[rpoz-29]

For whatever reason my youngest son wants a career in law enforcement. He graduated from college on the Dean's List with a BA in criminal justice. Should be a slam-dunk, right? When filling out the mountain of paper work that goes with the application, he mentioned a night where he and a couple of friends were coming home from the gym. One of them found some paint balls in the floor of the car and they tossed them at some street signs as they drove past. He also told them of a couple of parties he had in college where there was booze and minors in attendance. He can not get a job. He was told that because he was almost 21 when he threw the paint balls, and over 21 when the parties were held, AND he had already declared his major, he showed poor judgement. I agree, it was stupid, but DAMN! He applied for a job in Chesterfield County where he had two ex officers and a circuit court judge, (who have known him since birth), all send letters recommending him for the job. The county never even contacted them as references. The county has held job fairs in New York, Ohio, Michigan that I know of pleading for officers, but won't hire someone born, raised, educated, in the same county. All the while they advise the citizens to "Keep your tax dollars" at home. I know of 3 other kids this has happened to, and all 3 eventually got jobs in Law Enforcement. Oddly enough, once they were out of the academy, 2 of them were contacted by Chesterfield for an interview. Neither went, and one is now in the Secret Service, and the other is a Detective with the city of Richmond. Sorry to be long winded, but this is the only forum where I think enough of the members opinions to write.

This post has been edited by rpoz-29: Dec 15 2007, 03:16 AM

[Milkman]

Hey man, I used to live in Chesterfield County, and I used to work in the Public Safety field, and the best advice I can give is that these jobs are as much political as they are skill or anything. Think about how the Richmond Times Dispatch would love to do a story on an all-American kid with great grades and the right degree wants to stay in his home community and protect the citizens he's known all his life, and he can't get a call back because that belittles the evil county's contention that they can't find anyone, and they maybe don't need to spend tens of thousands of tax dollars on out of state recruiting junkets, etc. This story writes itself, and would be really embarrasing to the county. Since he wouldn't want to work there after that story broke anyway, the story sounds a lot better if he gets on with the Feds or Richmond (Va Beach and Arlington are the two best forces I know of in the state) and this story has an even better footnote. Local boy's stills valued away from the community, not locally. Why again are taxpayer dollars being used on these recruiting trips? Does someone in HR have a girlfriend in NY? :-)

These municipalities need to realize they serve the residents not the other way around.
-jeff