POLICE RECRUITS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 305, 8 October 1935, Page 8

POLICE RECRUITS

MEN GIVE UP PROFESSIONS. A striking demonstration of the fact that the New York policeman’s ot is a. comparatively’ happy one has just been given in response to an offer to train candidates for the force without pay during their spare time. Nearly 1000 men from 90 different walks of life have been enrolled.

: In their anxiety to enter the ranks as patrolmen, at a wage starting at £4OO a year, they have agreed to attend classes at the Police Academy in Brooklyn for 25' weeks, in the hope of improving their chances of being selected as soon as vacancies occur.

The course will include lectures on criminal procedure, laws governing arrests, the handling of parades and crowds, departmental rules and regulations, and the history of police work in the United States in general and New York in particular. Lectures will be given every night and morning, while facilities for physical Gaining will be provided on Governor’s Island. The remarkable thing about these volunteers is that almost all of tVpm are already regularly employed ill professions which many people migln consider superior to police One is a lawyer, five are airmen, 1/ accountants, four civil engineers, 11 chemists, nine draughtsmen, one a dentist, turee furriers, and one hotel manage.. When they are all members of the Police ’Department that organisation will have a remarkable fund, of expeit information at its disposal. 1 In addition there are 18 biologists, 20 bricklayers, two brewers, one beauty experc, 1U cable splicers, a cook, a hatter, two musicians, 41 plumbers, and a sailmaker on the list. . It may be presumed that many wish to change because they dislike the vocation chosen on leaving school or college (11 candidates went to Columbia University and 17 to Fordliam University), for the average age is only a trifle over 26.