So is it 163 NY officers or 20?
Question: Are you comparing apples to apples? I don't doubt that "raw" recruits might pass at a fairly low rate, but I'd think that people who are already officers in NYC would have a much higher pass rate.
Unless the pool of NYPD police throw off the acceptance ratio. If you are going to compare two populations, please include where the applicants were selected from and for what positions. Also of interest would be the relative pay packages for the SPD, NYPD and National averages for a comparable city.
I'd have to agree with @2. If we're comparing Joe-off-the-street with NYPD, I'd expect a higher ratio of hires from the NYPD pool.
I believe the times says 163 of 750 were officers applying for transfers. That being said, having previous experience does not necessarily guarantee they'll be able to pass physicals, etc
If they are wanting to leave NYPD to come join the SPD, that means they are unhappy where they are. If they like their job and they're good at it, one wonders why they want to move to Seattle. To me, 3 possibilities come to mind: (a) they don't like dirty huge NY, and want to move to hippy green Seattle, (b) they'll get paid more here (or their pay will go farther due to lower cost of living), or (c) they are incompetent or unqualified douchebags, and are trying to engineer a transfer before they get fired or furloughed from their current position.
So, no, I don't think that a bunch of disaffected NY cops is necessarily going to result in a higher pass rate than other potential pools.
Good point that experienced cops are more likely to pass and actually get hired.
@5 - the original articles explained that NYPD is laying off 1100 cops over the next year ... due to union rules those will be the newest hires so nothing to do with incompetence, etc.
@all - one last point not covered in the article.... for every 10 new graduates from academy 6 or 7 will not make it through the extended training and review periods
NYPD has the worst starting pay for officers in the country, considering the cost of living there. Some state bureaucrat recently slashed it from around $40k to $25k -- an insulting wage in America's most expensive city, and more comparable to some backwoods hick town. New York's recruiting woes are unbelievable, much worse than ours.
Being a cop is dangerous, dirty, and disgusting work. You spend more time filling out paperwork and rousting bums who've just shit themselves and are about to vomit down the front of your shirt than you do glamor stuff. Good officers are heading to the 'burbs, where the worst on offer is Junior driving Dad's Beamer into a ditch.
NY has more cops per capita than anybody. I have an analysis of this on my blog -- now with a workbook you can download! They also have a very low crime rate.
It's almost like the presence of police officers (even if they're low paid) has the effect of reducing crime. Who knew?
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