CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Police Department has been experimenting with new ways to increase its ranks, and those efforts appear to be working. The largest class of recruits in years has been training to join the force. 

What You Need To Know

  • Cleveland direly needs officers, and the department has been trying to fill more than 300 openings this year
  • Of the 300 recruits that attended a weekend-long recruitment event, 256 were preliminarily eligible to become officers and 52 recruits made it into the academy

  • Felton Collier is a recruiter and said making the application process as fast and easy as possible is working

Jeremy Medina said he’s always wanted to become a Cleveland police officer.

“I was in service, I was in the Army, so they did prepare me. I was ready for it,” he said.

Even though he’s in his forties, that dream is about to become a reality thanks to recent changes in the way the department recruits new officers.

“I am 47 years old. Because the age got changed, I was able to sign in. I always wanted to do it but I never had the opportunity because I didn’t make the age requirement, and once I find out the city increased the age bracket, and here I am,” he said.

The city direly needs officers. The department has been trying to fill more than 300 openings this year. They’ve offered incentives and changed the way they recruit by doing things like holding large hiring events that speed up the application process.

Felton Collier is a recruiter and said making the application process as fast and easy as possible is working.

“Last year, in December, we put together our first hiring event. We allowed applicants to come through and basically do multiple parts of the process in one day. So they were allowed to come down, do applications, take the test, take the physical fitness test, they got the fingerprints, photos done and, you know, multiple steps,” he said.

Of the 300 recruits who attended the weekend-long event, 256 were preliminarily eligible to become officers and 52 recruits made it into the academy.

Medina said the process was challenging and smooth at the same time.

“I actually took part in the fast hiring event that they did in downtown. I was there on Friday and by the time I was gone I had a letter of recommendation. It was fast,” he said.

But fast doesn’t mean easy.

“Fighting techniques, hand to hand, floor exercises and then we completed the workout where we had to run up the stairs,” he said.

But Medina said the hard work will be worth it when he finally gets to fulfill his dream of serving and protecting the city of Cleveland.