The Milpitas Police Department has a strong, friendly, and welcoming recruiting team. They were very proactive in recruiting dispatchers through group orientations, outreach events at the academy, etc. since they are very short staffed. This was the most respectful department that I've met so far in the process. They treated you like adults, and expected you to follow the detailed rules.
That being said, the department is a bit disorganized. They initially said they were looking for 3 dispatchers to fill the void, but backtracked to 1-2 (maybe after looking at who applied) and they delayed posting the position by a month. The Chief of Police was weird -- he encouraged a cut-throat nature by telling all the applicants that we are each others' competition, which I felt was tone deaf and an unnecessary red flag given the nature of the team work environment and that most healthy people don't want to work with cut-throat folks.
They don't give you any options for the first oral panel interview date and time -- you are just given one date and time one week from the notification and if you can't make it you basically withdraw your application. This interview was only 30 min long, and was 10-11 questions long (one was a 2-part question, if relevant). 3 panel members rotated asking the interview questions. A moderator was present to make sure no one deviated from the questions -- they weren't allowed to clarify questions (none needed any clarification in my opinion), but they were allowed to repeat questions. Also, you didn't have an opportunity to ask questions at the end, since they wanted to make the process as uniform as possible for all applicants.
If they are interested in you, they will notify you within the next business day. If they aren't sure, they'll delay their reply.
They have an in-house polygrapher, so you can book that as quickly as a few days after receiving notification that you made it to the next step.
The website has a mistake that states the pre-polygraph is right after the oral interview, followed by background, chief's interview, then polygraph, etc. But, the pre-polygraph and polygraph happen together in the same week.
The 2-hr sit-along process is very helpful to get a feel of the environment. They usually have 2-3 dispatchers working together each shift. Shifts are fixed 4/10s with no official breaks -- you need to notify your team if you need to quickly step out for a bathroom break or to heat up a meal in the adjacent kitchen. You're not allowed to leave the vicinity, which is not as good of a situation as other neighboring jurisdictions. Since they are so short-staffed, they have more mandatory overtime than other neighboring jurisdictions, too. They have curved gaming monitors, sit-to-stand desks, a window with view of the hills, and an option to walk on a treadmill or use a stationary bike while at your desk working.
