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Feature -- by Tom Babin
Intended to simulate a limp body, the 100-pound torso bag looks like somebody dumped their tool box onto a heavy tarp, rolled it up and secured it with a strap. Already sweating from the 6-lap obstacle course and the 80-pound push-pull machine, Greg, who didn't want to give his last name, moved on to the torso bag, the final stage in the Physical Abilities Requirement Evaluation (PARE) Dec. 2 in the University of Calgary gym. Greg bent at the knees, grabbed the ends of the bag and heaved it up. The test doesn't allow participants to throw the bag over their shoulder, so Greg kept it at waist height while he rounded the pylon 25-feet away. He returned to the starting point, placed the bag back onto the floor and smiled because he had just passed the last test in his application to join the Calgary Police Service.
Greg was one of about 1,500 people who took up the fight for the right to wear those pants with the red stripe last year, but by finishing the physical test, which he chose to do as the last step, Greg moved significantly closer to that goal. Making it through the 9-stage process, which can take nearly a year to complete and includes everything from memorization exams to polygraph tests, doesn't guarantee Greg a position, but it makes his chances pretty good. The chances of Duane Misura, however, who just started the selection process, may be a little better because of his timing.
Constable Deborah Melnik |
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Misura, a registered Emergency Medical Technician, is in the beginning stages of the Police Service selection process and has a bit of an advantage because he is applying at a time when the Calgary Police Service has just announced a new wave of hirings. Misura, who said he wants to join the Police Service because he is reluctant to move his family out of the city in order to find work as an EMT, completed the initial testing stage of the process in November, which he said was so long, "when (the tester) said 15 minutes left, I could hear everyone's sphincter slap shut." Misura said he got a call back for an interview a few weeks later and was at the PARE on Dec. 2 to see what he would be facing in the future. Though the Police Service has been steadily hiring for the past few years to make up for outgoing officers, this year, Recruiting Constable Deborah Melnik said she is expecting the Service to hire between 100 and 150 new constables, more than at any time in the recent past. What that means for people like Misura, is that the limited number of spots he is fighting has suddenly gotten larger. Good news for Misura, considering in the past, only about 5 percent of applicants ended up as police officers.
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"Everything is integrity, integrity, integrity in policing," she said. "What kind of lifestyle you lead is very important."
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The selection process for the Calgary Police Service is notoriously intense, not only because they want to be sure exactly whom they are giving a gun and a car, but because there are so many applicants. Although the process is tough, Melnik said it is fair and equal for everyone. The selection process gives everyone, regardless of educational experience, race or sex, an equal shot. "People have a misconception that we only hire criminology students," Melnik said. "We don't hire out of one specific educational category. We hire people with a wide variety of backgrounds." The selection process takes everything about a person into account, so there are no specific educational requirements or prerequisites needed to land a job. While a university degree will score points, other things like life experience and honesty are equally important. What an applicant lacks in age, for example, Melnik said can be made up with enthusiasm. Last year, the youngest person hired was a 19 year-old woman when the average age of new constables was about 28. While nothing can guarantee a headstart, Melnik said there are a few areas that are scrutinized more closely than others during the selection process.
"Everything is integrity, integrity, integrity in policing," she said. "What kind of lifestyle you lead is very important." To become a member of the Police Service, according to the recruiting information package, "There is an expectation that applicants will have led an exemplary lifestyle for at least three years prior to applying to be an officer." That means that any criminal behaviour in the past three years will be reviewed by the testers - including crimes the applicant wasn't arrested for. The application process includes background checks, intense psychological examinations and a polygraph, or lie detector, test, so Melnik said trying to hide anything, like illegal forays in the past, is difficult. Though it may be tempting for an applicant to conveniently forget to mention a dabble into lawlessness undertaken during high school, it's better to come clean early than have it revealed later in the process. "We ask for absolute full disclosure," Melnik said. "If we find any kind of dishonesty, then the applicant is gone."
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"If we find any kind of dishonesty, then the applicant is gone."
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Melnik said the Police Service is always accepting applications, so there is no deadline for this latest round of hirings. She said serving with the Police is not a job for everyone, and not a job to do for the money, but for those who make it, becoming a police officer can be an effective way to serve the community. A brief self-questionnaire about the qualities essential to the role of a police officer is available with the application and recruitment information package to help applicants make a choice about joining the Police Service. Melnik said honesty and integrity are the most important qualities in becoming a police officer, even more than education and experience, so, anyone possessing those traits, and the ability to lug a heavy bag around the gym, stands a good shot at joining the Calgary Police Service.
Recruitment information and application forms can be picked up from the Calgary Police Service recruitment office at 133 - 6th Ave. S.E. If you live outside of Calgary, call (403) 268-8483.
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