Boston lags in recruiting police

The Boston Police Department is having a tough time attracting recruits, despite launching a sophisticated, $100,000 advertising campaign last month.

By this week, 947 people had signed up to take the police test in May, 30 percent fewer than the 1,345 who signed up the last time the exam was offered in 2005, the department said yesterday.

Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis expressed disappointment and surprise at the lower number of potential recruits. He blamed a perception that candidates have to be a military veteran to make it onto the force. While the civil service exam gives preference to veterans, that does not keep others from also passing the test.

"The overall number is rather low," Davis said in a telephone interview yesterday. ". . . The larger the group of people, the better candidates we're able to select. We really encourage people to step up and take the test."

Davis said he also hopes that the City Council will consider rewriting city ordinances that require test takers to have lived in Boston for at least a year beforehand and that limit the age of applicants to 32.

There is one bit of good news, the commissioner said, pointing to a slight increase in the proportion of members of minority groups who have signed up to take the test, 49 percent compared with 47 percent in 2005. Police officials said minorities have been signing up for the test at an unusually high rate in recent days, and officials expect that percentage to rise.

"Our minority recruitment efforts are paying off, and we anticipate that they'll be way up over last time as a percentage of people taking the test," Davis said.

The Police Department launched its campaign on Feb. 19, papering the city with billboards and posters featuring smiling Boston police officers at work photographing crime scenes, riding a motorcycle, and interacting with youth, all accompanied by the slogan "Many Jobs, One Career, Boston's Future."

Darnell Williams, president and chief executive of the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts, said he worked with police to get word out across the city about the recruitment campaign. Yesterday, Williams said he was stunned that the number of registered test takers is so low.

"That's awful," he said. "There's got to be something else going on that we don't have our fingers on because I think the Police Department and our community-based partners have done a tremendous outreach effort. . . . I don't know anything else we could do."

Like Davis, however, Williams hailed the department's success at attracting minorities.

"We're a majority minority city," he said. "It's important to have a Police Department that is reflective of the diversity of the city it represents."

Officer Atiya Younger, who is serving as one of the department's recruiting ambassadors, agreed.

She said that when she's answering 911 calls she notices, for instance, how much other women appreciate seeing a woman in uniform.

"If it's a female and she wants to deal with a minority female, then here I am," Younger said. "If it's a Haitian Creole person that needs someone to speak Haitian Creole, well, then here's my partner."

Younger spent much of yesterday in the Geneva Avenue section of Dorchester with her partner spreading the message. She said police officials decided to park a police incident command bus in the parking lot of a shopping mall at the corner of Geneva Avenue and Park Street, in part because of recent high-profile killings in the neighborhood. The recruiting unit will also patrol in front of the Stop & Shop at the South Bay Shopping Center on Saturday, Younger said. The deadline for applications is Monday, although people may apply as late as April 23 if they pay a $25 late fee.

"We go out there and try to dispel some of the reasons they can't be police officers," she said. "They're, one, surprised that the police are actually coming out and saying, 'Come on in and join us,' [and] . . . 'Yes, we want you to apply. Yes, we want you to take the job.' "

Suzanne Smalley can be reached at ssmalley@globe.com.