The Covington Police Department is hoping to smooth the transition from the military into a career in public safety. The Kentucky Law Enforcement Council will directly connect the Covington Police with active service members looking to transition into police work.
KLEC’s program, titled Military to Law Enforcement, would enroll the City of Covington into the U.S. Department of Defense’s SkillBridge program.
Covington Police Chief Rob Nader said the program will help recruitment.
“It’s brand new and it’s a great tool to attract qualified applicants,” Nader said. “Not only does it get us in front of strong applicants, but there’s a substantial savings in what the City generally pays for officer training. I’m excited about this new opportunity.”
Here’s how the program works.
Participating local law enforcement agencies from municipalities like Covington can post openings on the D.O.D.’s SkillBridge website.
If an active duty service member is slated to leave the military and are interested in pursuing a career in law enforcement, SkillBridge can connect them with local law enforcement agencies and set up interviews.
If they have a successful interview, the local agency can agree to sponsor the active-duty service member for a 180-day internship closing out their military service. Throughout the internship, they are assigned to attend the 20-week law enforcement academy. Once they graduate, they’ll be hired by the local law enforcement agency that sponsored them and will officially be certified as a Kentucky Peace Officer.
In Covington specifically, graduates must then complete 20 additional weeks of in-house training to acclimate them to internal procedures and operations.
Current military members of any rank who are leaving the military and are interested in a law enforcement career can set up interviews with those local agencies.
Once enrolled in a law enforcement academy, the service member’s salary and benefits are paid by their branch of service through the D.O.D. instead of by the local law enforcement agency. That equates to big savings for Covington’s Police Department.
“Ordinarily, an officer hired by the City hits payroll on day one, then goes to the academy,” Capt. Matthew Winship said. “Through this program, the active-duty service member is paid during that time by their branch of service.”
Factoring in only salary – no benefits – Covington will save approximately $18,000 per trained officer, Winship said.
“I can’t find a negative,” he said. “It’s helping active military service members transition into the civilian sector seamlessly.”
An analysis of U.S. Census data by Gregory B. Lewis and Rahul Pathak of Georgia State University for The Marshall Project found that, as of 2017, while 6 percent of the population had served in the military, 19 percent of police officers were veterans.
“They’re used to the style of hierarchy and command structure – used to that quasi-military style that you see in law enforcement,” Winship said. “It’s something that’s familiar to them.”
Covington currently has 31 military veterans on its police force.
“We’re proud of that, as well as the many veterans who worked with our agency in the past,” Nader said.
Covington Police officials said the program will come none too soon.
“It’s a hard time to recruit,” Winship said. “All of law enforcement is hurting, this isn’t a problem that’s unique to Covington. But this program opens up a recruitment pipeline that goes all across the country and casts a larger net in terms of making us more visible.”
