The Covington Board of Commissioners unanimously passed a resolution at their meeting on Tuesday to support the establishment of a police academy in the Northern Kentucky Region.
Discussion among the commissioners on the topic was limited, but the issue of police recruiting is an ongoing issue in the region.
“There has been a change in society,” Fort Wright’s Police Chief Ed Butler told LINK nky last month. “[Police] type jobs are not as sought after. Local, small police departments have some difficulties staffing because we can’t offer salaries or opportunities [competitive with those] that larger departments can.”
There are several reasons for this–changing attitudes towards police work, training requirements and legal reforms to the Kentucky pension system. Large numbers of impending retirements will likely exasperate the problem.
Fort Wright’s Mayor David Hatter has been especially vocal about this issue. Current training requirements require police recruits to attend official police academies, but with no academies in Northern Kentucky, recruits often have to wait to attend academies in other parts of the state. In Fort Wright, this process can take a year to a year and a half, Hatter said.
“Once we get our applicants through the background investigation and upon their successful completion of this process, we must then wait upwards of six to 10 months before they are able to report to basic training,” said Maj. Phillip Ridgell, the public information officer for the Boone County Sheriff’s Department. “This creates personnel problems given that it takes approximately one year to complete basic training and our Field Training Program. From start to finish this process could take nearly two years.”
The next two meetings of the Covington Board of Commissioners will be canceled as they overlap with Halloween and Election Day, respectively. The commission will meet again on Tuesday, Nov. 14.
