THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 17, 1995 TAG: 9505170256
SECTION: MILITARY NEWS PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DALE EISMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines
Like many of his former comrades-in-arms, Virginia Beach police officer Russell Christe found law enforcement a natural choice for a second career when he left the Navy.
He likes the ``quasi-military, structured-type environment'' that goes with police work. ``I want to be outside,'' Christe said. ``I want to do something that's exciting.''
A SEAL who had been stationed in Hampton Roads, Christe went to work for the Virginia Beach Police in 1985. He returned to the Navy four years later, served in the Persian Gulf War, and then came back to the Police Department in 1992.
Now the Clinton administration is hoping to encourage thousands more veterans to follow Christe's career path by offering local police departments $15 million in incentives to hire them.
A ``troops-to-cops'' program announced earlier this month by the Pentagon and the Justice Department aims to help those leaving the military find police departments that are looking for people with their skills. For each qualified veteran hired, the feds will pay up to $5,000 in training costs.
For the veterans, the program's key feature is a computer database that includes job listings from 7,700 law enforcement agencies. They can see where openings are expected, what kinds of skills are in demand, and get basic information about pay and benefits, said Leesa Brown, a Justice Department spokeswoman.
The veterans also can put information about themselves into the database, where it can be tapped by police department recruiters, Brown said.
At $5,000 per recruit, the $15 million pool would help train only 3,000 people. But Brown said Justice Department studies indicate the money should be sufficient to meet the police job market's demand for veterans this year.
And not every training program costs $5,000 per recruit, she added, so the $15 million could be stretched over more than 3,000 officers.
The program's rules require that the new officers get training in ``community policing,'' a growing branch of law enforcement that puts emphasis on foot and bicycle patrols and other efforts to get officers directly involved in crime-ridden neighborhoods.
Adopted in different forms by different communities, the approach ``has knocked down a lot of the major problem areas'' in Virginia Beach, Christe said. ``It's taken some of our fun away,'' he joked.
Christe, now 36 and carrying the rank of ``master police officer,'' said he had no difficulty getting hired in Virginia Beach when he left the Navy. And the city, which like many localities regularly recruits officers from the military, essentially held his job open during the three years of his second stint in uniform.
He's stayed because ``I'm comfortable here,'' and has family in the area, Christe said. But departments in many other communities offer bigger paychecks than those in Hampton Roads, and the program could help departing service members find those localities, he said.
The initiative is part of the Clinton administration's plan to step up the war on crime by putting an additional 100,000 police on the streets.
All South Hampton Roads police departments have qualified to participate, though they must apply for the training funds and there are limits on the numbers of officers in each community whose training can be financed through the program. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
RICHARD L. DUNSTON/Staff
Russell Christe, 36, said he had no difficulty getting hired by the
Virginia Beach Police Department when he left the Navy.
Graphic
THE PROGRAM
Service members or police agencies seeking more information on
the ``troops-to-cops'' program can contact the Pentagon's Office of
Transition Services at 1-800-727-3677. The program will help pay the
police training costs of veterans honorably discharged after Oct. 1,
1993, and hired after Jan. 1, 1995. The $15 million pool is being
distributed to localities on a first-come, first-served basis,
though there are limits on how many service members each locality
can hire under the program.
by CNB