Police To Interview Patrol Officer Candidates

By Andrew Gorosko

Police plan to hold preliminary job interviews next week with 28 candidates for three police patrol officer vacancies, Police Chief Michael Kehoe said this week.

The pool of 28 people to be interviewed was culled from a field of 52 job applicants, who had taken a police physical agility test, the chief said.

That group of 52 had been selected from a field of 112 people, who recently took a written examination for the post of patrol officer, he said.

“We’ve gotten some good candidates,” Chief Kehoe told Police Commission members at an August 5 session.

The police department has reserved two seats in the state’s municipal police academy that is scheduled to start in October, Chief Kehoe said.

There are three police patrol officer vacancies. They were created by the departures of officers Michael Brokaw, Raymond Thompson, and Ole Ekeland. Both Mr Brokaw and Mr Thompson were longtime officers. Mr Ekeland worked only briefly for the police department last fall.

The job interviews next week will be conducted by a panel of police officers from other police departments. Additional interviews will be done by the Police Commission.

The Police Commission hires people to become police patrol officers based on the results of a series of tests. Extensive background checks, a physical examination, psychological testing, and lie detector testing are used to screen job candidates.

In another matter, Chief Kehoe showed commission members a sketch of traffic signal improvements that the state Department of Transportation (DOT) proposes for the heavily used intersection of Main Street, Sugar Street, South Main Street, and Glover Avenue. The proposed changes are intended to improve traffic flow through the congested area. Those improvements would be made in about two years, Chief Kehoe said.