SEPTA Transit Police focuses on recruiting experienced officers

WHEN RONALD Bryant retired from the Philadelphia Police Department after 28 years, he didn't want to be a greeter at Walmart or be stacking boxes at a grocery store.

He wanted to do what he knows best: protect and serve.

Last month Bryant, 55, joined the SEPTA Transit Police as a member of the department's second batch of "lateral transfers" - trained law-enforcement officials who swap gigs at other departments for a chance to watch over the city's mass-transit system - that the agency is trying to recruit.

And to hear those recruits tell it, they find the department equally appealing.

For Bryant, the transition has been smooth. "The main difference is upstairs versus downstairs," Bryant, the first city police officer to become a Transit Police officer, told the Daily News.

"Everything you experience walking a beat on the street you get down in the subway, and vice versa."

Bryant wrapped up his city police career in North Philly's 22nd District, where he pounded a foot beat along Girard Avenue.

In his short time at SEPTA, not much is new to him. Paperwork is slightly different, he says, and the walking is a little more "aggressive" - up and down stairs, on and off trains.

"When you work in a big city like Philly, you can go to different areas of the city and work some districts where you're not that busy," he said. "Here, everywhere you go, there's something to do."

Bryant said he's been "hands-on" all the time, almost constantly dealing with riders: answering questions, providing directions. It's rare, he said, to have any time to himself.

That constant interaction is one of the reasons why experienced recruits are so important to the agency.

To hear SEPTA Transit Police Chief Thomas Nestel III tell it, his department's increased interest in lateral transfers is part of a larger, statewide trend.

"Hiring people is the most important part of having a good department," he said. "If you hire the right people, you're 80 percent ahead on an upward slope."

But hiring is expensive, especially in Pennsylvania: The state used to foot the bill for the required 22 weeks of training needed to become a certified police officer.

Due to recent belt-tightening in Harrisburg, that's no longer the case, meaning that prospective officers, or the departments seeking to hire them, are left holding the bag.

When you factor in equipment, uniforms and tuition, the costs for that education can be prohibitive, Nestel said.

The solution? Recruit candidates who already are certified.

In SEPTA's case, that means officers from suburban departments looking to move up to big-city policing.

Candidates with a law-enforcement background need only 12 weeks of specific Transit Police field training: working the transit system, meeting supervisors and learning the quirks of the job.

"Policing is policing, and the laws are the same," Nestel said. "It's the same learning curve whether you're pushing a patrol car around in Upper Moreland or walking the Broad Street subway; it's gonna take you the same length of time to learn your beat."

Nestel admits that there are some slight differences, mainly learning how to play nice: SEPTA stretches across five counties, which means cooperating with more than 100 police departments during investigations.

It apparently isn't too daunting of a caveat: The chief says he had more than 400 applications from trained candidates in the most recent wave. Candidates from departments in Chester, Bucks and Delaware counties and beyond.

Out of that pool, only 25 now wear Transit Police uniforms.

"It's about making sure we get the right people who we can build on," Nestel said. "We need that strong background to add our specific requirements."

A lot of it has to do with personality, Nestel said.

"You're not locked up in a patrol car by yourself; you're out there with the people handling problems, and, if you need it, your backup is coming on the next train," he said.

"It requires a certain ability to talk to people, to de-escalate things."

Matt Sinkiewicz noticed that immediately when he traded his position as an officer in the Tullytown Borough Police Department for a Transit Police beat.

"You always are told that you work for the public," he said. "Here, you really do."