Salinas police looks to recruit new officers
The Salinas Police Department has been short staffed for years and now they’re looking to hire more officers. The department talked to potential recruits about the job Thursday night.
News Channel 5 spoke to one candidate from Salinas who’d like to join the department.
“Salinas needs good people in the department to make the whole image of a police officer look better. You get this whole rep that’s going around right now, all cops are bad, I want to be one of those guys who shows it isn’t,” said Ben Cooper of Salinas.
Cooper grew up in Salinas, went to the local schools, and said he knows a lot of the good and bad in the city. He wants to help make Salinas even better.
Salinas police have 13 immediate positions to fill and said there will be more openings very soon thanks to Measure G funding.
The department brought out a SWAT vehicle, a CSI truck and police motorcycles to get recruits excited.
The police motorcycles definitely got Cooper’s attention. He hopes to trade in his street bike helmet for a police helmet.
Sgt. John Murray of Salinas police said candidates who are bilingual and from the area have an advantage.
“We want candidates who are from our community, understand it, multiculturalism, bilingual is very important, that would be fantastic,” said Murray.
Although Cooper isn’t fluent in Spanish, he said he took six years of it in school.
“I can understand Spanish, speaking it not so much, but I can get the gist of what goes on with Spanish communities,” said Cooper.
Candidates of all backgrounds showed up and seemed eager to become officers. Starting pay would be around $4,600 to $5,800 a month.
Cooper knows his application will be one of hundreds but he’s optimistic.
“To be in a motor unit, that would be awesome, but it’s a very difficult career field to get a part of but we’ll see what happens,” said Cooper.
The department currently has 133 officers but they hope to hire even more. The deadline to submit an application is Thursday, May 21.
