WILLISTON, Vt. (WCAX) - Vermont State Police, and local police agencies, are having a hard time finding people to work for them.

“It is an honorable career. We need to protect the United States. We need to protect our home,” Chenoa Dixon of East Ryegate said.

Chenoa Dixon is one of the many that participated in a new initiative to recruit more officers to the force.

She says she moved here with her two kids, bought a house, and now, wants to get her dream job.

“That is the first step, is having good police officers to patrol. To protect our community, I want to be my childrens hero. I want my children to look at me and say, my mom did it,” Dixon said.

In an effort to hire new police officers, Vermont State Police put on what they are calling a pop up test.

It’s the first of its kind for the agency, where people can show up, and take a physical, without an application.

Participants run a mile and a half, row 500 meters, and do as many push ups and sit ups under a minute as they can.

“I think it was a phenomenal idea. I think just not having a written test is already a huge benefit to getting people to show up. Not needing anyone to sign up is huge,” Jonathan Pecka of Plattsburgh said.

For the first session, about 10 people showed up to the event, at the Williston barracks.

And according to Lt. Robert Mckenna, in the last four years, it’s been hard to get people to become an officer, and he’s hoping this exercise can make a difference.

“Folks that have considered applying in the past, that have had trouble taking that first step. May feel a little less anxiety, little less risk with this. We have seen our applications drop significantly. We are hoping there is a turn around somewhere,” McKenna said.

After the pop up, attendees will apply and hear back from an officer about next steps.

Officials with the Vermont State Police say this pop up was a success. They will be doing more like this across the state, next spring.