Police Shortage Hits Critical Mass
If agencies continue to bleed officers and can’t interest recruits in the job, response times are going to go way up.
Law enforcement: It’s a tough job but somebody’s got to do it. But what happens when no one wants to be that somebody?
According to a NBC News report by by Safia Samee Ali, hundreds if not thousands of law enforcement agencies are critically understaffed. Law enforcement is becoming less of a desirable career choice due to diminishing pay and benefits, high risk, and the onslaught of negative press coverage. The current shortage of cops fafflicts police forces from large metropolitan hubs to rural towns.
Jim Burch, vice president of the Police Foundation says, “With everything happening around policing from salary to criticism, the question many people are asking is ‘is it worth it?’”
Ali writes: “Departments are struggling to find not only interested, but interested and qualified, candidates to join the force,” said Jim Burch, vice president of the Police Foundation. “With everything happening around policing from salary to criticism, the question many people are asking is ‘is it worth it?’”
“Every time the economy gets better, the police have a problem recruiting,” said Nelson Lim, executive director of the Fels Institute of Government at the University of Pennsylvania. “It’s like clockwork.”
A blossoming job market means more career choices, said Darrel Stephens, executive director of the Major Cities Chiefs Association. Police departments can’t always keep up with perks other professions in the private sector may offer, he said. “Salary and benefits have declined in many departments,” he said.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the growth rate for “Police and Detectives” as “slower than average” at 4 percent with the average growth rate at 7 percent for other professions. The bottom tenth-percentile for an officer’s salary is $33,430, according to 2015 federal data.
“It’s not an 8-5 job with weekends off,” Stephens said. “The lifestyle is difficult for a lot of people.”
The younger generation is looking for “work-life balance and flexibility, but officers work nights, they work holidays,” he said.
The first sign that something is wrong is when “response times start getting longer and longer,” Burch said. And when that reaches a dire level, public safety could be at risk.
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