I thought it important to update you on the LVPD Police Chief search, particularly since interviews with several candidates are planned for Feb 17th.
As Charles and I discussed this past Thursday, I think we should continue the posting and canvassing of applicants. I am not confident we currently have candidates with the requisite law enforcement experience and tenure that our department needs. I was happy to see the addition of requesting more background information, including IAD files, training, reviews, etc. for any of our law enforcement candidates. Very important! I have also suggested the following:
-We improve the posting with a headline or lead paragraph to the effect of, "Looking for an experienced law enforcement leader to transform a small city police department into a national best practice". This will get the attention of more qualified applicants, especially those who have been in growth mode throughout their career and are motivated by a challenge.
-We change the minimum rank requirement to Sergeant and above. One of the current candidates being interviewed is a Sergeant, so we've already gone outside of the required parameters. Opening the posting to this level could garner additional, qualified applicants. A sergeant with solid patrol, investigations, and supervisory experience could be a good fit. BTW we have many more people following the posting than have applied, so I am hopeful more of these tentatively interested folks will consider actually applying with an improved posting.
-We continue with the planned interviews of the three candidates on the 17th; however, let's NOT hold a public meet and greet. I think it's premature to do this if we open up the posting again. Also, Charles will not have had time to review the results of the interviews with the search advisory committee members.
I have concerns about how the process has gone so far, including the fact that the search advisory committee is just now being engaged in what were depicted as "finalist" interviews. There was no involvement in vetting the higher number of applications that were submitted. The refined pool of six was reduced to three primarily because two of the internal candidates withdrew their applications from consideration. Net net, it doesn't seem like we've had a robust pool of candidates to consider, which is why I think we need to keep looking.
We owe our city a comprehensive search. We should not have a defeatist attitude that Lago PD has a bad reputation, or we've always had mediocre to poor chiefs in the past, so we won't be able to get someone really good. Let's change that with this critical hire! I am hearing from more of our residents that they believe our community needs to up its game - our city has grown, policing it is more challenging, and we are ready for positive constructive change. We owe it to our community to take the time to try to identify the best possible candidate or candidates. I know we are eager to fill this thing so the required transformation of our PD can begin. From my experience, it's far better to take longer than you might want to place the right person in such a critical position.
As Charles and I discussed this past Thursday, I think we should continue the posting and canvassing of applicants. I am not confident we currently have candidates with the requisite law enforcement experience and tenure that our department needs. I was happy to see the addition of requesting more background information, including IAD files, training, reviews, etc. for any of our law enforcement candidates. Very important! I have also suggested the following:
-We improve the posting with a headline or lead paragraph to the effect of, "Looking for an experienced law enforcement leader to transform a small city police department into a national best practice". This will get the attention of more qualified applicants, especially those who have been in growth mode throughout their career and are motivated by a challenge.
-We change the minimum rank requirement to Sergeant and above. One of the current candidates being interviewed is a Sergeant, so we've already gone outside of the required parameters. Opening the posting to this level could garner additional, qualified applicants. A sergeant with solid patrol, investigations, and supervisory experience could be a good fit. BTW we have many more people following the posting than have applied, so I am hopeful more of these tentatively interested folks will consider actually applying with an improved posting.
-We continue with the planned interviews of the three candidates on the 17th; however, let's NOT hold a public meet and greet. I think it's premature to do this if we open up the posting again. Also, Charles will not have had time to review the results of the interviews with the search advisory committee members.
I have concerns about how the process has gone so far, including the fact that the search advisory committee is just now being engaged in what were depicted as "finalist" interviews. There was no involvement in vetting the higher number of applications that were submitted. The refined pool of six was reduced to three primarily because two of the internal candidates withdrew their applications from consideration. Net net, it doesn't seem like we've had a robust pool of candidates to consider, which is why I think we need to keep looking.
We owe our city a comprehensive search. We should not have a defeatist attitude that Lago PD has a bad reputation, or we've always had mediocre to poor chiefs in the past, so we won't be able to get someone really good. Let's change that with this critical hire! I am hearing from more of our residents that they believe our community needs to up its game - our city has grown, policing it is more challenging, and we are ready for positive constructive change. We owe it to our community to take the time to try to identify the best possible candidate or candidates. I know we are eager to fill this thing so the required transformation of our PD can begin. From my experience, it's far better to take longer than you might want to place the right person in such a critical position.
