Pols: Set the bar a bit hire

TWO CITY POLS are pushing the Department of Correction to step up standards for correction officers after a probe found the agency hired guards who never should have gotten the job because of past arrests and other red flags.

City Council investigations committee Chairman Ritchie Torres and criminal justice committee Chairman Keith Powers wrote to Correction Commissioner Cynthia Brann, pushing her to act on reforms recommended by a Department of Investigation probe.

“These failures of due diligence have led to the hiring of (correction officers) who have been arrested for domestic violence and criminal possession of a weapon,” they wrote. “We ask that you adopt reforms aimed at raising the rigor of . . . applicant review.”

The DOI probe found more than a quarter of the recruits checked, who were hired in 2016, had prior arrests, firings or ties to inmates that should have disqualified them.

The Correction Department was “especially ineffective at detecting signs of gang affiliation” and often failed to verify addresses, phone numbers and social media accounts of applicants, the councilmen wrote.

The Correction Department says it has already made changes to strengthen its hiring process since 2016 when the identified lapses occurred.