05-14-25 - Council Special Work Session Agenda

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14 Minnesota North, Hibbing Campus (Spring + Summer + Mankato 2025) 66 Minnesota North, Vermillion Campus (Fall 2024*) 21 Minnesota West Technical College, Worthington (Spring 2025) 15 Northland Technical College Thief River Falls (Spring 2025) 15 Rasmussen University (Spring and Fall 2025) 40 Rochester Technical College (Spring 2025) 38 Total number of students 591 Although there are roughly 591 students, it has become common for some of these students to already have job offers prior to completing their skills program . For example, Fond Du Lac Tribal and Community College estimated at least 12 of the 18 graduating skills students already had job offers. HIRING AND BACKGROUND Since 2020, the City has received 407 applicants for police officer positions. During that time only 15 applicants were successful in completing the interview and background process, which is a 3.7% success rate. The low success rate can be attributed to the applicants not demonstrating the necessary qualiflcations during the application and interview process and those who were backgrounded are disqualifled for not meeting standards. During the same period the City hired three of its CSOs and a former Lino Lakes officer. TRADITIONAL AND CADET HIRING 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024/Officer 2024/Cadet Total Apps. 126 127 34 49 26 45 1st Interview 54 72 14 25 16 32 2nd Interview 13 15 0 5 4 3 Background 12 14 9 5 4 6 Fail 9 9 5 4 3 3 Hired 2 5 3 1 1 3 CSO / PREVIOUS OFFICER 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 1 1 1 0 0 1 This data illustrates two key points. First, utilizing the CSO program to prepare existing staff to transition to a police officer position has been effective. Second, although there may be approximately 591 students seeking police jobs, there is a high percentage who may not pass the interview and background process. Moreover, there will be stiff competition from the 135 police agencies who are seeking to recruit the most desirable applicants.