STRUGGLING TO FIND THE NEXT GENERATION

Police departments across the nation, struggling to hire tens of thousands
of new officers in a tight labor market, are having to wade through a
depleted talent pool in which recruits are more likely than ever to have
used drugs, to be out of shape and to lie about their pasts. From New York
City to Phoenix, police officials say it's never been more difficult to find
promising recruits. They blame a booming economy that has created
higher-paying alternatives to police work, forcing recruiters to turn to
candidates who in past years would have been rejected out of hand.

That has led to unprecedented recruit washout rates at a time when police
agencies are rushing to take advantage of the Clinton administration's
six-year, $8 billion grant program aimed at putting 100,000 new cops on the
street by the end of this year. The program will fall short of its goal --
as of June about 68,000 officers had been hired or reassigned to patrol duty
under the initiative - largely because of problems in recruiting enough
qualified officers. Quick Question

Police hires A tight labor market is forcing many police agencies to hire
recruits who may have lied about their pasts or used drugs. Does this
depleted talent pool affect public safety? Yes No Latest results

"Across the country, everybody is talking about the overall shrinking of the
applicant pool," says Thomas Frazier, director of the Justice Department
office that administers the grant program. "It is a major concern."

Federal officials have extended the grant program for two years, so the
pressure is still on departments to beef up their forces.

But reports from several urban departments that have been particularly
aggressive in pursuing new officers reveal some of the new challenges that
recruiters are facing. In part, they also highlight continuing questions
about how law enforcement should deal with post-boomer generations of
recruits who increasingly are likely to have grown up experimenting not just
with marijuana but with more addictive drugs such as cocaine, heroin and
methamphetamines.

Large percentages of police candidates -- from 30% in Chicago to nearly 80%
in Baltimore -- fail to become officers because they admit to recent drug
use or are caught lying about drugs and other aspects of their lives.

In Chicago and Baltimore, hundreds of applicants are eliminated each year
because of such issues. Despite increasing numbers of applicants in
Baltimore -- from 1,800 in 1998 to 3,000 in 1999 -- the city isn't finding
it any easier to hire acceptable candidates.

Across the country, rising washout rates have become particularly noticeable
in the past six years, authorities say, as departments have intensified
their efforts to fill additional jobs funded by the federal grants.

A few police departments immediately disqualify candidates who report any
past drug use. But most now have policies that acknowledge the impact of the
drug culture and tolerate limited marijuana use if it took place several
years before a candidate applied to be a police officer. Recruits who have
used harder drugs are more likely to be rejected automatically.

"As the years go by, the levels of drug use are growing all the time,"
Phoenix police Sgt. Gil Soto says. "We've had some people say, 'Well, it's
just meth (methamphetamines).' Meth is a very dangerous drug."

Soto estimates that about 70% of the hundreds who apply for Phoenix jobs
each year have at least experimented with drugs. Although there are no
comparable statistics, Soto believes the portion of drug-using applicants
has increased in the past five years.

Many of the failures on mandatory polygraph exams stem from questions about
past or ongoing drug use, police say. Baltimore police Sgt. Sherina Long
says that during a recent interview, a candidate flunked after admitting he
had used marijuana the previous night "just to calm his nerves. At least he
was honest about it."

Phoenix recruiting officer Ron Meraz estimates that 30% to 50% of recruits
in that city fail the polygraph test. "I think there are some people who
think they can actually beat the background check," city personnel analyst
Adele Luffey says. "It's amazing sometimes."

More and more, police recruiters also say they are confronted with couch
potatoes.

In Chicago, where police estimate that one in 10 candidates actually make it
through the recruiting process, officials say the number of candidates who
are dropped because of drug-related issues is rising. But they say the
largest portion of applicants they reject can't get past the department's
basic agility requirements.

"We're not talking outlandish, Olympic-qualifying events here," Chicago
police Cmdr. Bill Powers says. "It's a mile-and-a-half run, some sit-ups and
stretching. They even have time to prepare. That's what shocks me."

Some Forces Lower Standards

In some cases, police officials are trying to increase the talent pool of
recruits by lowering admission standards that were raised several years ago
in an effort to improve the quality of officers.

New York City's 40,000-officer police department, which this year fell about
300 hires short of filling 1,600 new academy positions, recently dropped its
minimum age for recruits from 22 to 21. The department also is allowing some
recruits to substitute work experience or the previously required two years
of college.

The changes in admission requirements have raised concerns that the
department might be sacrificing quality in pursuit of warm bodies.

"The public won't catch on (to the struggle to find police recruits) until
it's too late," says Capt. John Driscoll, president of the local Captains
Endowment Association , which represents supervisory-level officers.
"Everything is nice as long as crime is down. But what happens when there
aren't enough police to answer the calls?"

Some police chiefs do not believe that lowering standards is the right
approach.

"I still believe our police officers should have to meet a higher standard,"
says Dave Kurz, police chief in tiny Durham, N.H., whose department's patrol
force has increased from 15 to 18 because of the federal grant program.
"That's more of a problem today because of the conduct that now passes as
acceptable. What I do is try not to hire myself a problem."

