CLEVELAND — The Columbus Police Department is recruiting police officers in the state of Ohio to join their lateral transfer program.
Recruiting officers spent time in downtown Cleveland on Thursday searching for officers in the area that may want to transfer. Members of the Columbus Police Department have also spent time this week in Toledo, Akron, and Cincinnati recruting potential officers for transfer.
"We're trying to reach out to current officers who may be interested in maybe moving to a different area," recruiting officer Aissha Broussard said.
Broussard says the Columbus Police Department offers higher starting pay for lateral employees and does not require transfers to attend the academy.
The department is offering police officers with less than five years of experience more than $67,000. If you're a police officer with more than five years of experience, your starting pay would be close to $90,000.
The Columbus Police Department says they're not trying to poach other department's officers, but want to just let them know that there's another option.
"We're not trying to impede, we're just trying to give out that opportunity if there are officer's who are interested in exploring other options," says Broussard.
The Columbus Police Department is looking to add 50 lateral transfer officers into their class that starts on July 25. In Cleveland, the division of police attempted a lateral transfer program, but only gained two or three officers from the program.
Columbus police would like the majority of lateral transfer officers to be working in the state of Ohio, so they'd be able to get right into the streets in just a few months.
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