What’s Up? Video: CSPD reps discuss new job opportunities and the upcoming career fair

Grace Hallowell:

What’s up, College Station? I’m Grace Hallowell, and today I am joined with some members of our police department. We’ll go around and do some introductions here. Starting over on my left here.

Chad Jones:

All right. I’m Officer Chad Jones. I am the recruiter for the police department.

Julia Franz:

I’m Julia Franz. I’m a communications supervisor and dispatch.

Shannon Ballard:

I’m Shannon Ballard. I’m the civilian training coordinator.

Grace Hallowell:

Awesome. Well, welcome you guys. It’s a bit of a different setup here today with multiple people, but it’s always fun. The more, the merrier. And we’re here to talk about the career fair that’s coming up. So let’s start off with when is it, and what is it, and how can people get involved?

Chad Jones:

So, our career fair is on July 22. It’ll be at the police department, and it’s going to be from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. This is our second annual. We had one last year. We had a good turnout for that one. This one we put a little more effort into it, we have more of the organizations inside the police department, all their divisions are going to be there, so people can come and see what we do, ask questions, see if they have an interest in becoming a police officer or telecommunicator or any other of our civilian positions. They can find out about it, apply for it, and talk to everybody who’s there.

Grace Hallowell:

Yes, it sounds like a great opportunity. What sort of positions are available at the moment?

Chad Jones:

So with mine, I handle the sworn. So, anyone who’s interested in becoming a police officer, they can come talk to me, or any of my colleagues, and they can ask questions on how the process starts, how to get into the academy, after the academy, field training. Then we have the other positions with Ms. Ballard, who handles the civilian positions.

Shannon Ballard:

So we currently have public safety telecommunicator positions that are open, which are dispatchers. We have animal control officers. We also have police assistant positions available in our recruiting and training division and in our patrol division. We also have a records’ technician position open.

Grace Hallowell:

Yes, you don’t typically think, oh, when I get a job at a police department, there’s more things than just being an officer who is out in the public that are still very, very vital to keep our city safe and functioning. So in your opinion, what is the best part about working with the City of College Station police?

Julia Franz:

Well, we get to help individuals when they’re in crisis and in need. We get to be their hero in a sense.

Grace Hallowell:

Yeah, it’s important to love your job, and it seems like just with talking to you guys a little before we recorded, you guys have a great time, and you love what you do and being able to help.

Chad Jones:

I don’t know what you’re talking about.

Grace Hallowell:

If people have questions about the career fair or just about the police department in general, where can they go to find out more information?

Chad Jones:

So, we have a Facebook page, CSTXPolice. We’ve been putting flyers all around the city. We’re talking about it here. We’ve done TV. We’re going to be going on the radio to get the word out about the career fair. Also, that I’ve reached out to our patrol division to have them put flyers around the city, tell business too, and talk to people they come in contact with to give them information about when the career fair is going to start.

Grace Hallowell:

Yes. And definitely feel free to stop by the police station as well. And if you haven’t seen, it’s an impressive building, I think. Anyway. Yes. So I encourage people to take a tour someday.

Chad Jones:

And hopefully when people come, they can actually take a tour. Because we’re going to offer tours, we’re going to offer all that. We’ll have the equipment out, we’ll have the SWAT vehicles out H&T. Like I said, every division will be out there, so everybody can kind of talk, see the uniforms, see the gear we use. They can walk the police department, and kind of see all the different sections. I know a lot of its closed off from the public, but this would give a chance for the public to come in, and it’s for all ages. So it’s not just people that’s 18 up, looking for a job. I mean, bring out your kids, bring out family members, bring out your grandparents. That way they can see what the police department looks like and get an idea.

Grace Hallowell:

Yeah, that’s a great point. Especially for kids who are maybe in middle school or high school or trying to decide what career they want to go into. Going to a career fair like this, seeing the facility, seeing what the people that work at day-to-day, or will be doing or what they would eventually be doing, it’s a really, really great opportunity.

Chad Jones:

Yes.

Grace Hallowell:

All right, well, is there anything else you all can share with us today?

Shannon Ballard:

Well, also at the career fair, for those that are interested, we will have it set up where they have the ability to apply right there on site.

Chad Jones:

And I’ll also say too with our process, what I do is a lot of what we call non-certified officers that go through, and I mean, it’s a process. It normally ranges almost between four and six months for them to join the academy. We also get opportunity for those who are officers that are somewhere lateral into us. That’d be out of state from another agency, which is a shorter process than two months. But this also gives them a chance to meet, greet, see other officers, and talk to them about our policies and see if they match up to theirs. Talk about the city and what we kind of go through since they’ve already had that law enforcement experience. If they’re interested, we can get them in real quick and fast into PD.

Julia Franz:

It’s also going to be an opportunity for us to showcase our dispatch center, which is very new technologically and looks awesome. And so it’ll give us a chance to have people come in and really see, and talk to our dispatchers to learn what a telecommunicator does.

Grace Hallowell:

Yes, it’s exciting. Exciting opportunity.

Julia Franz:

It’s very, yes.

Chad Jones:

Yes.

Grace Hallowell:

Well, thank you everyone for joining me today.

Shannon Ballard:

You’re welcome.

Julia Franz:

You’re welcome.

Chad Jones:

Thanks for having us.

Julia Franz:

Thank you for having us.

Grace Hallowell:

And that’s what’s up.

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