{"id":7934,"date":"2017-12-18T09:16:57","date_gmt":"2017-12-18T09:16:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/?p=2852964"},"modified":"2017-12-18T09:16:57","modified_gmt":"2017-12-18T09:16:57","slug":"some-colorado-police-chiefs-and-sheriffs-shift-attitudes-toward-recruits-past-marijuana-use","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/some-colorado-police-chiefs-and-sheriffs-shift-attitudes-toward-recruits-past-marijuana-use\/","title":{"rendered":"Some Colorado police chiefs and sheriffs shift attitudes toward recruits\u2019 past marijuana use"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/some-colorado-police-chiefs-and-sheriffs-shift-attitudes-toward-recruits-past-marijuana-use\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<p>The man in charge of hiring and firing Denver\u2019s police officers likes to remind people that the firefighters and police officers who rushed into the World Trade Center on 9\/11 were not drunk or stoned.<\/p>\n<p>Therefore, recent marijuana use by potential and current first responders in Denver will not be tolerated, said Earl Peterson, executive director of the Denver Civil Service Commission.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat I\u2019ve stressed is if people are using it, come back in three years,\u201d Peterson said. \u201cI\u2019m blunt with people.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople who want to be in public safety have to have higher standards.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Yet other police departments in the state are changing their attitudes.\u00a0Last year, the Aurora Civil Service Commission adopted a policy that requires applicants to its police and fire departments to be marijuana-free for one year instead of three.<\/p>\n<p>The changes in policies reflect evolving attitudes toward marijuana use in society, and some police departments are changing their standards because they fear they might lose otherwise high-quality recruits who have experimented with the drug because it is legal for people who are 21 or older to use pot in Colorado.<\/p>\n<p>Although marijuana is legal in Colorado, employers are allowed by state law to prohibit their employees from using it.<\/p>\n<p>Changing police polices are not exclusive to Colorado, or even to states where pot is legal.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this year, the Maryland Police Training and Standards Commission, which sets hiring policies for the entire state, adopted a new policy at the request of the Baltimore Police Department, which had reported that previous standards were hurting the recruitment of new officers, said Gerard Shields, a spokesman for the training and standards commission.<\/p>\n<p>Now, people are barred from consideration for a law enforcement job if they have used marijuana in the past three years. Previously, Maryland said applicants could not have used it five times since turning 21 or more than 20 times during their lives. The same policy went into effect for people applying to work in the state\u2019s prison system, Shields said.<\/p>\n<p>Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, said the question will become increasingly relevant as other states legalize marijuana use.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cColorado and Washington really are unique in that respect,\u201d Wexler said. \u201cIn some ways, what the state is doing and what police departments are doing are not necessarily in sync. Police departments have different standards. That\u2019s really reflective of a national change, at least in terms of how marijuana is viewed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In Colorado, there is no statewide standard. Instead, individual agencies, or their commissions that make hiring rules, and sheriff\u2019s offices make their own policies. The Colorado State Patrol drug screens its applicants.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s just individual cities or departments are deciding their own preferences,\u201d said Duane Oakes, president of the Colorado Association of Chiefs of Police and chief at the Alamosa Police Department.<\/p>\n<p>But Oakes said he is considering making it a topic at the next statewide conference for Colorado chiefs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe more states that legalize it, the more departments that are going to run into it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>In Colorado Springs, police and fire applicants are disqualified if they have used marijuana in the past 18 months.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThirty-five years ago when I started it was you never could have smoked it,\u201d said CSPD spokesman Lt. Howard Black. \u201cThat was a question on the polygraph.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Departments are changing the rules to remain competitive recruiters.<\/p>\n<p>Police departments across the country are <a href=\"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2017\/11\/09\/denver-police-department-recruiting\/\">finding it difficult to recruit officers<\/a>. A surging economy brings more employment options that often pay better and bring less stress than law enforcement, and the current climate for policing is discouraging others from pursuing the profession.<\/p>\n<p>Departments must keep themselves competitive in the overall job market, not just among law enforcement agencies.\u00a0In summer 2016, Aurora Police Chief Nicholas Metz and then Fire Chief Mike Garcia lobbied the civil service commission for a change.<\/p>\n<p>At the time, Metz told the commission that one of the most frequently asked questions from the community was related to marijuana use, and that someone who wanted to be a law enforcement officer could go to the Arapahoe County Sheriff\u2019s Office and find a less restrictive policy, according to a copy of the minutes from the commission\u2019s May 10, 2016, meeting.<\/p>\n<p>Aurora wanted to make sure it wasn\u2019t losing high-quality recruits to other agencies, department spokeswoman Officer Diana Cooley said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe understand with legalization that times are changing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Still, chronic users aren\u2019t considered for the force, even if it has been a year since the potential recruit smoked pot or consumed an edible, she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust because we shortened the time frame doesn\u2019t mean we\u2019re giving people a bye,\u201d Cooley said. \u201cWe\u2019re still looking at their usage.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cooley said the police department had no way to gauge whether the rule change had improved the pool of applicants. Matt Cain, executive director of the civil service commission, said the number of applicants since the rule change had dropped to 1,434 for the latest class, compared to 1,569 who applied for the class prior to the rule change. But Cain declined to discuss whether the quality of applicants had changed.<\/p>\n<p>Peterson said he did not believe Denver\u2019s stance had impacted recruiting. The department recently started a new class at its academy with 52 recruits and made conditional job offers to another 12 people for 2018.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t believe Denver has to lower its standards to achieve excellence,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Denver, however, has the advantage of being the largest department in the state and offers better pay and benefits than other departments.<\/p>\n<p>Denver and Aurora warn against applicants trying to fudge the truth when filling out applications. Both departments said their tests, background investigations, polygraphs and psychological evaluations are designed to catch people lying. And that, too, disqualifies candidates.<\/p>\n<p>Multiple police departments and sheriff\u2019s offices reported disqualifying people for lying about drug use.<\/p>\n<p>Since 2003, the Arapahoe County Sheriff\u2019s Office has required applicants to have abstained from using pot for at least one year, spokeswoman Julie Brooks said.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"related right\" \/>\n<p>\u201cPot is generally not what will disqualify an applicant,\u201d Brooks said. \u201cIt\u2019s usually lying about other things on their applications or harder drugs they failed to disclose.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While standards for past pot use for applicants are changing, the state\u2019s police chiefs and sheriffs still hold one view in common: Once hired, marijuana use is forbidden.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you\u2019re looking at law enforcement, you would be permitting a law enforcement officer to break federal law,\u201d said Officer William Hummel, an Aurora police recruiter and spokesman. \u201cWhen we put on that badge we took an oath to uphold local, state and federal law.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside>\n<br \/><\/aside>\n<aside>\n<br \/><\/aside>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<p>Colorado police departments and sheriffs offices are changing their policies toward past marijuana usage for recruits as legalization spreads and society&#8217;s attitudes toward the drug evolve. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6812,7427,7432,6908,6813,77,6814,6815,7280,9,5019,1,3,61,1736],"tags":[6817,7429,7433,6910,6818,2655,6819,6820,7283,5022],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7934"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7934\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}