Seven Class II Atlantic City officers are now full-time officers after a swearing-in ceremony Friday.
The city had 72 Special Law Enforcement Officers out of 90 it is approved to hire. The officers work limited hours and are paid $15 an hour with no benefits.
The move was allowed to happen because Atlantic City is no longer under Civil Service requirements as part of the state takeover. Prior to that, any Class IIs would still be required to take the Civil Service examination and get put onto the list before they could become a full-time officer in the city.
That made it "like the longest interview possible... then we couldn't hire them," Mayor Don Guardian said.
But the lifting of the Civil Service status also means "the state can do whatever they want," he said.
Guardian said was glad to see the state overseers have not gotten rid of directors in any of the city's departments, or the public safety chiefs, as was done in Camden.
Atlantic City had been losing many of its Class IIs to other departments, especially Camden, which — unlike Atlantic City — remains under Civil Service but lifted some restrictions when the state disbanded the city department and created a Camden County department. Camden City still remains the only city under county policing.
Each of the Class IIs promoted Friday has worked on the force for more than a year, and all of them are residents.
Because they already went through most of the necessary police training, they will require just 10 days in the academy to receive their full certification.
The new officers are Kevin Dever, Eric Evans, Nicholas Grasso, Kevin Perez, Justin Peyton, Armani Rex and David White.
