PEORIA, Ill. – Peoria Police Chief Eric Echevarria says his department has some strong goals when it comes to hiring and recruiting.
Echevarria tells WMBD’s Craig Collins he wants to see significantly more females apply and be hired, and there’s a new way he’s encouraging them to apply.
“We put a brand new recruitment video on (the department’s Facebook page), that I think people will be very interested in seeing,” said Echevarria. “It’s all women in the recruitment video. We want women to see themselves in this job. That’s one of our obstacles…how do we get minorities and women in a field that’s predominantly dominated by white males?”
Echevarria says thirteen percent of the department’s employment is women now, with a goal of reaching 30 percent by 2030.
He says the state recently lowered the physical fitness standard for women, but the department is keeping it stronger than that.
“I remind the public, because somebody’s going to go on social media with an ignorant comment, that says we’re lowering the standard. Absolutely not,” said Echevarria. “The state has lowered the physical fitness requirement. But (Sergeant Amy Dotson’s) team that trains for the physical fitness keeps the higher standard.”
Dotson says she believes the 30 percent goal is very doable.
“I would tell you that our numbers (of applications) are trending up,” said Dotson. “We’re seeing more and more women. We’re seeing more and more diversity. I look forward to the day when we have hundreds (of people) applying again. I would say, the more, the merrier. We can’t get enough to get more applicants through the door.”
Dotson says that could go for men as well as women and minorities, with applications on the whole, on the decline.
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