BATAVIA, N.Y. — The state of New York has made changes to state police recruitment to try and bring more troopers to work, like opening a new application period Monday.
The requirements include:
- Must be at least 21 years old to be appointed
- Must be appointed prior to 36th birthday, except the maximum age may be extended one year for each year of full-time active military duty - up to a maximum of 7 years.
- Must be a New York State resident and have a valid New York State driver's license at time of appointment.
- Must be able to pass a Physical Ability Test (PAT): sit-ups, push-ups and a 1.5 mile run.
- Must be able to work rotating shifts any day of the week, including holidays.
This past summer, the state raised the maximum age for trooper applicants from 29 to 34 and loosened their tattoo restrictions to allow anybody who wouldn’t have tattoos showing through their typical uniform to become a trooper.
They also just added a second location to train recruits that will double the number of new troopers joining the ranks.
Applications will be accepted from November 23 until March 4.
Troop A recruiter Kelli Fitch tells me the state police have been short on personnel since the pandemic.
“Covid put us back, because we weren’t putting [graduating] classes through the academy.”
Fitch shared that on an average year the department loses about 300 troopers statewide to retirements and other decisions to leave, while only gaining about 400 new recruits a year.
At that pace, it would take over a decade for them to recover from not adding any new recruits during the pandemic, so something had to change.
“We just had a lot of potential applicants reaching out within that (29-35) age frame that were interested in applying, that wanted to do the job, were physically able to do the job, so we figured why not utilize those personnel,” Trooper Fitch said. “It’s nice to see them have the opportunity.”
Anybody interested in taking the entrance exam can schedule their test at https://joinstatepolice.ny.gov/
