California Police Chief- Fall 2013 CPCA_2018_Winter Magazine-FINAL | Page 35

RECRUITMENT & TESTING
IN THE 21ST CENTURY
By Joe De Ladurantey, Chief of Police, Retired
We tend to reflect on our
careers and then we fast forward
to today. What has changed in
our profession? Much in the deliv-
ery of police services from technology,
communication, community engage-
ment and a host of other elements that
make our chosen profession such a
noble one. Our profession has made
more changes, even in the past 10
years, than many other professions
and we continue to change to meet the
expectations of our communities and
the public.
What has not changed enough in
the last few decades are our recruit-
ment, testing and selection methods.
While we continue to work on de-
veloping smart practices to recruit
qualified candidates who are reflective
of those in our community, we still test
only for reading and writing skills and
not for the cognitive skills required in
today’s challenging times. There needs
to be greater emphasis on examining
a candidate’s critical thinking ability,
communication skills, team orien-
tation, restraint in use of authority,
ethical orientation or organizational
orientation, in addition to reading and
writing skills.
NATIONAL TESTING NET-
WORK (NTN) and the California Po-
lice Chief’s Association (CPCA) have
formed a Strategic Partnership which
will assist member agencies with
local, regional and national candidate
testing solutions that address the
challenges of recruitment, testing and
selection issues faced by our depart-
ments.
NTN has adopted a 21st century
business model that reduces testing
and recruitment costs, increases diver-
sity, enhances the quality and quantity
of candidates streamlines your testing
processes and delivers an examination
result that has been fully validated.
With testing sites all over the country,
the NTN on-line data base provides
over 75, 000 public safety candidates,
gives your department a continuous
testing option, rapid scoring results,
all with customer service support for
you and the candidates.
If you are struggling to obtain
high quality candidates in the testing,
training and career development, just
ask some of the California agencies al-
ready using NTN. San Francisco, Oak-
land, San Jose, Long Beach, Downey,
Ventura, Fremont, Mountain View,
Napa, Emeryville, Weed, Union City,
Fullerton, Montclair, Pleasant Hill,
Salinas and other cities have embraced
the testing methods and improved
candidate pools that NTN provides.
As you can see, size of agency and
community population do not matter.
This is not a sales pitch. As a
retired Chief of Police, I wish I had the
opportunity to use this cost-effective
tool in the agencies I had the pleasure
of working for. I recently attended a
career day for a local college in San
Diego. Police departments from the
Los Angeles area, Central California
and elsewhere were there in full force
with uniformed personnel passing out
literature to college students. This is a
considerable cost to agencies. In tabu-
lating the cost for just one department,
it could have paid the annual licens-
ing fee of NTN for four years! With
multiple job postings and preliminary
screening of applicants, NTN has
advanced solutions for today’s public
safety challenges.
The best way to see if NTN can
assist in recruiting and testing for your
department is to go to the website at
www.nationaltestingnetwork.com
or contact NTN directly. Even better,
talk to those agencies who already use
NTN. CPCA members receive 15% off
the already very reasonable fees for
the first year of licensing.
In addition to entry-level testing
for police officer, NTN offers testing
for Dispatch and Corrections as well
as Firefighter. Promotional testing,
background investigations and poly-
graph examination services are also
provided. With today’s tough recruit-
ing environment, let NTN help you
get the best candidates possible. ■
WINTER 2018 | California Police Chief
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