For police departments large and small, the stakes in recruiting qualified
officers are huge.

Recruiting decisions being made now likely will determine the quality of
police work for years to come, says Elaine Deck, an analyst for the
International Association of Chiefs of Police .

The ongoing scandal involving Los Angeles police officers who are accused of
fabricating evidence and committing other crimes has put a spotlight on that
department's recruiting.

Deck says recruiting and retaining officers has become a major concern among
police executives, especially given the shortage of qualified candidates.
For the past two years, Deck has hosted tutorials for about 300 police
chiefs at IACP headquarters in Alexandria, Va., and elsewhere as law
enforcement executives have struggled more and more to fill vacancies.

"Almost everywhere I go -- Texas, Georgia, South Dakota and New Hampshire --
I hear the same thing," Deck says. "Police ask (applicants) if they've ever
used drugs and the answer is: 'Of course.' Worse, if they don't admit to it,
(police) find out in the background checks. A lot of chiefs are saying,
'These (applicants) are not from our planet.' "

Like police in several cites, Phoenix recruiters have gone far out of town
in their searches to fill openings. They have traveled throughout the West
and Midwest -- Seattle, El Paso, Colorado Springs, Gallup, N.M., Chicago and
Oxnard, Calif. -- usually testing about 75 prospects at each stop.

Few Prospects Turn Up

In Oxnard one recent weekend, police officials hoped the presence of a U.S.
naval base there would provide a target-rich environment for finding
prospective cops.

The good news: On test day, all but three applicants passed written and
agility exams, the best passage rate of any out-of-state group Phoenix
police have tested this year.

The bad news: Only 22 applicants showed up, even after Phoenix had spent two
weeks and thousands of dollars touting the recruiting effort in radio and
newspaper ads in California.

The only woman among the surviving 19 prospects was Katherine Beck, 27, an
auto-parts delivery person from Simi Valley, Calif., who sported a silver
nose ring and a T-shirt that read "You Suck." Beck acknowledged that she had
been convicted on a drug offense in 1994, and arrested again three years ago
for alleged public drunkenness.

Beck wouldn't elaborate on her troubles with the law, or say what drug was
involved in her conviction. Phoenix accepts applicants who say they have
used marijuana 25 times or less and who have refrained from use for three
years. Any LSD use is grounds for immediate disqualification. Cocaine is
not, as long as applicants have not used since age 18.

Another candidate, car salesman Pedro Leon, 56, had been fired by the U.S.
Postal Service after several suspensions during a six-year government
career. Leon says his career suffered because he filed numerous
discrimination complaints. "It wasn't like I was shooting my supervisor or
anything," Leon says.

Phoenix recruiters had concerns about another recruit who had trouble
filling out the application. In the space requesting a Social Security
number, the applicant copied the number provided on the sample application
form: 123-45-6789.

Meraz and Luffey say they have seen worse: At another recruiting stop, they
say, half the 75 people who took the written test -- a mix of reading
comprehension and observation (no math) -- failed.

In Chicago, where there is a need for about 650 new cops, concerns about
recruits' character have led authorities to make unusually close inspections
during the screening process. Three years ago, Chicago recruits' medical
exams began to include hair follicle testing for drugs and tattoo screening
to check for prior gang involvement.

Cmdr. Powers said the hair tests detect any drug use in the past three
months; urinalysis, by comparison, generally is reliable for detecting drug
use only in the past 30 days. Chicago tolerates some experimental drug use:
no more than three tries of marijuana, as long as the last puff was taken at
least five years ago. Immediate disqualifiers are felony convictions and
recent use of drugs such as cocaine, LSD and methamphetamines.

During applicants' physical exams, Powers says, department physicians are
instructed to note any tattoos, scars or other visible marks. Powers said
the increased attention to physical exams started in 1997 because of an
increase in gang activity. In most departments, including Chicago's, any
past gang affiliation means automatic rejection.

'I'm Surprised I Passed'

Despite her non-conformist appearance, Katherine Beck was, in the eyes of
Phoenix recruiters, a good candidate for their police force.

"I'm completely stoked," Beck said after receiving a score of 75.4 on the
written test (70 is passing) and puffing through the required 1-1/2 mile
run. "I'm completely surprised I passed." She added that she had been
rejected by several California police agencies, including the California
Highway Patrol.

Over the next several weeks Beck, Leon and the other 17 top prospects
Phoenix police identified at Oxnard will undergo background investigations
and polygraph exams, the most intense scrutiny of the application process.

If the typical washout rate holds, one -- maybe two -- will make the cut and
be invited to Phoenix's police academy, where candidates are required to
complete 15 weeks of training.

But recruiter Meraz believes it's possible that up to five of the Oxnard
prospects could make it to the academy.

"This is the cheese," Meraz says of what he called one of his best
recruiting trips this year. "I'm telling you, this is the cheese."