East Providence Hiring 11 New Police Officers

EAST PROVIDENCE, RI — The East Providence Police Department will add 11 police officers to its force,

Nine of the officers are new recruits, and two are transferring from other agencies, town officials said.

"In recent years, recruiting and hiring police officers has become more and more challenging both nationally and locally," Police Chief Christopher Francesconi said. "Our police department has adopted a philosophy that hiring and recruiting is a constant effort in which all of our officers participate."

Town officials said the move comes after an aggressive recruiting process which included the online application PoliceApp, video testimonials from existing officers, the use of social media, advertisements in local media outlets, hosting an open house to answer applicant and family members' questions and a collaboration with the East Providence’s Affirmative Action Office.

Once applicants are vetted, the East Providence Police Planning & Training Division will provide officer candidates with training and other resources for success prior to attending the police academy. Resources include:

• Six weeks of swim training at PODS Swimming in East Providence (PODS works with officer candidates on the swim standards administered at the Academy for entry swim test)
• Six weeks of general fitness training at 212 Health & Performance in East Providence (212 Health identifies any challenges individual officer candidates may have and addresses those physical fitness needs with a program that the candidate follows)
• Offering recruits the opportunity to work at the police station prior to attending the police academy to become familiar with and have a better understanding of the police department

The following changes were also made to East Providence police's recruiting process:

• Having the East Providence Planning and Training Division stay in touch with the candidates during the hiring process.

• Streamlining the hiring process by identifying and eliminating inefficiencies
• Adding East Providence Affirmative Action Officer and Vice President of the local chapter of the Rhode Island NAACP Elmer Pina to the oral board.

"The goal and role of the Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity Office is to continuously diversify our workforce for the City of East Providence particularly in public safety," said Affirmative Action and EEO Officer Elmer Pina. "In this most recent recruitment process, the city was able to modify the requirements in an effort to widen the pool of applicants, my office was responsible in getting the word out through civic organizations, gyms, barbershops, hair salons, colleges and universities."

Here are the new recruits and lateral transfers to the East Providence Police Department:

• Cesar Alarcon - Cumberland (Lateral)
• Michael Allienello Jr. - East Providence
• Kyle Carvalho - Lincoln
• Kristopher Correia - East Providence (Lateral)
• Matthew Coughlin - Warwick
• Nicholas Crowe - Cumberland
• John Pena - Providence
• Ryan Teixeira - North Kingstown
• Charles Swenson - Rehoboth, MA
• Drew Wood - Lincoln
• Bryan Yepes - North Providence