.”

This story was originally published August 10, 2016 at 2:50 PM.