While other cities recruit firefighters and police officers separately, Sunnyvale trains public safety officers to do both jobs.

Unlike filling other city positions that involve interviews and committee meetings and generally take a few months, finding new public safety officers is an 18-month process. The process involves recruiting, screening and training men and women in the police, firefighting and emergency duties that Sunnyvale officers perform.

"Recruiting at best is a forecasting science because you never want a surplus of officers, so you need to predict what the need will be and try to meet that," said Department of Public Safety Lt. Marty Dale. "The odds of forecasting the exact amount we'll need are almost inconceivable."

Budget cuts and a lack of surplus funding has left the department in a difficult situation because it cannot afford extra officers. Dale said the force right now has 224 officers. Starting officers' pay is just under $73,000 annually.

Lt. George McCloskey--in charge of recruiting for the department--said it costs approximately $212,000 to take a candidate from the recruitment phase to the final job offer, including uniform costs and the police, fire and emergency medical service academies.

"If our budget was not a factor, we'd always be overstaffed; there would never be a situation where we'd be under," Dale said.

Not only does the department have to predict how many officers will retire, leave or be injured in the next 18 months, but it also has to determine how many officers will make it through the extensive recruiting process.

The process includes written tests, psychological exams and other tests.

"At each of the steps, people will fall out of the group," McCloskey said.

Dale said that traditionally, close to 60 percent of candidates make it through, but at times, Sunnyvale has had as much as an 80 percent success rate.

Once candidates are accepted, they typically go through a 27-week police academy training and then attend a firefighter's academy in preparation for the duties of a public safety officer.

McCloskey said that in the first three days of recruiting, more than 75 people showed interest in applying.

"I expect we'll get a good turnout," he said. "Somewhere in the low hundreds."

Dale said Sunnyvale draws a diverse group of applicants because the position is for the public safety officer, rather than a firefighter or a police officer. The city can have problems when recruits come in looking to concentrate on one side only, especially firefighters who go through police-oriented rotations early in their Sunnyvale careers.

In addition, the city ends up competing with fire departments and police departments in other cities for candidates, although Sunnyvale's dual roles can be an advantage.

"For people who want to be both a firefighter and a police officer, we're pretty much the only show in town," Dale said.

Should the department incorrectly estimate its needs and end up understaffed, Dale said it would not affect the basic safety of Sunnyvale.

Instead, the department would take officers from traffic, school and neighborhood safety units to fill the patrol and fire station vacancies. This would affect schools because they would lose neighborhood resource officers, and neighborhoods would have a harder time getting officers to come out for home inspections and association meetings.

"We're never going to fall short patrolling the streets," he said.

To qualify to be an officer-in-training, a candidate must be at least 21, have completed 60 semester or 90 quarter units in an accredited college, have a valid Class C California driver's license, U.S. citizenship or permanent resident alien status and has applied for citizenship. Vision must be at least 20/200 and correctable to 20/20. Applicants must be in good physical condition.

Applications can be sent in through the city's website at www.sunnyvale.ca.gov or picked up at and submitted to the city's Human Resources Department, 505 W. Olive Ave, Suite 200.

The city is offering a free pre-test orientation seminar on March 4 from 9 a.m. to noon. For more information, and to reserve space, call 408.730.7164.