I can speak on the issue of police recruiting and retention of senior officers.
The SP ran a test recently and changed it to a decentralized test taken over a staggered number of days to increase the ease of signing up/accessibility. The results were approximately 12,000 people took the test (typically upwards of 25,000 take it - 33,000 when I did 20 yrs ago). The issue isn’t even the amount signing up, although that’s quite an alarming trend, it’s the type of candidate that is being recruited. They focused on mostly inner city areas and neglected the state universities and community colleges. Neglected high schools and job fairs in rural counties….. The issue is DIVERSITY matters more than anything. The planners are so busy patting themselves on the back for increasing the diversity of the test takers that they didn’t realize only a very small number of those can get through the background check. It’s very difficult to qualify for the job with the physical standards, education standards, psychological exam, polygraph exam, thorough background check, drug testing, not to mention restrictions on visible tattoos, and of course the overwhelming media narrative of every officer being irredeemable racists that are power hungry bullies.
The bail reform in NY and progressive AG/Legislature and nearly impossible Discovery requirements make policing very difficult and nearly every officer feels completely unsupported. The further away from all the peaceful protests we get, the more decent people realize how much the far left overplayed their hand/narrative. I was witness to so much reprehensible treatment of law enforcement officer during these peaceful protests. Until you’ve been spit on, had rocks thrown at you or been threatened by crowds to kill you and your family - it’s hard to take your opinion seriously. I’m not saying there wasn’t reason to be upset, but the sensationalizing of it was awful.
All of this led to a mass exodus from my agency. Now the same people that tried to literally defund us are dumping money at the problem. The bloodletting is insane. My academy graduated 206 twenty years ago and 86 have left the job (most from service retirements). That is the earliest one without prior state service or military “buy back” can leave with a pension. This was never the case before recently. You would expect 25 or so to be gone under more normal circumstances. The amount of training and investment to get new officers takes a while. It will take several years running an academy at full throttle to even come close to catching up. We’re not even keeping up now.
This is with our agency offering one of the highest salaries in the country for police. It all adds up to a lot of problems in staffing police agencies. This doesn’t even speak to urban police (which has had it worse) as they make less and deal with even more political headaches. I spoke with a captain yesterday from a small city department and they can’t even get people to take the job that are on their civil service list. The state legislature is now looking at monetary ways to retain senior officers. It will likely be very lucrative for those who stay, but even with that prospect many are still leaving.
In my coaching and social circles I’ve had many approach me about becoming an officer. Of the most recent 10-12 that I’ve had in depth discussions with, only 2-3 are still seriously considering it.
Sorry for the rambling, but I see this stuff and felt the need to get some information out there.
www.wmdt.com
www.latimes.com
