SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KCAU) — The Sioux City Police Department (SCPD) is already underway with their push to hire the next wave of officers. It’s a process Officer Jacob Hamann said had its challenges.

“Growing up, you know it sounds cheesy, but most people when they ask why you want to be a police officer it’s to help people. And you truly get to do that,” Officer Hamann said.

Officer Hamann is currently the youngest Sioux City Police Officer at 23. He applied to be part of the SCPD in Spring 2021.

“You know, of course, coming out of high school I was again, I played sports, I was physically fit. I thought I was a pretty smart kid. But, like I never realized running was a weakness until I started to prepare for that,” Officer Hamann said.

Officer Hamman said the six month long hiring process poses unique challenges.

“The written test. I had a mentor of mine help me constantly with Math and preparing me for the test and so forth. Again, just a little goal before. So it’s basically trials that you know you go through to ultimately get to your end goal,” Officer Hamann said.

“We are currently taking applications. The application period started last Monday, February 20th and it goes until Sunday March 26th,” Community Policing Sergeant Tom Gill said.

Sergeant Gill said the department recruits at schools and local spaces, like gyms, in and around Sioux City.

“So we go to all of our local colleges. Western Iowa Tech Community College, Briar Cliff University, Morningside University. We talk to students there. We held a career fair at the Sioux City Expo Center here a few weeks ago,” Sergeant Gill said.

It’s the one-on-one interactions with officers that Sergeant Gill and Officer Hamann said go a long way for interested candidates.

“If you talk to most of our police officers, especially our younger officers that have been on here a short time, they’ll tell you that part of the reason they applied here is because they had a positive interaction with a police officer,” Sergeant Gill said.

“Especially as a kid that idolized law enforcement, just the fact that they took a few moments out of their time to say hello, give me a high five, like I said that sticker, that card, meant so much to me,” Officer Hamann said.

If you would like to learn more about the hiring process, click here.