The recruitment window for the police commanders, sergeants, and officers for the new Lathrop Police Department is officially open.
Starting today, the City of Lathrop will officially be accepting applications to fill its first-ever standalone police department – a process that is already several months underway with the announcement of the city’s first police chief coming soon.
According to the flier announcing the positions and the application window, police officers in Lathrop will be paid between $92,248 to $112,128 depending on experience. Sergeants will make between $109,658 and $133,289 while commanders will make between $140,358 to $170,607 – commensurate with experience.
The city is looking to hire two commanders, six sergeants, and 24 police officers during this round of hiring.
The application window for commanders will be open from today through Oct. 18 while the window for sergeants will be open from today through Nov. 12. The window for all applications will close on Nov. 22 when the cutoff for police officers becomes official.
Lathrop – which has interviewed five police chief candidates and then narrowed the pool down to three – is planning on putting its administrative team in place first so that they can have some input into the hiring of the officers.
Testing and assessments will begin for each job classification roughly two weeks after the application window closes.
The City of Lathrop has been utilizing the help of a consultant to provide guidance through the process of starting a police department from scratch and will use an additional HR consultant to move through the hiring process of the officers that will protect the community.
The city is currently under contract with the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office through the end of June of next year to provide police services to the community. At that time, it is believed that Lathrop will have its own department in place to take over the following day.
No announcement has yet been made by the city about which direction it plans to go in terms of providing evidence storage and dispatch services. Those were tasks that were previously handled by the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office as part of the contract.
After Sheriff Pat Withrow requested that the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors cancel the contract between Lathrop and the county and force the city to renegotiate terms that benefit both entities mutually, the likelihood that Lathrop will partner with the sheriff’s office for those services as part of a separate contract seems slim at this point.
Discussions were had between Lathrop and the City of Tracy several years ago when the council was considering contract services with the neighboring community instead of the longstanding sheriff’s office contract.
To contact reporter Jason Campbell email jcampbell@mantecabulletin.com or call 209.249.3544.
