GRIFFITH - The Griffith Police Department has had a difficult time attracting female and minority applicants and is working to solve that. Shortly after Greg Mance, became Chief of the department in 2013, he discovered how few minoriti es and females had an interest in applying for the police department. Many of those who did apply had a difficult time with the application process.
"And once we started with the process I noticed that because of the low numbers that we had of females minorities, they didn't make it very far in our process, " Mance said. "Whether it be the written test, which is a very unique test in law enforcement or the physical agility test, which again it's something that if you're unfamiliar with what kind of testing it's going to be or if you haven't done some of the testing, whether you kept up on your situps and pushups or things like that, if can be a very challenging test."
Mance said the few females and minorities who did apply were unfamiliar with the testing process, so consequently they did poorly on the exam and didn't make it to the final interviews. Griffith PD and other municipalities sought to give those applicants a better chance by helping them become more familiar with the testing and application process. Mance approached IUN's Center for Urban and Regional Excellence and the Crossroads YMCA and launched the Police Candidate Training program in 2015. Mance said the program called "Prepare to Serve and Protect," was successful and resulted in the hiring of the second female officer in the Griffith Police Department's history.
Another session of the police candidate training program is scheduled for Saturday, May 19th from 8a.m. until 2p.m. at Indiana University Northwest. People can register on the Crossroads YMCA website.
