Nation’s Police Departments Scramble To Retain, Recruit Officers
Across the country, police chiefs say they are struggling to keep departments fully staffed as resignations increase and hiring gets tougher in the face of a tight labor market and growing awareness of the stresses of police work. Even cash bonanzas aren't working as incentives.
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Across the country, police chiefs say they are struggling to keep departments fully staffed as resignations increase and hiring gets tougher in the face of a tight labor market and growing awareness of the stresses and criticisms of a job that also offers more physical risk for equal or less pay than others currently available on the market, reports the Wall Street Journal.
Some officers say they soured on the job after some police budgets were cut in the midst of “defund the police” movements that were supported by Black Lives Matter protesters, while others point out that, as a result, interactions with community members have also become more confrontational.
And although some cities, including New York and Los Angeles, have increased police funding in response to rising crime, adding hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions, to marketing and recruitment campaigns, a 2021 survey by the Police Executive Research Forum, found that the resignation rate per 100 officers was up 18 percent between April 2020 and March 2021 compared with the prior-year period, while the rate of retirements rose 45 percent and the number of police officers employed nationally dipped 1.6 percent in 2020, after rising over the past decade.
