Thread: Police Face Severe Shortage of Recruits

Police Face Severe Shortage of Recruits

By Oliver Yates Libaw

With the number of applicants down more than 90 percent in some cities, police departments may soon be posting more signs that say “Help Wanted” instead of “Most Wanted.”

From the nation’s largest police force in New York City to tiny departments with only five officers, far fewer people are looking to join the force than in years past, and departments of all sizes are being forced to rethink how they fill their ranks.

While public safety departments face some of the same problems other employers do with U.S. unemployment at a 30-year low, police recruiters are additionally stymied by the job’s low pay, tarnished image, increasingly tougher standards for new recruits and limited job flexibility.

“You don’t move up in a police department the way you would in a dot-com,” admits Chicago Police Department recruiter Patrick Camden.

And most importantly, few jobs are more dangerous.

“You can get shot at for $40,000, or be home with your family for $60,000,” says Seattle police recruiter Jim Ritter.

Trouble From Gotham to Mayberry
Police departments in Los Angeles, New York and Chicago are all working harder at recruitment and drawing fewer applicants. But it is also the same story in smaller cities such as Leesburg, Va., where the number of applicants to the police department has dropped 90 percent over the past five years, and Reno, Nev., which reports a decline of 50 percent since 1997.

A decade ago, there were 3,000 applicants for 10 openings with the Seattle police, the department says. Now there are 1,000 applicants for 70 positions — a drop of more than 90 percent.

In Springfield, Miss., only 75 people applied for the police academy this month. But four years ago, they had 300, reports Elaine Deck, a researcher who has been studying the problem for the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

In rural towns in the South, the number of people showing up to take the written police exam has often dropped 80 percent, she says.

In Fairfax County, Va., an entrance exam advertisement would draw 4,000 people five years ago. Now, it brings in 300.

Toughest in Small Cities The dearth of new officers is affecting most departments, but in many ways small forces are having the toughest time. Large departments have a greater variety of duties and shifts, which many recruits find more appealing.

In addition to offering patrol work, there may be community policing details, bike officers, school officers and other specialty positions. A small force typically has less diversification and less opportunity for advancement, Deck says.

Small departments also generally pay considerably less than big city forces. According to the IACP, the median starting salary for a new officer is $39,000; in smaller departments it is just $30,000 to $32,000.

“The officers equate pay with respect,” says Gilbert Gallegos, president of the Fraternal Order of Police, a national association of rank-and-file officers. Many are reluctant to accept a lower salary they feel is less prestigious.

Rick Baily, the city recruiter in Reno, Nev., where a new cop earns $34,000 a year, says he emphasizes the lower cost of living and less stressful work to prospective recruits, but he admits it can be difficult to convince them.

NYPD Blue Competes With Big Blue
With the U.S. unemployment rate at only 4 percent, competition is fierce for good workers.

“When you’re having to compete against the IBMs, the Microsofts, the Intels, for all the qualified people, it makes for a real contest,” says the FOP’s Gallegos.

Record-low unemployment has made it harder for most industries to fill vacancies, but police recruiters have extra hurdles to overcome. Candidates must pass demanding physical and psychological tests, and they must have a drug-free history and pass a rigorous background check. Many departments administer polygraph tests.

Despite the labor shortage, recruiters say their departments are unwilling to modify their criteria, though the vast majority of applicants are rejected or drop out.

In fact, many departments have been raising requirements for new recruits in recent years, often requiring two years of college or military service, when a high school diploma would have been sufficient in the past. The Seattle Police Department has doubled the number of hours of academy training for recruits in recent years; the Chicago force has raised the minimum age for new officers to 22 from 21.

Retirement Rate Adds Burden
Adding to the problem is the large number of officers taking early retirement. The Los Angeles Police Department’s last major recruitment drive took place over 20 years ago, and those officers are now eligible for early pensions. The department estimates it loses five police officers a day to retirement, out of its force of 9,400. The IACP reports that in Baltimore, 400 of 500 officers took early retirement — far more than officials had expected.

Scandals and negative publicity affecting departments in recent years has also taken a toll, many recruiters say.

But despite the various obstacles, there are still qualified people who want to be cops. Although it has been forced to recruit much more aggressively, the LAPD has still managed to grow from 6,500 officers in 1992 to 9,400 today.

“There are a lot of people that love the job,” says LAPD recruiter Keith Aulick.

