By Darcy Ellis
Editor

3-15-2008

Depending on the outcome of current applicant reviews, the Inyo County Sheriff’s Department could be maneuvering toward full staffing levels for the first time in almost a decade.

Sheriff Bill Lutze is preparing, in coming weeks, to offer several correctional officer jobs to a number of candidates who have cleared all applicable tests. The CO job offers will be followed by similar overtures to potential deputy sheriffs, all in an effort to fill vacancies that have been plaguing the department for quite some time.
Lutze’s potential hires are coming on the heels of physical agility testing held Tuesday for CO recruits – the first of its kind ever conducted by Inyo County.
The possibility of filling long-standing vacancies also follows an ambitious and successful recruitment effort by the Inyo County Sheriff’s Department over the past several months, which resulted in 14 CO applicants vying for five positions at the Inyo County Jail and 14 other recruits applying for two deputy sheriff vacancies.
The staffing gaps exist in part because of the loss of peace officers to other law enforcement agencies in the Eastern Sierra offering more competitive pay, and the fact that fewer Californians are pursuing law enforcement careers in general.
But with the interest now there on the part of recruits, according to Lutze, the Sheriff’s Department wants to ensure it gets the best of those cuurent applicants into uniform, which is where the agility testing comes in to play.
“In the past when people were going to the academy, physically, some of them were not ready to go,” Lutze explained. “It’s a physically demanding academy,” he continued, and the ones not suited for such physical rigors would flunk out of a program that Inyo County was paying a pretty penny for them to attend.

Not only would the county’s money be wasted, but so would time and effort that could have been spent persuing and securing more promising recruits.
Requiring applicants to go through physical agility testing beforehand helps eliminate individuals early on who might not yet physically be ready for a demanding law enforcement career.
Eight applicants underwent the agility testing on Tuesday, which included a series of rigorous, standardized, timed drills and exercises. Participants were required to successfully complete sit-ups, push-ups, an agility course, a dead-weight drag and a 1.5-mile run within certain time limits.
Those who made it to this week’s physical agility testing have already passed an equally taxing written exam, and if they made the grade on Tuesday will now be subjected to thorough background investigations.
Lutze plans to interview those who pass the background, he explained, and then select the top candidates to undergo medical physicals and comprehensive psychological examinations.
The applicants still remaining at the end of the series of tests will then be invited to the academy on the county’s dime.
Of the 14 applicants who initially expressed an interest in working as a CO at the Inyo County Jail, 12 went on to take the written test. Nine of them passed the exam, with eight going on to take the agility test Tuesday.
Deputy sheriff applicants will be taking their physical agility tests within the next two weeks.
While each step in the hiring process, for whatever reason,  further reduces the field of applicants, Lutze expressed hope in the current batch of candidates.
“We’ve really been pushing and pushing and pushing to recruit, and we’ve got great people” interested in filling the vacant positions, he explained.
Lutze’s enthusiasm is understandable, considering not only the fact it has been approximately eight years since the Sheriff’s Department was fully staffed, but also the effort he put into recruiting the applicants.
In addition to manning a booth at both the Tri-County Fair and annual Home Show in Bishop, the Sheriff’s Department circulated job fliers in areas where there’s a greater likelihood of success.
Lutze targeted areas like Las Vegas and Bakersfield, for example, that are not too far from Inyo County so that recruits can stay close to family.
Recruitment efforts also played on the Eastern Sierra’s appealing combination of scenery and lifestyle opportunities.
“Us being the ‘Recreation Capitol,’ so to speak – that’s drawn a lot of applicants,” Lutze said.
The sheriff also did some old fashioned beating of the bushes to find recruits. “I personally contacted other agencies and talked to people there who were interested in leaving,” he noted.
“It’s been a lot of footwork and talking to the right people and getting the fliers out to the right locations,” Lutze continued.
The Sheriff’s Department still has quite some time to go before it can definitively say whether those efforts have paid off.
The top correctional officer recruits will be required to attend nine weeks of academy training; deputy sheriff recruits, six months.
“This whole process, from the time a person applies for the job to the time they can be on their own – for deputy sheriffs it’s 11 months and for a CO it’s about eight months – is a long one,” he explained.
But again, Lutze is optimistic, and noted the time will be well worth the benefits. Once all the CO positions in the jail are filled, sheriff’s deputies who have been working at the detention facility to cover staffing gaps will be freed for patrol duties, he explained.
Having enough deputies back on the street also means that certain projects in limbo can move forward.
For example, it has been the hope that a sergeant currently covering patrol duties can get back into the jail to run the Work Release Alternative Program, which allows potential jail inmates convicted of non-violent, low-level crimes to work off their sentences instead of consuming money and space by sitting in Inyo County Jail.
In the meantime, the department will continue working to fill those empty uniforms throughout the spring.
If all goes as planned, Lutze said, “we’ll be full by June.”