POLICE AND CORRECTION OFFICER JOBS AVAILABLE

POLICE AND CORRECTION OFFICER JOBS AVAILABLE

The city is looking to hire hundreds of Police Officers and Correction Officers, the Department of Citywide Administrative Services said last week.

DCAS continuously accepts applications for three scheduled tests annually in an attempt to attract more candidates.

May 15 Deadline

Filing for the next Police Officer exam and Correction Officer test is set to close May 15.

The Police Officer written exam is scheduled for June 14. Alternate afternoon and evening test dates are also set for June 13, 19 and 22.

DCAS has also launched a pilot walk-in testing program to allow individuals to take the Police Officer exam at their leisure. The center is located at 2 Lafayette St. in lower Manhattan. The tests are being administered every weekday morning.

The Correction Officer exam is set for Aug. 2. Candidates who score near the top of the eligible list can expect to be hired within six months of the list being established.

Appointees for both titles need to have a state driver's license and must be residents of New York City or Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Orange, Rockland, or Putnam counties. They also must pass a background check, a psychological evaluation, a physical exam, and a drug-and-alcohol screening. A $75 fee for fingerprint screening is required for the background investigation.

Police Pay

The starting annual salary for Police Officer is $28,900, based on an arbitration award issued in 2005 that reduced the pay scale for new cops. Police Academy recruits will make $25,100, with pay rising to $32,700 after they complete six months of training. Officers reach $59,588 after 5-1/2 years on the job. The starting pay will likely be increased by a pending contract arbitration award.

The starting salary for Correction Officer is $27,734, which will rise to $28,843 as of Aug. 1, and then to $37,577 a month later. Individuals hired on or after Sept. 1, 2008, however, will start at $35,000. Maximum pay for Correction Officers, reached after five years' service, will be $68,475 as of Aug. 1.

An unresolved Patrolmen's Benevolent Association contract for the period from Aug. 1, 2004 forward is the reason salaries for Correction Officers are currently higher than those for cops.

CO Job Requirements

CO candidates must have completed 39 college credits or two years of full-time U.S. military service, and must have a high-school diploma or GED by the time they enter the training academy. Individuals with a high-school diploma who have two years of experience as a city, state, or Federal law-enforcement officer may also qualify.

To be appointed, candidates must be at least 21 years old. Applicants must be 17- 1/2 by the end of the filing period to take the exam.

The multiple-choice exam will test candidates' abilities in written comprehension and expression, problem identification, basic arithmetic, and deductive and inductive reasoning. It will also gauge candidates' abilities to order information, determine where they are in relation to an object, and visualize how something will look after it is moved or changed.

Appointees will have probationary status for 24 months and must complete a training course. Correction Officers have to pass an annual firearms test. They are required to work nights, weekends, and holidays.

Further information can be obtained by calling 1-877-NY1-BOLD, on-line at www.nyc.gov/dcas, or by writing the DCAS Application Center, 18 Washington St., New York, N.Y., 10004.

How to Apply

Police Officer applicants can file on-line at www.nyc.gov/nypd. By the last day of the set filing period, applicants must be at least 17-1/2 years old, and they must not have reached their 35th birthday by the first day of filing. Applicants with military experience may be as old as 41. By their date of appointment, candidates must have completed 60 college credits with at least a 2.0 grade-point-average. To be hired, they also need to be at least 21. A high-school diploma and two years of full-time military service may be substituted for the college requirement. The multiple-choice exam will test candidates' abilities to memorize and comprehend information and identify problems.