Bratton Eyes Relaxing Police Hiring Standards
Seeking to bring the Los Angeles Police Department ranks to more than 10,000, Chief William J. Bratton said Thursday that he is considering easing hiring requirements involving past drug use and bad credit.
“We may have artificially set too high a standard in certain areas,” Bratton told reporters.
“The reality is kids today ... may in fact have sampled drugs some time in their life,” he said. “Does that mean we should automatically disqualify them? I don’t believe so.”
He said the LAPD hires 60 of every 800 applicants, potentially disqualifying otherwise good candidates because they have bad credit histories or have admitted using drugs in the past.
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