
file photo by Boyd Loving
Reader says a decorated family history of public service, did everything right in the hiring process but they just had the wrong last names
How to become a ridgewood police officer:
1. Resident of ridgewood
2. Score well on the civil service exam
3. Village council has to ok recruits in the budget, which are put into almost every pd budget.
4. Pass psych, medical, background
Top scores who want the job always get hired. Now with that being said, from what I’m aware, the only people to ever get passed over or skipped, (excluding deferrals) from the lists in the last 20+ years, were done so by upper management not in law enforcement, (gabbert). So where in that process can the chief pick his guy. (Insert nepotism conspiracy theory here) Test scores tell the story. The Chief has no control over that.
The fact is, when kids grow up in a family with members in police or fire, they have a passion to follow that career path. Civil service was put in place to make sure it is earned and not political, (test score). Want it bad enough, take a test prep course. It’s not a perfect system, but look at towns that give their own test. I can see it being more of problem there.
“Nepotism is rampant in police and fire” is only said to stir up the mob of uninformed police & fire haters. It sounds like these two young men, with a decorated family history of public service, did everything right to get to where they were in the hiring process, but in this case, they just had the wrong last names, weird.
FYI, nepotism in the private sector “is rampant.” No wait a minute, that’s just called networking for your son or daughter
