Resolving an issue that has plagued the police hiring process for more than a decade, the Town Council has okayed a new procedure that allows them to give preference to residents. Town officials had to negotiate with the NAACP to make the change.
In early 1993, Secaucus signed a consent agreement with the U.S. Justice Department agreeing to more aggressively seek blacks and Latinos for police jobs. Part of that process included advertising jobs in the black and Hispanic media around the state. Unlike other police departments, Secaucus could not give preference to residents of the town, and had to keep a single list of all applicants.
Until that time, Secaucus had three lists: a Secaucus, county and state list. Theoretically, the town would draw from the county and state lists once viable candidates ran out on the local list. But in actually, they never ran out of candidates from the Secaucus list, a list that was short on minorities. So minorities from other towns never got hired.
The NAACP was not the first group to complain about Secaucus' hiring practices. In the early 1980s, two women sued Secaucus, claiming that the police department's physical requirements were set too high for women to meet. The suit also noted lack of separate showers and other facilities. The Justice Department followed up on the women's lawsuit and urged the town to change the physical requirements, even though other towns and the state were using the same tests.
At the urging of the NAACP, the Justice Department expanded its complaint to deal with hiring practices and sought to abolish preferential hiring. Though Secaucus followed state guidelines for hiring, the town decided to sign the agreement rather than face protracted litigation. In 1994, the town signed an agreement with the NAACP to advertise widely and to make one list of candidates from around the state.
The town aggressively advertised in media aimed at black and Latino markets.
"We spent about $75,000 to advertise throughout the region," Mayor Dennis Elwell said last week. "We got 1,800 applications to fill six jobs."
But the advertising failed to achieve the NAACP's goal, since the town managed to hire only one black officer.
In order to reduce the cost of the advertising, the town petitioned the NAACP in 1999 to modify the original agreement and allow the town to advertise only in Hudson County. As a result, the police received about 400 applications, but still did not find any additional qualified candidates that would meet the NAACP's goal.
The newest agreement worked out two weeks ago with the NAACP allows Secaucus to give preference to its residents when hiring. This is helpful, noted Town Administrator Anthony Iacono, because the single-list concept had posed "a hardship" on local residents who found themselves facing stiff competition for jobs. While Secaucus was restricted from giving preference to local residents, other towns around the state - free of Justice Department or NAACP scrutiny - continued to hire locally, limiting the options of those Secaucus residents seeking jobs.
Iacono said "Our residents couldn't get hired in other towns, and would have to compete for jobs here."
"It was simply unfair," Elwell said.
Elwell said that the town will hire an out-of-towner for every three Secaucus residents it hires.
According to Iacono, Secaucus will likely have three retirements by the first of the year. One police officer also has been called up from reserve to active duty in the military, with several others waiting to hear word on the call-up.
"We came to terms with the NAACP," said Town Administrator Anthony Iacono. "They've given us the green light that would allow us to maintain a resident-only list."
Town officials also agreed to modify the existing testing procedure, doing away with the oral portion - that section of the test in which candidates are interviewed - in favor of the written and physical tests. The written tests are prepared by Anon, a respected test-writing company in Pittsburgh.
The oral portion of the test was issued by three retired police chiefs, and a review of video tapes showed candidates were often nervous in front of the camera, and questions were also based on information officers could not be expected to know until they attended the police academy.
"Since they will have to pass the academy to become a police officer, we saw no need to have them take an oral test," Elwell said. "There is no state requirement that we give an oral test."
The existing list of candidates, which is more than two years old, will be scrapped. A new list will be established.
People interested in applying can call Secaucus Town Hall for information. They have until Oct. 31 to submit applications.
The written test is scheduled for Nov. 10. The physical and psychological tests will be administered after that.
The town will likely extend job offers by late December or early January and send appointees to a police training class in February, Iacono said.