OpenCDA

April 10, 2014

Coeur d’Alene Inches Closer to Selecting New Police Chief

Filed under: Probable Cause — Bill @ 8:22 am

CDAPDLOGO-2Have you seen the five-page vacancy announcement and solicitation inviting applications for Coeur d’Alene’s Chief of Police position?  If not, here’s a link to it.

Job vacancy announcements describe position information including the title, salary, duties, qualification requirements, closing date, and application procedures.  With that in mind, examine closely the City’s police chief vacancy announcement, and pay particular attention to the sections that describe the qualification requirements.  “Requirements” are just that — requirements.  In some cases, the requirements are imposed by state law.

Failing to include all qualification requirements in the vacancy announcement is unacceptable.  That amounts to withholding essential information from prospective applicants, and that reflects badly on the City administration.

Remember when the City of Spokane, Washington, not long ago hired Dr. Frank Straub to be its new Chief of Police?   Spokane hit a snag:  Before being hired, Dr. Straub did not meet the Washington State Criminal Justice Commission’s peace officer certification standards.  Simply put, Dr. Straub did not meet the state’s standards to be a commissioned police officer.  Here is how KXLY-TV described the dilemma.

Now take one more look at Coeur d’Alene’s vacancy announcement.  OpenCdA is unable to find a statement anywhere in it that Coeur d’Alene’s new police chief must either already have or be eligible to attain an appropriate certification from the Idaho Peace Officer Standards and Training Council (POST) within a specified time.

Well, maybe Idaho doesn’t require that.  Maybe POST certification isn’t required in Idaho.

Yes, POST certification is required in Idaho.

Rather than relying on any information oozing out of Coeur d’Alene City Hall, OpenCdA contacted Rhonda Brasher, Certification Specialist, Idaho Peace Officer Standards & Training, in Meridian.  In response to our question, “What is the Idaho-POST certification standard that applicants for Coeur d’Alene’s police chief must meet either before employment or within a defined time period after employment in order to be retained?” Ms. Brasher stated that:

Police officers in the State of Idaho, including the chief of an agency, must be certified within one year of appointment.  There are two certification level options for a chief of a significantly sized agency where his/her duties will be primarily administrative.  CDA Police department meets the criteria to allow the chief the option of applying for a patrol basic or a management certification to meet the statutory requirements of certification in the State of Idaho. [emphasis ours]

Idaho’s statutory requirement for certification is defined in Idaho Code, §19-5109.  See particularly the section of Paragraph (2) which includes this:

… provided, however, that the [POST] council may establish criteria different than that required of other peace officers for certification of city police chiefs or administrators within state agencies having law enforcement powers, who, because of the number of full-time peace officers they supervise, have duties which are primarily administrative.

That statutory requirement was incorporated procedurally into the Idaho Administrative Code at IDAPA 11.01.01, Section 119.02.  To attain the Management Certificate as defined in that Section in lieu of patrol basic certification, Coeur d’Alene’s new police chief and the City will have one year to successfully comply with all of the requirements defined in Section 119.01 .a through .e.

OpenCdA believes that the City’s Human Resources Director failed to satisfactorily perform her duty by not including a succinct but clear statement in the vacancy announcement that all applicants must either already have the required valid Idaho POST certification or will be required to successfully meet the requirements for it and receive it within one year as a condition of continued employment.  Failing to include the statement in the vacancy announcement fails to inform prospective applicants of a qualification requirement.   Omitting such a significant statutory requirement can discourage otherwise qualified applicants, because it reveals the careless and casual attitude of the City towards compliance with state law.

2 Comments

  1. Details, Details. Careless and casual attitude discourage applicants? Wouldn’t you expect Cda to receive more applicants than expected? Perhaps an applicant that absconded with Cda funds will apply! Oh, you qualified your statement by “qualified” (applicants)…never mind. Remember, this is Cda.

    Comment by up river — April 10, 2014 @ 3:22 pm

  2. up river,

    Any interested prospective applicant is going to want to know up front what all the qualification requirements are, and s/he is going to assume that the City would list all of them in the vacancy announcement and solicitation. Prospective applicants who do not meet the qualification requirements will not even likely bother to apply. On the other hand, consider the applicant who is invited for an interview, who travels here at his/her own expense, and then is told of a previously unmentioned requirement that disqualifies him/her. He might be just a smidge ticked off.

    Comment by Bill — April 10, 2014 @ 4:59 pm

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