Oakmont is considering changes to regulations that would make the hiring process quicker and more accessible for prospective borough police officers.

During Tuesday night’s council meeting, David Decker of the borough’s civil service commission proposed changes to the borough’s regulations for officer hires.

“We want to look at the rules and amend them to help facilitate and improve upon the hiring process,” Decker told council.

He said the borough has not had luck filling a full-time officer position that has been open for six months.

“This is a problem happening in other communities,” Decker said. “We want to attract more applicants without diluting the process.”

The first proposed change was to allow the option to hire officers still in a police academy. They would be hired on the contingency of passing all of their required academy classes. Officers also would be required to pass the borough’s oral, written and physical exams.

“Nothing else changes,” Decker said.

He said hiring officers from the academy would allow the borough to begin its pre-screening process earlier.

Decker also discussed eliminating the 1.5-mile run required of officers.

“From what I understand, that is a barrier for folks who may be more veteran officers,” Decker said.

He said the test would ideally would focus more on short-burst speed and strength exercises.

“We don’t have people running a mile-and-a-half here,” Decker said. “We need people to carry folks out of cars or move someone away from (an emergency). Those sorts of things.”

According to the current requirements, male officers 60 or older are required to complete the 1.5-mile run in 14 minutes, 23 seconds. A female officer of the same age is required to complete it in 17 minutes, 19 seconds.

During the current fitness test, officers are also charged with meeting a certain number of sit-ups and push-ups in 1 minute and completing a 300-meter run in a certain amount of time. Standards vary by age and gender.

Decker also suggested linking standards directly to requirements set by the Municipal Police Officers’ Education and Training Commission, and Cooper Institute for Aerobic Research.

“If MPOETC changes anything, we’ll change it too (after the ordinance is passed),” Borough Manager Scot Fodi told TribLive.

The borough currently accepts results that fall as low as the 50th percentile of the Cooper standard.

“I’m for their changes,” borough Police Chief Michael Ford said during the meeting.

Based on the needs he sees in the field and in surrounding communities, the changes are appropriate to attract more applicants without compromising the quality of applicants, he said.

Borough Solicitor Jacob Leyland said that based on the communities he works with throughout the region, the proposed changes seem pretty standard.

The ordinance detailing the changes is being advertised for council to vote on Dec. 16.

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