With police departments facing a hiring crisis, some policies are being loosened to find more cadets
PHILADELPHIA — Faced with gaping police vacancies and public safety concerns, the Philadelphia Police Department had to think creatively about how to bring in more candidates. The answer? Fewer push-ups.
The city’s move to lower requirements for the physical entrance exam to the police academy is part of a broader national effort to rethink policies that keep law enforcement candidates out of the job pool amid a hiring crisis.
To close the gap, policies on tattoos, prior drug use, physical fitness and college credits are all being reconsidered. Los Angeles offers housing subsidies. Other departments, such as Washington, DC, offer signing bonuses of more than $20,000. Several states have expanded access to non-citizens, while others have changed the minimum age for officers to 18.
A law signed late last year by Pennsylvania’s Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro lowered the physical fitness requirements on which applicants are judged — from situps to timed distance running and pushups — in Philadelphia. The city, which like other major cities was plagued by high crime rates during the early pandemic, has struggled to fill police vacancies.
Under the new law, candidates can pass their exams at a lower threshold than previously required, now in the 15th percentile of the standards the Corps uses to test its cadets. Depending on your age and gender, it’s a difference of about three to five situps or pushups, or a few minutes added to a 1.5-mile run.
Philadelphia is already seeing the benefits of its modified eligibility exam. Since the law went into effect, 51% of people have passed the tests, compared to 36% previously, said Capt. John Walker, who handles recruitment for the department.
Cadets must still graduate by meeting the current 30th percentile standard, but during the nine months of training it gives candidates time to grow, Walker said.
“By bringing them in at a reasonable, logical number, we get more people and better opportunities,” he said.
Megan Bortner was one of 100 of 265 candidates who passed their exams at a recruitment event in February. She moves to the city after four years as an officer in Indiana, where she took the same physical fitness exam as everyone else, regardless of gender and age.
Bortner, who is 33 years old, had enlisted in the Philadelphia Army and had to complete the 1.5-mile run in less than 20 minutes to pass the exam under the new entry standards. Previously, she would have to do it in about 17 minutes. She thinks the lower barrier to entry will give more recruits a chance to become officers, meaning a more diverse group working in the community.
“If you’re doubting yourself or you’re not very confident in your athletic abilities, I think this would be a good starting point,” Bortner said.
Concerns about crime and public safety are top priorities for Philadelphians. It was a leading factor in the recent mayoral elections, with voters choosing Democratic candidate Cherelle Parker, who vowed to get tough on crime and is pushing to hire hundreds of more officers to set a good example.
The hope is that more recruits will be hired to fill the approximately 836 vacancies the department faces in its 6,000-person force. Combined with approximately 470 officers unable to work the streets due to injuries, the department is well below the staffing level for which it has budgeted.
When evaluating their policies to try to bring in more cadets, officers saw the impact a graduation-level physical fitness exam had. By 2024, they hope to hire at least 350 recruits – a 167% increase in hiring.
“We serve a large group of people. I think it’s critical to bring in people from all of these demographics,” Walker said. “By looking at these barriers to access, educating people that there are opportunities and listening to people who are testing, I think that’s where police need to be.”
Departments small and large across the country are facing challenges, said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a nonprofit police think tank based in Washington, DC.
Officers are resigning or retiring at a higher rate than applicants becoming officers, he said. Even though more and more people are starting to sign up, there is still a gap.
The workforce crisis has been far more profound than Wexler has seen before. Extra scrutiny on police officers in 2020 after the killing of George Floyd impacted the number of people who want the job, he said.
Earlier this year, in Pennsylvania, the governor removed the requirement that applicants have at least 60 college credits to be a state trooper. Applications soared within a month, with nearly half of aspiring cadets previously ineligible, according to Pennsylvania State Police.
In Philadelphia, Tyler Derr, 29, was driven to become an officer because he wanted to be a public servant. After going through four stages of the physical examination, he said he found it easy.
“I think if someone takes care of themselves and is physically active, this should be quite easy for them,” he said, warning against lowering standards too much.
“I still think we have to hold ourselves to a high standard, both physically and morally,” he said.
It was something Wexler also warned about: You can change standards to create broader opportunities, but you can’t make a mistake in hiring.
“It only takes one bad officer to take down a department and impact an entire city.” We saw that in Minneapolis,” he said. “The one thing you can’t make a mistake about is character.”
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Brooke Schultz is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.