Oxford Looking For New Police Officer From Smaller Than Usual Pool

BY HANNAH JOLLY, SKYLAR DUBELKO and ALTHEA PERLEY
Miami University journalism students

Oxford, Ohio, residents can expect to see a new officer patrolling the cobblestone streets soon. The Oxford Police Department is filling a new officer position. OPD is hiring in hopes to keep its number of employed officers at 22 because there will be an officer retiring next October.

Kevin Gardner, a Butler County taxpayer, has ideas about what type of police officer OPD needs.
“They’re not just going to hire anybody," Gardner said. "They’re going to hire someone who really knows what they’re doing, who’s been on the job for a while, that has a good record of what they’re doing, dealing with the people, dealing with the issues.”

OPD is looking at applicants from police academies and people with criminal justice backgrounds with applications due Saturday.

That is when OPD will give applicants a written test, with physical agility portion. The department will then conduct interviews with the top five applicants and run background investigations, polygraph tests and psychological evaluations.

Position harder to fill

With police being killed in the line of duty like they recently were in Iowa, these previously highly sought after positions are becoming hard to fill.

OPD Chief John Jones is seeing this change as he conducts the hiring process.

“Right now there’s a national crisis with finding applicants and that's probably one of the most frustrating things," Jones said. "When I first came to the police department, there were probably 125 applicants for this job and now with our most recent test, only 27 people applied.”

Savanna Osborn, a Brick Street employee who regularly works with the police force, hopes OPD will hire an officer who is more strict.

"Police are pretty lenient around here since it’s a college town," Osborn said. "I feel like most of the calls they get or problems they get are college student-related problems. Maybe someone who enforces the rules a little bit better.”

Due to the civil service rules, OPD cannot share the names of the applicants that have shown potential.

Photo: OPD is looking for a new officer. -- Contributed by City of Oxford.

This story was produced by students in Miami University broadcast journalism class.