Police recruiting classes this past winter in Alameda and Contra Costa counties included many typical candidates.

Former military members. Criminal justice students. Recruits already sponsored by a law enforcement agency.

But lately, recruiters say, the field has grown more diverse.

Veteran tech professional. Former electrician and mortgage broker. One-time aspiring nurse.

College-educated and career-shifting recruits have started filling the ranks of aspiring police officers, ushered in part by an economic downturn marked by layoffs and job scarcity, according to recruiters in both counties.

Of those hopefuls, an increasing number are putting themselves through training without the traditional backing of a police agency, aiming to become free agents ready to fill the next open spot.

It's "like going back to college," said Sgt. Dwaine Montes, the Alameda County Sheriff's Academy coordinator.

Montes said that since the job market went south, the number of free-agent recruits has increased. Having five recruits without police backing in the program once would have been considered a high number, Montes said. The most recent academy class drew 22.

That includes San Ramon resident Kristopher Tong. He had a seemingly stable gig as a project manager for Hewlett-Packard for the past five years, but downsizing left him with the choice of taking a buyout or relocating to Texas.

Tong's two brothers are in law enforcement, and following in their footsteps started to appeal to him. He signed up for training with Alameda County and was tapped by the Richmond Police Department before he graduated.

"Since I was laid off, it was a good career to pursue," said Tong, who has a master's degree from Cal State East Bay.

Tong's credentials aren't as surprising as they once would have been to police recruiters. This new entry-level wave comes with more extensive and varied résumés. Recruiters say seeing a candidate with a bachelor's or even a master's degree is less of a rarity.

"It's definitely noticeable," said David O'Brien, a veteran Contra Costa County sheriff's deputy who handles recruiting for the agency. "It used to be that a recruit would have some community college experience at most."

In addition to a higher level of education, some recruiters suggest a maturity boom: The average age of the most recent Alameda County academy, which graduated recruits March 8, was 29.5; in recent years it was 26, and before that, 23.

"We're seeing people a little bit better educated, a little older," Montes said. "People have some kind of life experience. They weren't a career student before."

Keith Kemp, a 32-year-old Stockton resident, said he never really handled a gun before he joined the Alameda County program. Laid off from his job as an electrician more than a year ago, he dabbled in mortgage work before taking an interest in law enforcement.

The driving forces were the aura of stability that surrounds a police job and the challenges of the work.

"Every day is not the same," Kemp said. "You're able to be part of a big family, a team. That really attracted me."

For those just beginning their professional lives, the economy remains a guiding hand. Most police agencies, like those in Contra Costa County, aren't hiring. The Sheriff's Office went through a round of layoffs last year before faster-than-expected attrition and voluntary retirements cleared the way for new hires.

Being in a position to hire in a down economy has helped recruiters be more economical. O'Brien said his agency used to assign full-time deputies to canvass the state for recruits to achieve the typical application pool of more than 500. The Sheriff's Office no longer has that luxury, but a tough job market has made up the difference.

"Now, they come to us," O'Brien said.

Take, for instance, Hilary Phillips, a 24-year-old Southern California native who recently relocated to the Bay Area after searching high and low for a job. She initially tested with the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office but now has decided to put herself through police training elsewhere. Originally a nursing student, a criminal justice class at Santa Barbara City College caught her fancy, and she pursued that field at Cal State Northridge and then Chico State, where she got her degree in 2008.

At the time of her graduation, all seemed well. She was a relatively hot prospect in law enforcement. But within a year or so, the economy tightened city budgets and getting hired wasn't such a sure thing.

"When I graduated, there was heavy recruitment for females with college degrees," Phillips said. "Now it's difficult to get a job. They are only taking academy graduates and laterals" - officers who move from one agency to another.

Richmond police recently laterally hired officers from Vallejo, where the city's bankruptcy filing and subsequent budget cuts forced downsizing.

The majority of recruits are first hired by, or affiliate with, specific city police departments, which provide paid training at an academy like the one run by the Alameda County Sheriff's Office in Dublin or by the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office in Pittsburg.

Like Tong, Kemp and Phillips are taking their chances on their own, putting themselves through a police academy, which can cost as much as $4,000. The hope is that once they graduate, they'll appeal to agencies that can hire them and put them to work right away, instead of gambling on someone who may be six or more months from being duty-ready, assuming they get through training.

Montes, of the Alameda County academy, said he often gets calls from other agencies asking about recruits who aren't affiliated with departments.

"I think what we're seeing more and more of is people hiring nonaffiliated and laterals from other agencies," Montes said.

So far, three nonaffiliates in the Alameda County program, including Tong, have been hired.

But being unaffiliated can be daunting, Kemp said. He and others like him can't seek other employment during their training. Their schedules run from about 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and besides the lack of a steady income, trying to make time for family and other things becomes a challenge.

It brings up a key point that Montes and O'Brien want to stress to the new crop of would-be deputies: joining the academy doesn't automatically put you on the fast track to the stable paycheck and benefits that lure recruits. And the program is mentally and physically grueling.

"It comes down to being prepared," Montes said.

In last winter's Alameda County academy class of 48, 22 free agents started but 10 made it to graduation. Nine quit in the first three days. In all, 36 recruits graduated in March.

O'Brien said that out of the Contra Costa sheriff's application class of about 500, only 18 were deemed fit for the academy, which begins April 12 and graduates recruits Oct. 7.

"It's widely varied," said Phillips, referring to the applicants who were with her when she took the first written exam and physical test that requires hopefuls to scale a 6-foot wall, drag a 165-pound dummy 30 feet, and complete a 500-meter run in less than 1 minute, 45 seconds.

"I've seen everything from young women my age to 50-year-old men who look like they haven't been to a gym in 20 years," Phillips said. "You can figure out who was working out and who thought this would be a fun Saturday."