The Elmwood Park Police Department is looking to hire an experienced officer and the salary is a bit arresting.
According to a post on the department’s Facebook page – which is also reposted on the village’s page – the police department is hiring for a lateral officer through its Lateral Transfer Program, with a starting salary of just over $90,000 a pension and additional benefits, including tuition reimbursement and “comprehensive continued training.”
“We’re recruiting officers that are full-time, that have worked at least a minimum of a year, that are coming here with experience. In Elmwood Park our salary of $90,913 is (comparable with) all the towns of our size in our area here so it’s very competitive,” police Chief Andrew Hock told Pioneer Press.
The spot available on the Elmwood Park force came as a result of another officer leaving the department as part of a lateral move to another one, he said.
Elmwood Park is a town of about 24,500 residents, according to U.S. Census data.
The job post states Elmwood Park already has 37 sworn police personnel.
A police information packet on the website of the nearby town of River Forest indicates that police department’s starting salary as of May 1, 2023, is $89,826 for a lateral certified police officer with more than five years of qualifying service and $85,844 for a lateral officer with two years to five years of qualifying service.
A candidate for the Elmwood Park job would need to have a minimum of one year of full-time experience, the job post states.
Hock further explained what a lateral hire is versus other recruitment.
“It’s an officer that’s already been hired by another police department, already been certified and went to a police academy,” he said, noting that police academy training in Illinois is about 400 hours.
He said hiring a lateral police officer offers several advantages.
“An officer who got hired today may not be ready for patrol on their own until June or July. A lateral is going to eliminate the three-month period for the academy. It’s going to expedite that officer being counted on the street or answering calls so it’s a big time-saver,” the chief said.
As for other nearby towns, the Better Government Association’s Illinois Public Salaries Database lists a median base salary for other nearby police employees in 2020 of $79,775 in Franklin Park, $66,351 in Schiller Park and $85,613 in Northlake.
“In recent years – really the last five, six, seven years – enrollment for police departments has dramatically dropped, especially around COVID and everything else. In Elmwood Park, our last test we might have had 18 applicants and our list (of eligible candidates) had seven names on it,” Hock said.
He said the eligibility list for police officer positions is established approximately every two years after candidates are tested, and is done by Schaumburg-based Comprehensive Options for Police Selection and Firefighter Individual Readiness Evaluations Personnel Testing Service – for fire department applicants.
“When I got hired, we had like 244 people apply and take the test, and I think 100 people were on the eligibility list. Thirty years later, it’s dramatically decreased and it’s gotten to the point where it’s within 10 to 30 people taking police tests,” Hock said.
According to Hock, a new police hire from the eligibility list would start at Elmwood Park’s base salary of $66,010 and receive longevity raises every six months to bring the salary to $90,913 after a 30-month period.
“It’s a small pool of people that are applying so the idea – and it wasn’t Elmwood Park’s idea, it was just really nationwide in law enforcement – was to introduce lateral police hires,” he said.
Hock said possible reasons for an officer to laterally move to another police department could include wanting to work in an area with less crime, a department – such as Elmwood Park – not requiring residency and a pay increase.
Jessi Virtusio is a freelancer.
