WATERLOO - Tryouts for the Waterloo Police Department drew more applicants than usual.

And while the bulk of candidates were from Northeast Iowa, some traveled from halfway across the country for a chance to be considered for the department.

Official said the turnout was bolstered by the lack of other jobs during hard times.

"With the economy the way it is, the numbers usually go up," said Police Chief Thomas Jennings as groups of men and women pumped through pushups and crunched through sit-ups as part of the department's physical fitness test Tuesday morning.

Normally, the police department gets about 130 to 160 applicants at the beginning of the Civil Service process. This year 199 people applied.

Of that, 95 showed up at the East High School gym for the physical test.

Jennings said traditionally the department will lose about 40 percent along the way. They might not pass the physical or written tests, fail the background check or they might get another job before they can be picked from the Civil Service list.

Normal turnout will show a smattering of applicants from Iowa's border states, like Illinois and Minnesota.

But some of Tuesday's tryouts traveled from as far away as Texas and Louisiana, said Lt. Frank Krogh.

"That's a little bigger spread then we normally see," said Capt. Joe Leibold.

Jennings said law enforcement is an attractive career because it offers a variety of assignments. After working patrol, officers can opt to concentrate on investigations, the crime lab or work with children as a school liaison officer.

"There are different jobs within the job to keep it interesting," Jennings said.

Candidates who passed the physical test moved on to the written test, which also was Tuesday.

The next step is oral interviews, which are scheduled for September.

From there, the scores will be used to compile a list of the top 20 applicants and a backup list of 10 in October.

When the police department want to hire a new officer, it has to pick someone from those lists.