Commission studies how to hire police

Grand Coulee’s Civil Service Commission is still trying to decide how to continue in its efforts to test and recommend the hiring of, a new police officer.

The commission met in a special meeting Friday in an effort to schedule testing for seven applicants for a vacant patrolman position in the city.

Commissioners discussed using a testing firm, Public Safety Testing of Lynnwood, Wash., and heard a telephone conference presentation by a representative.

The discussion lasting over a half hour, produced little result and prompted commissioners to schedule another special meeting, at 5:30 p.m., this Thursday, at city hall.

The decision facing commissioners is whether to go with a testing firm or order tests and give them locally.

In using a testing firm, tests are given at specific sites and local candidates are mixed with others from the region taking the same tests. The testing firm says that this increases the candidate pool for all the communities sending people to the test site.

The commission, after the testing process, whichever one they use, will send the top three candidates passing the test to the police chief for consideration.

If the test list doesn’t provide a viable candidate, the commission can repeat the process and call for another round of applicants.