Hiring & Training

This is a challenging profession which requires very unique individuals in order to excel. Many people have no desire to get into the public safety profession. Applicants must be willing to do rotating shift work indefinitely, be very service oriented, be able to withstand verbal abuse and at times physical assaults, while remaining professional and service oriented. The profession tends to get fewer applicants each year who want to take on this challenge. Our process attempts to attract a diverse applicant pool and seeks to identify those individuals who would be able to balance the competing interest of the profession well. We absolutely recognize the strength which comes from diverse backgrounds and points of view. Our process includes written aptitude tests, physical agility tests and multiple interviews with panels. We try to identify the very best applicants for our community and agency. The highest ranked candidates undergo an extensive background investigation, which is exhaustive and spans several months. We learn as much about the person as possible. Successful candidates then go on to additional written psychological testing, coupled with additional interviews by a Psychologist who specializes in law enforcement applicants. Final hiring decisions are made once all available information has been gathered and includes recommendations from the Psychologist and the Background Investigator. 

Once hired as a police officer recruits are in different phases of training for 12-18 months. Sixteen weeks of that is spent at a live-in police academy with full-time instruction. An additional 20+ weeks of that is spent with a series of different training officers who monitor, train and evaluate every aspect of the recruit’s performance, every day. During the first 18 months of training and probation, the recruit police officer is not afforded typical union representation. It’s not uncommon for recruit police officers to leave prior to completing the Field Training and Evaluation Program, or prior to completing their 18-month probationary period. It’s during that 18-month period that both the recruit and the agency get to evaluate how well suited they are for a career with the Milwaukie Police Department. 

The city is regularly recruiting for police officer candidates who share our vision of a just, equitable, and inclusive community. Please check our jobs posting at milwaukieoregon.gov/jobs to see if we currently have an opening.