Breaking down Cleveland's hiring process for police officers

Cleveland’s budgeted number of police positions is set to drop again this year amid new questions about transparency in the city's hiring of officers and why more applicants aren't making it to the police academy.
City Councilman Charles Slife started looking into the issue last year after applicants reached out wondering why they weren't hired. He was surprised to learn the police department received 939 officer applications in 2022, but he says the first group to graduate out of that pool was only 11 officers.
"[I was] very surprised," Slife, of Ward 17, told 3News. "What we've heard often repeated that people just aren't interested in law enforcement careers and especially people of color aren't interested in law enforcement careers doesn't really bear out based on who is initially applying."
Slife raised concerns about why more applicants aren't being hired with Mayor Justin M. Bibb at a City Council budget hearing last month. Bibb agreed there needs to be more transparency in the hiring process and committed to do better.
"I will be very frank with you: We have not done a good job of that level of detailed accountability and transparency as it relates to our hiring process," the mayor admitted.
WKYC went directly to the police recruitment team to get some answers, and we learned that most applicants often don't even make it to the first step in the hiring process.
"Anybody who is interested in serving the public, the community, anybody who has a desire to serve really is a good applicant," Detective Felton Collier said.
But it starts with taking a civil service exam, a national test that is required for many police departments across the country. However, Collier says most don't take it.
"Let's say, for example, I have 200 applicants but only 75-80 of them took the test," he explained. "Those other 125 don't even count, because they never took the test."
3News looked at the numbers for 2023. Last year, the police department received 1,299 applications, most in the last quarter of the year when the city announced pay increases and bonuses. Out of those applicants, just 691 got to the first step and took the civil service exam. Fewer than half of those who took the exam passed it.
Matt Rascon reports. --
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[@steeze770]

Detective collier is a very transparent guy and is very respectable