Cincinnati bucks a national trend this week — more people here want to become cops.

        More than 1,530 men and women signed up to take Saturday's exam to join the Cincinnati Police Division. That's 21 percent more than last year's 1,258 and the first increase in years.

        The jump comes at a time when police agencies nationwide are seeing serious declines in candidates — and on the heels of the Sept. 1 on-duty death of a Cincinnati officer, which usually hurts recruitment.

WANNA BE A COP?

• You must: Be at least 21, live in Hamilton County by the time you start work, be a high-school graduate or have your GED (though recruiters prefer at least some college).   • You can't: Be a convicted felon.   • Get pumped: To start, you'll have to do a combination run/obstacle course in six minutes.   • You'll get paid: $988 every two weeks, upped to $1,436 after 23 weeks of training.   • You might get to: Ride a horse, go undercover, ride a motorcycle, direct traffic at Bengals games, write parking tickets or train a canine to sniff for drugs.   • More info? (513) 352-2971, (877) 852-7641 or www.cincinnatipolice.org.

        In New York City last month, too few people showed up to take the initial test to fill the number of jobs expected to be open.

        The problem: The economy's so good, would-be police officers can get safer jobs that pay as well or better. On Friday, the federal government reported the September unemployment rate was 3.9 percent, matching a three-decade low.

        The national crunch has brought departments from as far away as Los Angeles and Seattle to recruit in Cincinnati.

        Local recruiters had to work harder to combat all that, plus the danger questions prompted by the death of Officer Kevin Crayon. They visited more colleges, targeted historically black schools to help diversify the pool of applicants and widely advertised their interest in candidates over age 35. The city lifted that age cap earlier this year.

        “If we're at a job fair with P&G or Ford or something like that, we don't have a chance,” said Sgt. Tom Waller, who is in charge of recruiting for the 1,000-officer force. “We're dealing with kids today in these high-tech jobs. These old, stable kinds of jobs — jobs where we used to say you were set for life — aren't that interesting to them.”

        There are perks: Good pay ($988 every two weeks, increased to $1,436 after 23 weeks of training); paid benefits and vacation; retirement in your 40s.

        But the realities of police work might outweigh that — night shifts, parking tickets, angry suspects. People hit cops, bite them, yell racial slurs at them. In District 1 last week, officers said they had to jam their fingers in a drug dealer's mouth to try to pull out the crack he swallowed.

        “If you're looking for thank-yous and appreciation, this is not the job for you,” Sgt. Waller said. “The biggest thing you get is self-satisfaction when you go home at night and look in the mirror.”

        He doesn't think a recruiting unit even existed in 1972 when he joined the division. No need for one.

        That's a big difference from now, when police recruiters, he said, have to hope for candidates who want to be officers because they realize the job's potential for helping people and making a difference.

        Stan Hutson does.

        The 29-year-old Bellevue, Ky., bank employee and former military man applied last week to take the test to become a cop. His father and brother are officers elsewhere.

        “It's corny and it sounds canned, but it's an opportunity to give back to the community,” Mr. Hutson said. “That's why I want to do it.”

        The lifting of the age cap might be the biggest factor in the increase, said Ted Schoch, commander of the police academy. That allowed recruiters to go to military bases to promote the division. A group of Marines from Camp Lejeune in North Carolina is expected to take the test.

        “Hopefully, we'll be able to get some people with maybe military experience who are looking for a new career,” he said.

        The test at the Cincinnati convention center Saturday is the first step in a months-long process that includes physical agility tests in November and an oral test in January.

        By next summer, when classes start, the recruit group will be narrowed to about 28 people — 34 percent minorities and 23 percent women, per federal court order.

        Recruiters already are thinking about new ways to try to keep the numbers up in the face of the economy and increasing competition.

        They hope to make sure, Sgt. Waller said, that this year's jump doesn't turn out to just be a fluke.

        But they know the numbers reality — about 3,000 applied in 1997, a little over 2,000 in 1998 and just over 1,250 last year.

        So for now, the recruiters hope a lot of those who signed up over the past few weeks actually show up to take the test Saturday.

        Two years ago, about 1,600 people signed up, but less than half showed.

        Rachel Rupp will be there.

        A senior majoring in criminal justice at the University of Cincinnati, the 21-year-old from Wyoming hopes to use police work as a stepping stone to forensic pathology.

        “I just care about being out there,” she said, “about being in my community.”
       

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