Police Shortage Hits Cities and Small Towns Across the Country

[CPRAFAN]

"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?

Numerous police departments around the country are desperately losing manpower with decreasing numbers of officers and recruits. Law enforcement is becoming less of a desirable career choice due to diminishing pay, high risk, and of course a recent bad rap — a trend that could put public safety at risk, say policing experts.

The current shortage afflicts police forces from large metropolitan hubs to rural towns . . . "

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/police-shortage-hits-cities-small-towns-across-country-n734721?cid=public-rss_20170320

No problem - the new Robocops and ED-209s will hit the streets in a year or two. OCP to the rescue!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m8xSwrK6sM

[CinnamonBear723]

It was only a matter of time. With so much animosity and hatred toward a profession that pays a blue collar wage, why would anyone sign up these days. Even if you have a moral compass to help others, you can do any number of professions where you aren't constantly scrutinized for doing a job that most cannot do, or understand how to do it.

You make one decision that doesn't look good, even if it's the right one, the court of public opinion and cry baby criminal liberals will call for your head and unfortunately politicians and even judges will fold like a cheap suit under the pressure for fear of losing they seats at the royal court.

If that's not bad enough, now they are taking away our pensions little by little until retired cops are gunna have to get jobs mixing paint at Home Depot just to make ends meat. And that's only if you don't get shot to death or die in a car crash before you get to retirement.

It's not hard to understand why there is a shortage. And I only touched on a few issues. There are more out there.

[Country_Jim]

It was only a matter of time. With so much animosity and hatred toward a profession that pays a blue collar wage, why would anyone sign up these days. Even if you have a moral compass to help others, you can do any number of professions where you aren't constantly scrutinized for doing a job that most cannot do, or understand how to do it.

You make one decision that doesn't look good, even if it's the right one, the court of public opinion and cry baby criminal liberals will call for your head and unfortunately politicians and even judges will fold like a cheap suit under the pressure for fear of losing they seats at the royal court.

If that's not bad enough, now they are taking away our pensions little by little until retired cops are gunna have to get jobs mixing paint at Home Depot just to make ends meat. And that's only if you don't get shot to death or die in a car crash before you get to retirement.

It's not hard to understand why there is a shortage. And I only touched on a few issues. There are more out there.

That about sums it up.

[CBR_rider]

It was only a matter of time.....

Good points. It's not all bad and I think there are worse careers out there; but this career field in particular nowadays has LEO's running a heightened risk of doing the right thing and still being vilified/without of a career due to the court of public opinion.

[Samuelx]

Good points. It's not all bad and I think there are worse careers out there; but this career field in particular nowadays has LEO's running a heightened risk of doing the right thing and still being vilified/without of a career due to the court of public opinion or clueless upper management.

fixed it for ya

[CBR_rider]

fixed it for ya

Critical oversight on my part, thanks!! It's sad but true

[Spanky8601]

Clueless Upper Management will solve the problem by engaging in a hiring strategy like LAPD when they hired the likes of Raphael Perez of Rampart fame.

[oddjob]

I'm retired, but I still know folks in agencies and I hear the same thing over and over.....Candidates can't pass the background investigations. The ones that do pass can't pass probation. I met one "officer" who lasted 20 hours and then resigned.

It will get worse too. As more retire its getting that much harder to back fill the positions.

[M1NM]

Snowflakes need not apply. Obummers embracement of the BLM BS. Tough job - it's not the ideal helping people job you desire but one dealing with the scum of humankind. Also shift work sucks. Maybe a good place for a lot of refugees - look at where the Irish found a home when they first came here in the mid-late 1800s. Boston, NY 100+ year history of Irish cops. Of course with the recent refugees we'd need to also switch to sharia law.

[Ford8N]

I'm retired, but I still know folks in agencies and I hear the same thing over and over.....Candidates can't pass the background investigations. The ones that do pass can't pass probation. I met one "officer" who lasted 20 hours and then resigned.

It will get worse too. As more retire its getting that much harder to back fill the positions.

^^^^^ Not everyone is a devout Mormon, everyone has a little "history". EVERYONE. So lighten up on the background check and you will have more candidates.

[RedVines]

My dept "lightened up". They hired someone with three misd (647f deuce) and two felony arrests (DV and 261). He casually mentioned it to his FTO as they drove past the scene of his arrest.

[CinnamonBear723]

^^^^^ Not everyone is a devout Mormon, everyone has a little "history". EVERYONE. So lighten up on the background check and you will have more candidates.

Our department has the ability to overlook a lot. Its not about lightening up. Everyone i work with has "History" but they were honest about it and put time and distance between mistakes made. In fact, i would argue that people with some life experience do better and understand how to interact with people better than someone who was a police explorer at 14 and went to the academy at 20 1/2. Not that its a bad thing to have done that, but from what ive experienced, guys who start in their late 20's whove gone out and worked other jobs, and maybe made a mistake or two along the way, tend to do much better.

We still have a tough time finding good people that can first pass the background, then pass training. You would be surprised how bad some candidates are. You also have to factor in how low you are willing to set the bar just to get warm bodies in radio cars. I doubt the public would be happy if we started lowering it too much.

[stormvet]

^^^^^ Not everyone is a devout Mormon, everyone has a little "history". EVERYONE. So lighten up on the background check and you will have more candidates.

That's not accurate, plenty of normal everyday people have a squeaky clean background. They are also the ones intelligent enough to know, they can make much better money doing something else with far less risk. And far less Monday morning QB'ing by the uninformed, that often include your city management.

My kids backgrounds are squeaky clean and I advice them against a career in LE after spending three decades in it myself.

[legalbroker]

FWIW...if police depts. acted (not all) like they want to hire folks they would have much better luck.

When I went through background I felt like they did every thing to get me DQ'd. when I passed my polygraph the person conducting it asked me over and over again the same questions even though I passed there test.

One day, I just said "i don't need this" and walked away. Never regretted it.

I have great respect for cops...work with a lot of them, have a lot as friends too....

Seems like the last 15 - 20 years a lot of depts. don't want meat eaters any more...they want the guy/gal who is innocent or timid...
Just my .2cents

[CinnamonBear723]

FWIW...if police depts. acted (not all) like they want to hire folks they would have much better luck.

When I went through background I felt like they did every thing to get me DQ'd. when I passed my polygraph the person conducting it asked me over and over again the same questions even though I passed there test.

One day, I just said "i don't need this" and walked away. Never regretted it.

I have great respect for cops...work with a lot of them, have a lot as friends too....

Seems like the last 15 - 20 years a lot of depts. don't want meat eaters any more...they want the guy/gal who is innocent or timid...
Just my .2cents

The background process is department dependent. I was going thru several backgrounds at the same time and I can say they were all quite different. Every dept had their own culture. A part of conducting a background is finding out how serious someone is about being a copper as well as making sure they are not lying about ANYTHING. That's why there is a lot of repetitive questioning.

As far as the timid and shy thing, I can't speak for every dept, but it seems more and more depts are overly concerned with someone's education and how they look on paper. Unfortunately, this sometimes leads to hiring ppl straight out of college who have little to no work history, and little to know life experience. Again, in my experience, these ppl have a hard time interacting with ppl or being assertive enough to do the job.

Most ppl with higher education simply realize they can do something less stressful and make more money so they generally "resign" and move on with their life.