Chicago recruiter Camden says he isn’t worried about filling his ranks. He thinks money has never been the primary reason people want to join the force. Still, he admits that he’s had to adopt a more aggressive recruitment strategy to fill his ranks.

For better or worse, few recruiters expect their jobs to get easier, at least while the economy remains strong.

“The days of waiting for people to walk in the door are gone,” says Gallegos.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=96...inglePage=true

Police have a public relations problem. And most of that they've brought on themselves.

Young people don't want to be a part of law enforcement organizations that that arrest 1.5 million Americans a year in a War on Drugs. Young people don't want to be part of law enforcement organizations that target blacks and black communities for arrests.

Young people don't want to be associated with law enforcement organizations that drive military tanks through the town during protests over shootings of unarmed black people.

Young people don't want to be part of law enforcement organizations that use Tasers to electrocute someone because they talked back or didn't understand an "instruction" or many times, didn't do anything at all.

Young people don't want to be part of a law enforcement organization that protects illegal aliens and drug cartels, but targets pot-smokers.

Young people don't want to be part of a law enforcement organization that supports gun control, a protected right of the people.

Young people don't want to be part of what many law enforcement organizations are doing.

It's more than the money, which I'm sure is a problem, too, it's much more a problem of young Americans not wanting to have anything to do with organizations they believe or perceive do the above.

Law enforcement is an essential and very important part of our social fabric, but police officers and their organizations must look at their environments through the same lenses of the American People, and uphold our fundamental beliefs of right and wrong. Police organizations don't recruit from the middle-aged and seniors, they recruit from the pool of young Americans available to pursue these careers, and that means law enforcement organizations have to wake up and operate to the standards of the year 2015, not 50 years ago.

And if I hear a police organization have to report to the public that they're instituting some new program to better train their officers on race and gender issues as some defense to one of their member's wrongful acts, I think I'll puke. This is 2015. The day for "training" has long past. You either hire people who already know these things, or no one who does is going to want to work for you.

That's the bottom-line.

'Who needs this?' Police recruits abandon dream amid anti-cop climate

By Edmund DeMarche
Published September 02, 2015 FoxNews.com



NOW PLAYINGWho is to blame for the war against law enforcement?
Police departments face a recruiting shortage amid a growing anti-cop mood that some fear has taken the pride out of peacekeeping and put targets on the backs of the men and women in blue.

Open calls for the killing of police have been followed by assassinations, including last week's murder in Texas of a Harris County sheriff's deputy. Instead of dialing back the incendiary rhetoric, groups including "Black Lives Matter" have instead doubled down at demonstrations with chants of "Pigs in a blanket, fry me like bacon." Public safety officials fear the net effect has been to demonize police, and diminish the job.

"It's a lot harder to sell now," Jeff Roorda, business manager of the St. Louis Police Officers Association and former state representative, told FoxNews.com. "This is a very real phenomenon."

"We're sitting ducks. We're in these uniforms, brightly colored cars and there's nothing we can do."

- Sgt. Delroy Burton, DC Police Union in Washington

Roorda's colleagues witnessed the fierce, anti-police rioting that followed the police shooting last year of Michael Brown in nearby Ferguson, Missouri. Even though a grand jury and a federal Justice Department inquiry did not fault Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson, debunked claims that the cop killed Brown as he held his hands up and begged for his life have animated the Black Lives Matter movement as it spread around the nation.

Roorda, who spoke in defense of police in the aftermath of the Ferguson shooting, said protesters took to Twitter to promote a #KillRoorda hashtag.

"You no longer just have to worry about your life while in uniform," he said. "Now you have to be worried about the well-being of your family," he said.

Roorda said the new academy class continues to be delayed and the police force loses about double the amount of officers per year than in the past.

Knowing police face public scorn or career-ending legal battles even if they acted properly has convinced many prospective cops to abandon their dreams of patrolling America's streets.

"I saw all this anti-cop propaganda and I was like, 'Who needs this?'” said Antonio, a New Yorker who asked that only his first name be used. The 32-year-old had applied and been accepted into the NYPD academy, but withdrew his candidacy amid the cop-bashing climate sweeping the country.

Even top police brass understand why the shield has lost its shine.



FILE 2015: Protestors carry signs during a demonstration by "Black Lives Matter" in Los Angeles. (Reuters)

"Right now, policing is not the most attractive occupation that they could probably get into," Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey told CBS.

Recruitment nationally is "way down," said Jonathan Thompson, executive director of the National Sheriff’s Association. He said some sheriffs around the country say the number of applications has fallen by as much as 50 percent.

