# Becoming a Civil Service Dept.



## OldNancy (Apr 27, 2006)

I'm from a small department consisting of 20 Officers, north of Boston. We are considering proposing to become a civil service department. I didn't know anyone that may have done the same in the past. Basically I'm just looking for anyone that may have done a presentation to their selectman/council in their city or town. If anyone can steer me in the right direction I'd appreciate it. Thanks.


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## Nighttrain (Dec 10, 2004)

Looking to lateral out Nancy  Call over to Hopedale. They got it, then gave it up. I'm sure someone there can give you the pros and cons.


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## Edmizer1 (Aug 27, 2006)

Virtually no Board of Selectemen (BOS) will agree to assist a PD in becoming civil service. More towns are dropping out. Probably your best bet would be to try and get the BOS to agree to support some sort of special act that will give your PD civil service protection without actually being civil service. My town is set up this way and I've heard there are about 1/2 dozen total in the state. Basically all hiring and promotions are non-cs, but all discipline cases follow cs rules and have cs appeal rights. Your BOS might have an easier time knowing they can still hire and promote who they want. Nobody has ever tried to lateral from us to a cs pd, but the wording of the cs laws and rules doesn't appear to allow anyone in our designation from doing so. Basically, we are a non-cs pd with cs tenure protection.


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## Guest (May 4, 2009)

Civil Service is nowhere near what it used to be....contractual protections involving arbitration are far more useful than having CS status right now.

The days of CS ordering a municipality to rehire a cop who did <insert outrageous incident here> are long gone.


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