Being a fast-growing city, Crown Point is currently building the ranks of its police force, offering a variety of incentives to bring in top candidates.
The perks start with a take-home police car, a $1,400 annual clothing allowance, double-time-and-a-half holiday pay, and a two-month rotation from days to nights with every other weekend off. Patrolman starting pay is $63,850, but that jumps to $72,972 after successful completion of a 90-day training and probationary period. And retired police officers can count on annual compensation of $84,364.
Mayor Pete Land, who previously served as the city’s police chief, said that Crown Point is not unlike other police departments that can sometimes experience a lack of qualified applicants. However, the police department currently has 50 officers, the most in its history, and is funded to add one more this year.
Land said he prefers a police applicant with a passion for community policing — someone who enjoys being out in public and engaging with citizens.
“I don’t think there’s anything necessarily unique about the type of calls that our officers respond to as opposed to Schererville or St. John and so forth,” he said. “But I think that because we have so many community activities and our officers are at virtually all of them, they should have that type of personality that can go from a law enforcement call to community policing situation and really excel.”
Land says he appreciates a hometown kid who applies to become a Crown Point cop.
“I have personally always liked to have a young man or woman that graduated from Crown Point High School, went off to college but chose to come back and make Crown Point their home,” he said. “Being able to hire young men and women from Crown Point, that’s an added bonus.”
Fulltime officers have the opportunity to serve in a variety of roles, including the Bicycle Division, Drone Team, K-9, Motorcycle Division, School Resource Officer (SRO) Program, South County Crash and Reconstruction Team, and Northwest Regional SWAT.
The city’s most recent police vacancy was created through an officer’s retirement, and with others eligible for retirement, more spots are expected to open up in the near term.
“We always create a hiring list so when we do have an opening we can pull from those names that are already on file and have been through the testing process,” Land said.
Accordingly, the city will invite selected applicants to take a physical agility test and written exam on May 18 at Crown Point High School.
Aspiring officers can submit a résumé and application to the Crown Point Police Department, located at 124 N. East St.
Jim Masters is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