While blatant calls for killing cops are unusual, the job has always been dangerous. The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, which monitors the number of police officers killed in the line of duty, tabulated 48 police officers around the nation were killed by gunfire in 2014. So far this year, 26 law enforcement officers have been shot to death on duty, putting the nation on track for a 19 percent decrease. But these numbers do not identify police officers intentionally targeted for the mere fact that they wear a badge.

Police in Texas believe that may have been the sole motivation for the murder Friday night of Harris County Sheriff's Officer Darren Goforth at a gas station in a Houston suburb. The suspect in that case, Shannon Jaruay Miles, allegedly came up behind Goforth as he pumped gas and shot the officer 15 times.

In December 2014, New York City Police Officers Wenjian Liu and his partner Rafael Ramos were killed in an ambush while sitting inside their patrol car on a Brooklyn street corner.

"No warning, no provocation," Police Commissioner William Bratton said at the time. "They were quite simply assassinated, targeted for their uniform."

The gunman reportedly announced online that he was planning to shoot two "pigs" to avenge the death of Eric Garner, a Staten Island, N.Y., man who died after being put in a chokehold by police who were arresting him for selling loose cigarettes.

"I'm putting wings on pigs today. They take 1 of ours, let's take 2 of theirs," Ismaaiyl Brinsley wrote on an Instagram account. Brinsley killed himself on a subway platform as police closed in on him.

There is currently a massive manhunt in Fox Lake, Ill., after a police officer was shot and killed while pursuing a group of men. Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz, known affectionately as "GI Joe" was giving chase to three men on foot.

In addition to the Brown and Garner cases, the anti-police sentiment has been fueled by the April death in police custody of Freddie Gray in Baltimore and the fatal shooting, also in April, of Walter Scott in South Carolina. Six Baltimore police officers face charges in the death of Gray, who died of injuries suffered while being transported in a police van. North Charleston Police Officer Michael Slager has been charged with murder in Scott's shooting.

Galvanized by the deaths, Black Lives Matter has sought to bring attention to the issue of police brutality with protests around the nation.

"What's more uncomfortable, shouting, stopping freeways and interrupting speeches -- or being murdered by police and having your body left in the street for more than four hours, or turning up dead in a jail cell after a traffic stop?" the group posted on Facebook.

Some law enforcement officials believe President Obama has fanned the flames by not denouncing the movement more unequivocally, although he did personally call the widow of Goforth and has condemned violence against police.

"President Obama has breathed life into this ugly movement," Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke told "Fox & Friends." "And it is time now for good, law-abiding Americans to rise up. We now have to counter this slime, this filth coming out of these cop haters."

Sgt. Delroy Burton, chairman of the DC Police Union in Washington, compared the current treatment of police to veterans returning from the Vietnam War.

"We have to fight the bad guys, and the policymakers go unnoticed," he said.

Burton, who was born in Jamaica and is a former U.S. Marine, said his police force is about 131 officers understaffed and has seen nearly 600 officers resign in the past 19 months -- a number he said is unheard of.

"We're sitting ducks," he said. "We're in these uniforms, brightly colored cars and there's nothing we can do. And the vast majority supports this loud vocal minority."

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/09/02...i-cop-climate/

Arby's Apologizes After Worker Refuses to Serve Officer

PEMBROKE PINES, Fla. — Sep 2, 2015, 4:48 PM ET

The Arby's restaurant chain is apologizing after an employee at a South Florida location refused to serve a police officer.

Pembroke Pines Police Chief Dan Giustino says the Atlanta-based company's chief executive officer and senior vice president of operations contacted him Wednesday afternoon, just hours after Giustino publicly announced the slight against one of his officers.

Arby's also put out a news release saying the company respects and supports police and that disciplinary action would be taken.

An incident report says a police sergeant attempted to order at the Arby's drive-thru, about 20 miles north of Miami, Tuesday evening.

A manager explained the drive-thru worker didn't want to serve her because she was a police officer. The manager ordered the employee to serve the sergeant, but after that, she said she no longer felt comfortable eating the food.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/a...ficer-33489413

Police Union Calling For Arby’s Boycott After Officer Denied Service

September 2, 2015 2:35 PM

PEMBROKE PINES (CBSMiami) — A South Florida police union is calling for a national boycott of Arby’s after police say an officer was denied service.

