CHESAPEAKE, Va. — Not every police officer shares Dupree Foster’s story, who's known what he's wanted to do since he was 3 years old.
"My heart has always been being a police officer since I was a little kid," Foster, a Senior Police Officer with the Chesapeake Police Department, told 13News Now.
Others may find their love for law enforcement in adulthood and in the cities of Chesapeake and Hampton, police recruiters are beginning to find out that tapping into the region’s strong military influence could make a major difference in filling vacancies and recruiting gaps.
In 2011, the Department of Defense launched the SkillBridge program, an apprentice-style program helping active duty service members find immediate job placement while nearing the end of their military career.
SkillBridge contractors can be both private companies and public agencies. In the case of police agencies like the Hampton Police Division, SkillBridge applicants may be able to complete nearly all or most of their job training ahead of their official retirement from the military.
"We’re able to provide that training, and as soon as they’re released from the military they’ve got a full-time job waiting," said Kim Hendricks, Director of Hampton's Emergency Communications Center.
According to HPD officials, the police division has hired one dispatcher and now three sworn officers through the program.
"We currently have two SkillBridge applicants that we are hoping to get processed for our next Academy, slated to start in June," a spokesperson for the division said.
In the United States, roughly 200,000 people retire every year from the military.
"Oftentimes, they get out and they don’t have a job right away, so they have a lapse in payment. This fills in that gap," said Foster, who believes many military members are still unaware that the program exists in the first place.
Implemented in 2021 in Chesapeake, Foster said they've been able to hire one emergency dispatcher who started out as a police officer candidate, but found emergency telecommunications was a better fit.
"The only requirement from the government and the Department of Defense is that the employer who has a SkillBridge participant, is that when that time is over, they allow them to interview with the company. With us [Chesapeake Police] on the other hand, we vet them on the front end, they go through the hiring process with us so when they start our police academy they know they have a full-time position with us, once their SkillBridge time is over," Foster said.
According to Foster, CPD is still looking for its first full-time sworn officer hired exclusively through the SkillBridge program. However, the department has been able to hire several applicants after their military service is over who applied because they heard about the program even though the timeline of their retirement didn't make them eligible.
"The biggest thing is it helps with advertising to military community, and it saves the city a ton of money because they’re being paid for by the military," Foster said.
Across the country, dozens of law enforcement agencies are registered as official SkillBridge partners. According to the DOD's SkillBridge website, Hampton and Chesapeake are among a small handful of police operations in Virginia that partner with the program, as well as Fairfax County Police.