The West Haven police department plans to hire six of 16 police officers laid off in New Haven last month.
“We’ve actually hired one so far,” said department spokesperson Officer Brett Schneider. “The rest have to pass the fitness test.”
Officer David Schaefer was sworn in on March 7. The other five will be sworn after they pass the Cooper Institute fitness test for law enforcement officers at the end of March. Schaefer had already passed the test.
Once the other five pass the test, they should be out on patrol within two to three weeks, Snyder said.
“As soon as we heard the news that they’d been laid off, we knew we wanted them here. We’ve been looking for 10 — 14 new officers.”
Snyder said 14 West Haven officers retired a year ago, and six more after that. “So we’ve been looking to replace them.”
And even though people are looking for work in general, the larger pool of applicants isn’t what it used to be, he said.
“These guys are already trained and certified — so that saves the city $32,000 per officer,” Snyder said. In hiring a few of New Haven’s laid off cops, West Haven will avoid the 400 hours of necessary post-academy training they’d need before striking out on their own.
“So we want them here, definitely,” he said. They’ll have to familiarize themselves with different codes and a new system, he said.
“But police work is police work.”