![]() Successful applicants still must complete the agency's law enforcement academy at Hillsborough Community College, then post-academy and field training. Officials emphasized that new guidelines only help more candidates get a foot in the door. Now the rules call for no marijuana use in the last two years, and no other drug use in the last three years. The old policy forbade applicants from using any drugs within the last three years or after age 30. The policy requiring arm tattoos to be covered with neutral clothing has not changed. Now ink in those areas might get a pass depending on the type, size and exact location and whether they can be covered. Tattoos on the hands and neck used to be automatic disqualifiers. Hillsborough's changes also account for the growing popularity of tattoos and society's relaxed views toward marijuana. Petersburg police departments allow three years of active duty military experience in the place of college coursework. The Pinellas, Pasco and Hernando county sheriff's offices require a high school diploma or GED. The new guidelines bring the agency more in line with others in the region that compete for personnel. The education and experience requirements for detention deputy applicants - at least 19 years old with a high school diploma or GED - also remain the same. The new guidelines allow an applicant to qualify with a high school diploma or equivalency diploma and either three years of active military experience or three years working for the same full-time employer. Under the old hiring guidelines, applicants who wanted to join as a law enforcement deputy trainee needed to be 21 years old, with an associate's degree or 60 credit hours of college coursework. The Sheriff's Office used to have the toughest education requirement of any of the larger law enforcement agencies in the Tampa Bay area. "We haven't had the discussion with them yet because we haven't filled the vacancies we have," Lusczynski said. That would require asking the County Commission for more money. To bring the Sheriff's Office to its desired target of 1.6 law enforcement deputies per 1,000 residents, the agency would have to fill its current vacancies and then add 53 more positions in each of the next five years at a total cost of roughly $26 million. ![]() ![]() "We have seen those comments and that is why Sheriff Chronister's primary goal is to hire more deputies and get them out on the street so we're staffed to the maximum and deputies do have the time for proactive work," Lusczynski said. They complain about working a patrol zone alone, often running nonstop from call to call during their shift and feeling burned out. That prompted a rush to enroll in the program, known as DROP, before the changes took effect the following year, Lusczynski said.īut deputies frequently voice their displeasure with staffing levels, at least anonymously, on the online forum. The ranks took another hit in 2011, when the Legislature cut the rate of return that benefits earn while employees participate in the state's five-year deferred retirement program. "We didn't want to be put in a position where we had to terminate anybody because we didn't have the funding," she said. The roots of the personnel shortage date back to about 2007, when then-Sheriff David Gee began to scale back on hiring to grapple with an economic downturn that would become known as the Great Recession, said Chief Deputy Donna Lusczynski. "There are too many people in today's society who maybe can't afford college, but they've proven that they're loyal, they're dependable, they have a track record of making good decisions and they'd make a great deputy sheriff," Chronister said. The goal, officials say, is to cast a wider net in the applicant pool and jump start an effort to tackle a stubbornly persistent deputy shortage that has put stress on patrol deputies, stifled proactive police work and limited the ability to expand the agency's community outreach efforts. The new rules, approved by Sheriff Chad Chronister, also relax the policy on tattoos and prior marijuana use.
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