CLEVELAND — 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.
Then there's a physical agility or fitness test that includes a required number of pushups and sit-ups based on age and gender, plus a mile and a half run.
Police investigators then conduct a background check. Collier says if applicants have a criminal history that includes a felony or domestic violence charge, they are automatically disqualified. Misdemeanors and a poor driving record don't necessarily make one ineligible, but investigators would look into those.
"When they do the selection process, it's really just the whole person approach where they are just trying to find the best people," Collier said. "And a lot of times, you know, we tell people, 'You don't have to have the cleanest background.' It's just they're looking for people who actually want to work for the city of Cleveland and want to be involved and help out the community."
Finally, there is a medical and psychological exam. During that test, a doctor determines whether a potential candidate is physically or mentally fit to serve.
Slife says he wants to understand the "decisions that are being made in the hiring process within City Hall that might be hurting our efforts to fill our ranks, and there's a lot of anecdotal evidence that there are people who are qualified and would be good police officers who were ultimately not hired."
During the interview with Collier, we asked of it was it possible that someone meets all of the criteria for all of those steps and still is not selected.
"No," Collier responded. "If a person meets all the criteria and makes it to the selection table, they will be selected."
But he also acknowledged that in previous years when they received many more applicants, "sometimes a candidate is passed over and it's not because there was anything wrong. It was just part of the process."
"So in that case, we'll encourage them to reapply and come back through the process," he added.
Still, Slife says residents have reached out to him with questions about why they were not selected. Bibb also stated he has heard from people who didn't know why they weren't given the opportunity to go through the police academy.
The Department of Public Safety says 35 officers graduated from the Cleveland Police Academy in 2021, 2022 had 88 graduates, and in 2023, only 21 officers made it through the academy. WKYC reached out to the mayor's office about the commitment Bibb made to transparency, and they responded:
"We have had initial conversations with the Department of Public Safety and the Division of Police on ways we can improve transparency before, during, and after the hiring process — so that if an individual is not selected to move forward, both the Administration and applicants themselves have information that may explain why that is the case.
It's important to note that the disparity between applicants and those who end up being hired is not unique to Cleveland. In 2022, the City of New Orleans had nearly 2,600 applicants — of which only 10% moved forward to the background investigations phase and only 1% ended up being hired. Those who moved forward but were not hired were for reasons that included criminal history, drug use, suspended driver's licenses, incomplete statements, and other reasons reported by the City of New Orleans.
"Our discussions remain ongoing and we look forward to increasing the level of transparency here in Cleveland to better inform our recruitment efforts."