The Kansas City, Kansas, Fire Department is seeking more minority and women recruits, after its latest recruit class had no females and only seven minority males, according to a news release.
Awarded a federal $2.3 million federal grant for staffing in 2020, the Fire Department started recruiting 18 additional firefighters.
While it had made progress in a more diverse pool of initial applicants, it fell far short of its goal of a recruit class that reflected the diversity of Kansas City, Kansas, according to a Fire Department spokesman.
In the initial pool of applicants, there were 48 percent minority and female candidates, but the class of candidates selected was only 32 percent minority candidates and no female candidates, according to the department’s news release. The class diversity makeup was far short of the goals that had been set, according to the news release.
A breakout of the applicants’ gender and ethnicity showed that the largest group of applicants was Caucasian males, at 37 applicants, with 13 remaining in the recruit class. This made up 65 percent of the class.
The next highest was Latino males, with 12 applicants and four in the recruit class, for 20 percent. There was just one African-American male in the recruit class, no African-American females, no Latino females and no Caucasian females.
In the news release, Chief Michael Callahan said he would encourage more minority and female candidates to apply and complete the selection process more successfully in the future.
“Our latest recruitment class has been selected and will soon begin their Fire Academy training,” Chief Callahan said in the news release. “While I am pleased to welcome this recruiting class to the department, the fact remains that we did not meet important diversity goals in our recruiting efforts. It is important to me, to the entire Fire Department leadership team, and to the Unified Government that our Fire Department personnel reflect the diversity of Wyandotte County, both gender diversity and the ethnic diversity that is a proud feature of our community.
“The pool of candidates that emerged from the selection process, which includes written, physical and background tests, does not reflect the diversity of the community which we serve,” he said in the news release. “We have analyzed where candidates exited the selection process, and are announcing changes that will reduce the number of otherwise qualified candidates who exit the selection process prematurely. The steps we are announcing today will help bring highly qualified historically underrepresented personnel into the fire service.”
The steps include eliminating past marijuana usage as an automatic disqualifier. A question about this is being removed from the pre-employment questionnaire. While it is illegal and prohibited, past use will no longer be a disqualifier.
The Fire Department will allow more preparation for the physical agility test. The process eliminated otherwise qualified female candidates, according to the fire chief. The candidates will be allowed to see the tools and equipment used in the physical aptitude test to better understand the physical requirements and have time to prepare.
The Fire Department also will restart its trainee program. Previously, a trainee program gave youth from Kansas City, Kansas, exposure to the fire service in a paid program. However, the program was suspended during COVID-19 pandemic, because of the risk of exposure to COVID-19 and because of funding reductions. Now that there are vaccines for fire personnel, they will resume the trainee program, according to a spokesman.
The next recruit class is expected to be announced later in the year. For information about becoming a trainee, interested persons may visit the Fire Department website at kckfd.org, click on Careers or visit www.wycokck.org/jobs (fire tab).