BROOKLYN PARK, Minn. -- Thousands of Minnesotans are struggling to find work in these tough economic times. It seems no profession is flush with opportunities. Right now, hundreds are learning that getting a foot in the door of a police department or sheriff's office is downright difficult.
"I haven't seen it this competitive, no," Mylan Masson, Director of Law Enforcement at Hennepin Technical College explained. "St. Paul is now hiring and I would suspect they're going to get close to 1,000 people applying for positions."
Hastings Police Chief Paul Schnell recently posted 1 officer opening in his department. In a few days, he had 303 applications sitting on his desk. "It's very common," Masson explained.
Twenty-three-year-old Josh Nelson of Eagan is just hours away from his final school police test and he's ready to hunt for an officer job. He knows he'll compete against 300 plus people for any job he tries to get in the metro. "When you go to smaller towns, kind of on the outskirts of the state, your numbers drop a little bit [they are] maybe 150-200, it's pretty competitive," he noted.
According to the Minnesota Board of Peace Officer Standards and Training, 761 candidates passed the state's final law enforcement test and 622 got a peace officer's license in 2005. Essentially, that means they got a job. By 2010, 807 people passed the test and only 390 of them got jobs.
Masson says a lot of departments are just fighting to keep the positions they have. If they lose an officer, they usually lose the position out of the budget. And the number of applicants keeps growing. Plus, older officers are reluctant to retire.
"They need the health insurance or they're not quite sure what is going on with their pension. They may have put in pensions into their 401k and that dropped so drastically that now they need to stay longer," Masson said.
There is a silver bullet, or silver lining, for hopeful and qualified candidates like Nelson. "While I'm not getting completely hung up on Minnesota, I know there are other options available," he said.
"You certainly can get a job out of state, if you're looking for a job out of state," Masson concluded, adding that states out west and down south are looking for plenty of good police officer candidates.
The jobs are out there, just not in Minnesota. Masson also noted that there is at least a 100 person waiting list for her program every semester. There are a lot of people who have recently been laid off that are now hoping to begin a career in law enforcement.
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