Eleven public safety departments in south-central Kansas are hiring, and they’re hoping to fill open positions through a job fair on Wednesday.
The Wichita Workforce Center is hosting the first joint job fair for public safety careers.
There’s a need for more police officers, firefighters and first responders throughout the region. Wichita Police Deputy Chief Troy Livingston says the department also needs to fill positions beyond law enforcement.
"We have openings in our records bureau," he says. "We also have animal control. Other agencies offer jobs such as emergency communications. So public safety is far much more than just police and firefighting."
Livingston says most of the openings are due to staff turnover and promotions.
He says they’re trying to hire 25 people to train as police officers. The department has two classes each year for new police recruits.
“Anytime you are down 25 positions of commissioned law enforcement, that has an impact on operations," Livingston says. "We are able to accommodate that fairly well. We have enough officers to take care of business, but when you are trying to reach out to the community to do some community policing activities, it’s nice to be fully staffed.
"Community policing takes time to interact with citizens, which is a vital core value of this police department’s community policing. We want to have enough staff so we can have the time to interact with the public as much as possible and not just go from call to call.”
Sedgwick County is looking to hire about 40 positions for the detention facility. The sheriff’s office also has jobs available for deputies and in the records department.
Other participating agencies are from Liberal, Dodge City, Derby, Andover, Hutchinson, Bel Aire, Arkansas City, Sumner County and Newton.
The Public Safety Job Fair will be held at the Wichita Workforce Center from 2 to 6 p.m. on Wednesday, May 25. The Wichita Workforce Center is located at 2021 N. Amidon, Suite 1100.
Staff who work in the various agencies will be on hand for questions and to discuss the open positions.
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