The Pittsburgh Bureau of Police is holding a job expo on Friday at its headquarters amid a push to gain more officers.
Officials said the hope is to connect with applicants in a way that might not happen at job fairs and hiring events.
Right now, the bureau said it has 750 of its 800 budgeted positions filled. The expo is hiring for just about any position in the bureau, which hopes the event will drive more interest in joining.
“Instead of asking a recruiter and getting more generalized answers, they can get specific answers from those that work in those units,” Commander Anthony Palermo said.
According to Palermo, the bureau has an academy class starting in November, with 35 recruits committed.
“It’s looking like it’s going to be our largest academy class in probably the past five years,” Palermo said.
The commander said the turnaround time to get officers on the street is about a year and a half. Anyone who would apply after Friday’s job expo would be looking at the academy class in August of next year.
“We want to have a strong pipeline of quality applicants, constantly churning their way through the hiring process, so we’re never finding ourselves not filling all the seats in an academy class,” Palermo said.
The ultimate hope is to build a continued pipeline of recruits to tackle people leaving and retiring from the department.