citizencop
At the top, the Lexington Division of Police doesn’t look like your stereotypical police department. The chief’s top brass are required to read leadership books and report on them during meetings, where they also discuss trends and statistics in area crime. Most of them are working on or have earned master’s degrees.
That level of thought and insight has led three with the rank of deputy chief or assistant chief to leave in the past year to take over as chief in other departments. And in much the same way that business executives try to institute Six Sigma or lean principles at all levels of their organization, they are hoping to develop this leadership mindset through the ranks.
As the Lexington Division of Police looks to hire its next class of roughly 35 officers, they are going to community leaders, church leaders and business leaders to find people who may not have considered themselves as law-enforcement types.
“Don’t look at stereotypes and don’t judge by what you’re going to see on TV; we have officers with all different backgrounds,” said Officer Salina Goins, the division’s recruiting coordinator.
A Lexington native, Goins is a drill sergeant in the reserves and graduated from college with a degree in sociology. After passing on an opportunity to enter the police academy while still in college, she later became a member of the force. She now serves as the division’s chief recruiter.
While some officers enter the program after obtaining a degree in law enforcement, many come from a diverse range of unrelated fields, from cosmetics to real estate, Goins said.
“We’re a broad spectrum; you don’t have to have a certain exact characteristic. You’ve just got to have common sense, and, of course, you’ve got to want to protect and serve your community,” she said.
“Just a high school diploma is all we ask as a minimum requirement. That’s what our academy is for — to teach you the way we want you to be,” Goins said.
After they are accepted into the program, recruits enter the Lexington Division of Police Training Academy, an approximately 32-week course that covers a broad spectrum of law enforcement activities and tests the cadets physically and with written exams.
Goins said the division’s process of taking recommendations from members of the Lexington community is about recruiting the hometown. “They know what it is like not only to live here, but serve here and to serve the public,” she said. “We want to be able to recruit people here. They already have that feel and that knowledge.”
That said, there are applicants from all over Kentucky and even the country who must pass a written and physical exam before participating in the oral boards with a diverse group of officers and a member of the community. (Disclosure: This reporter acted as a community representative during the oral boards for the current class of 23 officers getting ready to graduate from the academy.)
It is typically a four- to 12-month process to apply and start at the academy, Goins said. Though that is not always the case; the current class graduating on Aug. 10 took 18 months because of budget uncertainties. After successfully completing the academy, the new officers are partnered with experienced field training officers for 15 weeks, starting off an 18-month probationary period.
While city budget concerns delayed the hiring of the soon-to-graduate class, the division of police has seen its numbers dwindle. As of presstime, there were 497 sworn officers with the Lexington Police, according to Lt. Brian Maynard. Two of those were slated to retire at the end of July.
The division is authorized to have 555, down 40 after a city council action earlier in the year.
“With the new recruits coming out, it builds momentum with our officers who’ve been out there working as hard and diligently as they can,” Maynard said. “It also gives us some new faces for community partnerships, leadership opportunities for them. And any time you build that network, it just expands.”
They will continue to expand as the next class of 35 gets ready to start in the academy on Aug. 20. The additional class of 35 that the division is currently looking to recruit should start in the academy in February.
Maynard said roughly 25 officers retire each year, and typically four or five recruits drop out of each class.
As for now, the Lexington Division of Police hopes to find a wide array of professionals interested in becoming police.
“From the law enforcement standpoint, we’re leading the industry in the way that we’re doing business — our technology, our equipment, just the way we do business here,” said Sherelle Roberts, the division’s spokeswoman. “If you want to have a law-enforcement experience, this is the place to do it in this area, because we’re doing it at a really high level.”
Those interested can start the application process at www.lexingtonky.gov/recruit.