Rock Island Today

The city of Rock Island is recruiting for potential police officers and will be accepting applications online until 5 p.m. April 15.

“Basically what this is, we do an eligibility list every two years,” Cherise Schwabe, benefits coordinator for the city, recently told Rock Island Today. “So, all this recruitment is to get the eligibility list filled again. It is not necessarily to hire police officers, although we may need to do that at the end of this list. It just depends on who is retiring and if somebody quits.”

Schwabe said sometimes the eligibility list is filled before the end of two years, if needed, and that the city hires people from the eligibility list.

“The way it works is that you can’t just randomly come in and put in an application in to be a police officer,” Schwabe said. “You have to wait until we open the police officer position to accept applications -- and when we do that is when we are getting ready to create the eligibility list.”

To be considered, the first step is to submit an application by the closing date and then show up for the physical agility test, which will be held between 8 and 11 a.m. on April 30 at the Rock Island Police Department, 1212 Fifth Ave.

“If you pass that physical agility test, then you are eligible to take the written test,” Schwabe said. “If you don’t pass it, you can’t take (the written test).”

The written test is scheduled for 1 p.m. April 30. The location will be announced to applicants who successfully complete the physical agility test. A valid driver’s license must be presented at the agility test and written test.

If an applicant passes the written test, then a background investigation will begin.

“If you pass all of that, then you go on to the oral interview for the police and fire commission; and then once that is completed, you would be ranked in order of the eligibility list from varying factors,” Schwabe said.

Once applicants make it onto the eligibility list, they get hired as positions open up, but still must go through full physical and psychological testing.

“When you have officially passed all of that, you are sent on to the police academy,” Schwabe said.

Schwabe said recruitment for the fire department is similar, with applicants filling out applications in many different places.

“That is why you have this eligibility list,” she said. “Maybe you call four or five people, and they have gotten jobs somewhere else. That is why you can have a list for two years and it can expire early -- because six people have already gotten jobs somewhere else when you go to start hiring somebody.”

In addition, Schwabe said that although the city receives many applications, the physical agility test, written test and extensive background check eliminate the majority of applicants.