SAN ANTONIO – After the majority of the members of the San Antonio Police Officers Association voted they had no confidence in Chief William McManus, the union released a report listing reasons why. One reason cited was a lack of manpower, due in part to recent changes in the recruitment system.
"Their first inclination was to lower application standards to increase the applicant pool," the report said.
Those changes refer to drug use and lie detector standards.
SAPD Lt. Miles Earwood, who has worked closely with recruitment standards, told KSAT about what those changes were and why they were made.
"The changes were not meant to open the floodgates for the applicants and to bring people in. They truly were to make sure our hiring standards were as reasonable as possible," he said.
Earwood mentioned those changes include drug use.
"Under the old rule set, you could not have smoked marijuana in the preceding 24 months and you could not have done it three times within the past five years," he said.
In October, the five-year clause was dropped. Now an applicant just can't have used marijuana in the past 24 months.
Earwood explains the change also included cocaine, but in a very different way.
"You can have used cocaine one time in your life," he said.
If during that one time applicants are under the age of 25, they have to wait 5-10 years to apply to SAPD. If they were 25 or older, they can never become an SAPD officer.
There's a new clause about prescription drug use that some would consider more strict. In the old rule set, applicants could use prescription drugs that were not prescribed to them on no more than three occasions. In the new rule set, they can only use a prescription drug if it's an ADHD medication. If any other types of prescription drugs were ever abused, they would not qualify to become an officer.
"If someone's trying to lie about how many times they've done drugs, the polygraph test usually catches that," Earwood said.
All applicants have to take a polygraph, or lie detector test. That portion of the recruitment standards has changed slightly, as well.
"The possible results for a polygraph exam are deception indicated, no deception indicated, inconclusive, and no opinion. No opinion means that there was not sufficient information to render a decision," Earwood said.
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If you get anything other than "no deception indicated" you get one more chance to take the polygraph within the next 30 days.
Earwood said it is extremely rare to get two "no opinion" results in a polygraph test, but if that's the case, the new rule says the police chief has the discretion to decide if that applicant moves forward.
"Review the applicant with the totality of the circumstances and make an educated decision on whether that person should or shouldn't continue the hiring process," he said.
Another change made deals with criminal activity.
"Say I admit to street racing with a friend of mine, but we were never caught -- it was just something that I did with a buddy and I'm admitting it to you now as part of the hiring process," Earwood said.
That used to mean the person couldn't be hired for 10 years after the admitted crime. SAPD now takes into account the type of crime, the person's intent and the person's age when they did it.
"The reason it's based on age is we're trying to account for maturity factors. When you're young and you make bad decisions, is it fair to penalize you for 10 years?" Earwood said.
Now the younger applicants are when they commit a Class A or B misdemeanor, the less time they have to wait to apply to SAPD. If they're under 21 years old, they have to wait three years. If they're between 21 and 24 years old, they have to wait five years. If they're 25 or older they have to wait the full 10 years.
Earwood said the next incoming cadet class is the largest SAPD has ever had at 50 people. The one before was at 42 people. However, even with the changes he said some applicants still don't make the cut.