Police said an employee at an Arby’s located at 11755 Pines Blvd denied the uniformed officer service on Monday night. According to police, the officer was denied service because she was a police officer.

“I am offended and appalled that an individual within our community would treat a police officer in such a manner. It is unacceptable,” stated PPPD Chief Dan Giustino.

In reaction to the incident the Dade County Police Benevolent Association is calling for the employees involved to be fired.

“It is beyond comprehension and deeply troubling that a business would deny service to a law enforcement officer just for being a law enforcement officer. In this case, after the clerk refused to serve the officer, the manager came up to the window laughing and said that the clerk had the right to refuse service to the officer. This is yet another example of the hostile treatment of our brave men and women simply because they wear a badge. It is unacceptable and warrants much more than an apology. We support our brothers and sisters who wear the badge in Broward County and across the United States. Until corrective action is taken and the employees involved in this incident are terminated, we are calling for a national boycott of Arby’s,” said Florida and Dade County PBA president John Rivera.

According to a police report on the incident, the police officer was told by the manager “He doesn’t want to serve you because you are a police officer.”

After that the officer said she wasn’t certain she wanted to dine at the restaurant but the manager assured her everything was okay and handed the officer the food, according to the report.

The manager allegedly laughed about it and said the clerk was allowed to refuse to serve the officer.

That’s when the officer said she was unsure about the condition of her food, decided not to eat there and asked for a refund, the report states.

The incident is considered to be isolated.

“We are very proud of the partnerships we have built within our city, and for an incident like this to have happened is very disappointing for everyone,” said Chief Giustino.

Police said Arby’s responded to the incident after Chief Giustino contacted the corporation.

Arby’s Chief Executive Officer Paul Brown and Senior Vice President of Operations Scott Boatwright contacted Chief Giustino to apologize on behalf of the organization. Both men assured the chief, “the employee’s behavior was unacceptable and not representative of the company’s values,” according to police.

The company issued a statement on the matter saying, “We take this isolated matter very seriously as we respect and support police officers in our local communities. As soon as the issue was brought to our attention, our CEO spoke with the Police Chief who expressed his gratitude for our quick action and indicates the case is closed. We will be following up with our team members to be sure that our policy of inclusion is understood and adhered to.”

http://miami.cbslocal.com/2015/09/02...vice-at-arbys/

This could throw.... no this will throw the United States into complete bloody anarchy if it continues.

W

There’d be more black cops if fewer blacks were criminals: Bratton

By Bob Fredericks
June 9, 2015 | 4:48pm

Bill BrattonPhoto: Getty Images

The NYPD is struggling to add more African-Americans to its ranks because too many black candidates have criminal records, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said.

“We have a significant population gap among African-American males because so many of them have spent time in jail and, as such, we can’t hire them,” Bratton told the UK’s Guardian newspaper in a story published Tuesday.

And he blamed the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk policies under his predecessor, Ray Kelly, for causing the problem, because most stops were in minority communities, where crime rates are highest.

The “unfortunate consequences” of “stop, question and frisk” resulted in many black and Latino men getting busted and having records, he added.

As a result, the “population pool [of minority candidates] is much smaller than it might ordinarily have been,” he said.

“We’re certain the disfavor and the antagonism in the black community toward the police is a principal factor in why so few black men want to become police officers,” the commissioner added.

Later on Tuesday, the commissioner told reporters that the Guardian story was a “misrepresentation” and gave a fuller quote that he said gives more context to his views.

“It is a fact that a higher percentage of black males are precluded from becoming a police officer because of criminal history than white candidates or other minority candidates,” he said. “It’s as much as the same that it is a fact that in this city there is a higher percentage of black males that are murdered and a higher percentage of them doing the murdering. These are facts, and I always deal with facts.”

While Bratton has scaled back stop-and-frisk, he has remained a champion of his “Broken Windows” policing — targeting minor crimes to prevent more serious ones.

According to a September story in The Post, blacks represent 23 percent of the city’s population and 16 percent of the NYPD.

Whites make up 33 percent of the population and 54 percent of the department, and  Hispanics make up 28 percent of the population and 24 percent of the police force.

Convicted felons, those found guilty of domestic violence, and candidates who have been dishonorably discharged from the armed forces are automatically disqualified from the NYPD under department policy.

http://nypost.com/2015/06/09/too-man...heets-bratton/

http://www.alipac.us/f19/boston-poli...s-fire-322828/

http://www.alipac.us/f9/abilene-offi...ies%92-322803/