How would you like to sit down at your interview and see these folks across the table, lol
Morgan Freeman takes part in interview process for new Gulf Shores Police officers

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PTLAPTA!

While they are all accomplished folks, they are so far removed from the reality of being a cop on today's streets that they have no business conducting hiring oral boards...

And the absolute last person I would want to see on any oral board I was interviewing with would be an actor that has played a role as the position I was testing for.

Well, at least they picked an actor that is on record as rejecting the defund movement...so in that sense it could be much worse.

I like Morgan Freeman as an entertainer, but a career of pretending to be something he is not does not of itself qualify him to sit on the interview panel.

I think the million dollar donation probably had more of an influence to his selection.

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Live long and prosper

Freeman and several others mentioned were on the panel as citizens of Gulf Shores. That was their only requirement. As the article mentioned, there were numerous other steps to be selected as an officer.

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PTLAPTA!

Mr Freeman is smart, well read and a resident in good standing of Gulf Shores. What would disqualify him from asking questions of prospective applicants especially when he was invited to do so?

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

Form over function.

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Wisdom comes thru fear . . .

Not a thing.

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Live long and prosper

I wonder if that was a typo.


It said more than 100 people applied. It said around half of these people were invited to come down to an interview. That would be 50 or so.


Then it said only nine people made it to the interview.


Wow. 50 people were invited to interview but only nine showed up?


Or was that actually a typo? 50 people were invited to the interview but only nine made it THROUGH the interview?

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I always take precautions

100 applicants and only nine made it to the oral board ??

I can't even believe that you asked that question Rusty.

Why can't you?

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

Not sure why Morgan is always cast as the all knowing human or super intelligent being. Society and Hollywood think he is wonderful. For me he is just a dude on the Electric Company.

G. Un. Gun

Not at all unusual... in most jurisdictions, the process starts with a written test to evaluate (very) basic reading/writing/math skills. If you pass the written test you move on to a physical test of some sort... these vary widely, but basically serve to indicate you will physically survive the first day at the academy. If you pass the written, you move on to the interview/ oral board.

Usually only about 50% of those that make it to the interview pass, and then begins the real hiring process.

Not knowing anything about the career they were interviewing for, and not having the experience to evaluate their responses to the questions...

Many places now have civilians on these boards, but I think it does a disservice to the community, the agency, and the candidate unless they are very well prepared to conduct these interviews.

If any of the applicants want to move north. I heard the Seattle Police Department is looking for a few.

My guess is they're using it as a recruiting tool, thinking they'll attract more candidates to fill positions.
I don't play the new creative games but it's getting hard to find young folks out there that want to work or become an Officer.
No love anymore

My wife works for our State Police in recruiting, and that's about the average for here. And if Gulf Shores next step is background investigation, psych exam and polygraph, they'll lose some of the 9. That's why locations that embraced the defund movement and are now reversing course after crime spiked are so screwed...it will take them years to recover.

Oral boards comprised of civilians from various backgrounds are what makes up most law enforcement oral boards here in cornfields and cows country. On occasion, there might be a retired law enforcement officer on a board but not that often.

Most times, oral boards are made up of good, honest, well meaning citizens but who are also political picks of the governor, sheriff or mayor. I'm good with that, for the most part. Besides, the functions of oral boards in the hiring process varies quite a bit, depending on your location and the agency you are talking about.

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"In God We Trust"

Could not disagree more. Don't care much about it being Morgan Freeman vs. any other upstanding member of society, but policing exists to serve the community, and having members of the community deciding who they want to be police is key. Only have police on the board, you wind up recruiting certain types of people and leave out people with a huge range of experiences that are often able to bring different points of view, and therefore different solutions, to the table. It's been about a decade since I interviewed for police jobs right out of college, but the departments that had only cops and retired cops on the board seem to be showing up on the news a hell of a lot more than those that had boards representative of their communities.

Not trying to be a jerk, but honest question: did you end up working in law enforcement? My position is based on nearly 26 years (so far) in uniform patrol, over 20 of that as a supervisor. I've seen lots of people come and go from the job in that time; I've sat on oral boards, and I've fired officers.

Hiring boards are about getting people on the job, and not wasting public resources on "people with a huge range of experiences that are often able to bring different points of view" that won't last through the academy or off FTO.

It takes up to a year or more to get a candidate from job application to working solo on the road. Anyone that doesn't make it wastes a tremendous amount of time and resources. People who know the realities of the job day to day are better equipped to assess candidates coming in the door. It's still hit or miss sometimes, but failure rates go up when those sitting the oral boards are less astute.

I agree that community input is essential to a successful relationship between the agency and their community, but that is better accomplished in other areas.

They are not allowed to be the police due to the consent decree (which was based on falsifications by DOJ/OCR) and the recent lunatic fringe legislative enactments in Washington (most of which are based on the false narrative about a few deaths of violent criminal resisting arrest, or the Balko/Wexler insanity). The tolerance for criminals has caused a staggering deterioration of what used to be a decent state in which to live. It's shameful.

I'd rather have Morgan Freeman involved than most of the moonbats who have infested the discussion now.

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NHI, 10-8.

My department always had at least one lay community member on the interview panel. Once I had reached command level, I too sat on such boards from time to time. My opinion (and I stress that) is that having community members on such boards contributes a useful perspective. But I have never viewed LE as a closed loop society.

As far as the cull rate goes, here is something to consider. This dates back to the 90's, as I retired halfway through. CA POST on a state-wide basis tracked the number of candidates who had filed an accepted application (meaning the department did not reject it at intake) relative to the ultimate hires. State-wide out of every 100 such apps, the hires were 1 - 2. This figure mirrored our experience. Obviously this was/(is?) an extremely high cull rate, but that was what it took to get suitable recruits. Once hired, the recruit still had to graduate the basic academy, successfully complete the field training program, and pass the probationary period.

My concern at this point is getting suitable candidates to apply. Departments all over the country are reporting a lack of suitable candidates to fill vacancies. This does not bode well.

^^^ Doesn't really matter who makes up the interview panel when there aren't enough suitable candidates. Frankly, why would anyone these days want to be a cop the way they are portrayed in the news media and treated by the Monday morning talking heads.

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Live long and prosper

This x1000. If you want to go into LE and you have a problem with being interviewed by a citizen in the jurisdiction that you would serve, you need to consider another career path.

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Release the Kraken

Yes, yes they are. So is the Washington State Patrol.