William Corner stared intently at the glossy recruiting material offered by DynCorp International, a private company training Iraqi police, and discussed his job as a cop in Great Britain.
The $134,000 annual salary that Falls Church, Va.-based DynCorp pays to teach and mentor Iraqi officers tops his pay with the West Midlands Police by at least a third, he said. “It is tempting.”
DynCorp was at the Adam’s Mark in downtown Denver today to recruit at the annual International Association of Women Police conference, which began Sunday.
About 600 police officers from 22 countries are on hand for the conference, which features training sessions on everything from reading blood spatters to forensic lighting, the methamphetamine epidemic and career development. The conference was also open to men.
For a cop looking for a job, the conference wasn’t a bad place to be. Officers from several local police departments and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement were there scouting talent too.
A federally funded study last year by the Police Executive Research Forum, a Washington advocacy group for police chiefs and commissioners, found that 10 percent of the nation’s police departments had a severe shortage of officers.
Among the reasons: The strong economy is offering other job possibilities; aging cops are retiring; starting salaries are low; and the Iraq war is siphoning members of the National Guard and Reserves.
“There is a big push right now. Budgets are starting to rebound, and departments are starting to catch up,” said Denver Police detective Kim Covert, the conference director.
Companies such as DynCorp — which advises working cops to take a leave of absence if they want a job — offer an alternative to traditional police employment, said Covert.
DynCorp’s employees in Iraq make a lot more than cops performing similar work here. Nationally, the pay for even the top cop at most departments, the police chief, ranged from $72,924 to $92,983 in 2004, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
But a commitment to DynCorp is fraught with danger and logistical difficulties that keep many from signing up, said Marla Turcotte, a DynCorp recruiter.
A number of the company’s employees have been killed in Iraq, including two in a mortar attack in February. Last year, a former police officer from Maine was killed by a sniper, and two more died in the crash of a Black Hawk helicopter.
It isn’t just the danger that makes a decision to apply difficult, said Chanel Mann, DynCorp marketing representative.
A single officer who wants to go may have to find a house sitter and make other difficult arrangements, and those who have families must leave them behind. “It is not something that is an easy decision,” Mann said.
Still, Corner — a police constable in Birmingham, England, who was sent to the conference for training — was intrigued by the idea of pulling up stakes and heading for Iraq. “I retire from the Birmingham police in four years,” said Corner, who spent four years in Bosnia with the United Nations. “It is the sort of thing I can go on to do.”
Staff writer Tom McGhee can be reached at 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com.
