State Police training is no picnic. “Some people get to the academy and decide it’s not for them,” says Maj. Joseph R. Miech, chief administrative officer. Above are some recruits from the last academy class.

The Providence Journal / Bob Thayer

The Rhode Island State Police are looking for a few good men. And women.

The state police are in the midst of a recruiting drive that will run through Aug. 3, looking for candidates to fill a class at the training academy in Foster to begin next June, the first new class of recruits since 2004-’05. The goal is to have 35 new troopers on duty in early 2010.

Maj. Joseph R. Miech, chief administrative officer for the Rhode Island State Police, said impending retirements will be thinning the ranks of the force, which now numbers 205. Twenty-five troopers are eligible for retirement this year, he said, with another 31 eligible to retire in 2010. “We would be in dire straits in another year or two,” Miech said.

Under state law, state troopers hired before last year may retire with a pension after 20 years on the force. They must retire after 25 years, or age 62, whichever comes first. (Those hired after last year may retire with a pension after 25 years of service, and must retire after 30 years.)

Candidates to become a state trooper must apply online at the Rhode Island State Police Web site, www.risp.ri.gov. To be considered, a candidate must be between 18 and 35, must possess a valid driver’s license, must be a citizen of the United States and must possess at least a high school diploma or its equivalent. Once sworn in, there is a Rhode Island residency requirement. Salary starts at $47,883 and rises in increments over four years to $58,380.

Beyond the basics, this is not an easy job to get.

Lt. Ernest Quarry Jr, commandant of the training academy, said more than 3,000 people applied for spots in the 2004-’05 class. This year, he said, the state police received 542 online applications for the upcoming class as of July 11. The police also sent out 7,364 postcards to people who had expressed interest in a state police career through the Web site since 2005, notifying them that a new recruitment effort was under way.

Quarry and Miech, interviewed at state police headquarters in North Scituate, said they have very high standards. “This is not just another job to apply for. It’s a career, it’s a way of life,” Miech said. “We want the best of the best.”

The state police winnow the candidates through a lengthy process, beginning with a written exam that will be administered late next month. The test, developed by a company called CWH Research Inc., includes sections to assess basic reading and writing skills, and “situational” questions designed to plumb the attitudes and judgment of the candidate.

A study guide from CWH on the state police Web site offers a few samples:

How do you respond, for example, to irritating door-to-door salesmen? What would you do if someone insulted you — and your team — at a basketball game?

Then there are the physical fitness tests, administered in September and October. The tests measure vertical jump, sit-ups, pushups, a 300-meter run and a 1.5-mile run. If a candidate does well on the written exam and passes the physical tests, then there’s an interview, background investigation, a medical exam and a psychological exam.

Finally, the top candidates are admitted to the training academy, which is deliberately tough.

“I was in the Marine Corps, and it was difficult for me,” said Quarry, who went through the state police academy in 1990. “It taxes you mentally and physically.”

Miech said the academy has a 20- to 30-percent attrition rate. If a candidate drops out in the first few weeks, he said, the state police can find a substitute from a group of about 15 alternate candidates waiting in the wings. But if someone drops out of the training academy deep in the process, the state police are out of luck.

“We want people to really search their souls about this,” Miech said. “Some people get to the academy and decide it’s not for them. We just hope they do it in the first week or two.”

Candidates at the academy live there for the 21-week training, although they are allowed to leave on weekends. For him, Quarry said, the training academy is the enjoyable part of the whole recruitment process. “Prior to the academy, it’s not that much fun for us,” he said. “But to see these people come in as raw recruits, and being able to mold them into being Rhode Island state troopers, that’s the fun part.”

“They understand they’re part of something special,” said Miech. “Now it’s up to them to carry the torch.”

“We instill that from day one,” said Quarry.

Once a person graduates from the academy, Quarry said, they are sworn in as state troopers — but that doesn’t mean their training is over. New graduates go into a three-month field training officer program, in which they are assigned to work with more experienced troopers who serve as their primary and secondary field training officer. They are evaluated and taught the daily nuts-and-bolts of the job. After successfully completing the field training program, troopers work on their own.

Miech said the state police are interested in encouraging diversity in the hiring process, but he emphasized that the Rhode Island State Police had no intention of lowering their standards. Miech said slightly over 8 percent of the state police force is female and almost 10 percent are minorities. In 2006, former state police superintendent Col. Steven M. Pare held two-week-long “diversity academy” classes to give women and minorities a taste of what the state police training is like. Miech and Quarry said the state police are taking care to ensure that minority communities are aware of the current recruitment drive, working with the state personnel office’s outreach and diversity unit, advertising in newspapers such as the Providence American and Providence En Espanol, and posting on the National Association of Black Law Enforcement Officers Web site ( www.nableo.org) and the Web site for the Providence chapter of the NAACP ( www.naacpprov.org). The state police are also working with the netWORKri offices run by the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training.

The General Assembly allocated $360,151 in this fiscal year to finance the recruitment process. The state police will need $1.032 million in the next fiscal year to finance the academy. Although acutely aware of the state’s financial crunch, Miech said he was confident the money would be available, since the legislation passed this year mandates that the new academy class begin by next June 21.

“We did a lot of education at the State House about the situation,” he said. “Now is the time to act.”

asmith@projo.com