Highlights
USDOJ: Law enforcement agencies across the country face a “historic crisis” in recruiting and retaining qualified candidates.
Are we moving towards the greater use of questionably trained and heavily armed security officers to take their place?
Do fewer cops have public safety implications?
Author
Leonard Adam Sipes, Jr.
Retired federal senior spokesperson. Thirty-five years of directing award-winning public relations (and explaining crime data) for national and state criminal justice agencies. Interviewed multiple times by every national news outlet. Former Senior Specialist for Crime Prevention for the Department of Justice’s clearinghouse. Former Director of Information Services, National Crime Prevention Council. Former Adjunct Associate Professor of Criminology and Public affairs-University of Maryland, University College. Former advisor to presidential and gubernatorial campaigns. Former advisor to the “McGruff-Take a Bite Out of Crime” national media campaign. Certificate of Advanced Study-Johns Hopkins University. Former police officer. Aspiring drummer.
Author of ”Success With The Media: Everything You Need To Survive Reporters and Your Organization” available at Amazon and additional booksellers.
Quotes
All quotes are edited for brevity.
Article
For years, pundits declared that there was no “crisis” as to cops resigning, retiring, or the lack of recruitment. Since 2014, there has been a massive amount of negative publicity attached to police use of force issues. The dysfunctional “defund the police” movement was demoralizing prompting thousands of veteran police officers to leave.
Staffing has massive public safety implications. Proactive policing has the only substantial and replicated research base for reducing crime. But without sufficient numbers, proactive policing becomes irrelevant.
Thousands of police officers have left their jobs during a time of rising violence (per the National Crime Victimization Survey) and record fear of crime.
Politicians want more from law enforcement as they pass firearm-related red flag laws and demand that police officers be in every school. They want security for big events. They want protection from mass shooters.
If there are thousands of police officers leaving or if recruitment is challenged, who’s available to perform these functions?
US Department of Justice-Cops Facing A Historic Crisis
Recruitment and Retention for the Modern Law Enforcement Agency is a product of the Bureau of Justice Assistance and the COPS Office of the Office of Justice Programs, US Department of Justice. It offers the following:
“In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, a tightening labor market, heightened community frustration with the policing profession, and concerns about officer safety and well-being, law enforcement agencies across the country face an historic crisis in recruiting and retaining qualified candidates (emphasis added).”
“As agencies continue to seek innovative ways to attract qualified potential candidates and retain current staff, the crisis demands an immediate and effective response to ensure that law enforcement agencies can maintain staffing levels sufficient to support their communities’ public safety needs (emphasis added).”
“Law enforcement is at a crossroads (emphasis added) as more officers are leaving the field through resignation or retirement and fewer qualified applicants are considering policing as a career.”
Maintaining Staffing Levels Sufficient to Support Public Safety Needs?
It wasn’t that long ago that pundits were disputing that there were any concerns at all about cops leaving the job or that recruitment was lagging. To them, the numbers were irrelevant.
Officer Snowflake-The Marshall Project
From The Marshall Project: “Officer Snowflake. Reporters are enabling a false narrative about demoralized cops fleeing their departments in the face of criticism for their misconduct.”
From The New Republic: “The Damning Truth Behind Cop “Walkout” Stories-The New York Times and other news media are laundering an exaggerated narrative about besieged officers—one that’s meant to threaten anyone who questions police power.”
The article states that stories on cops leaving are, “part of a consistent, fairly exaggerated narrative emerging in response to ongoing efforts to end police violence: that such calls and protests have demoralized police to the extent that officers are fleeing the force and that a spike in crime is the inevitable price we will pay,” Officers Leaving.
Since last summer’s Black Lives Matter protests, there’s a popular refrain echoing through urban police precincts, rural sheriff’s offices and city halls everywhere in between: Officers are fleeing America’s police forces in big numbers, officials say. And the timing couldn’t be worse, amid a rise in murders and shootings. Many argue cities must hire more police, but against the backdrop of nationwide scrutiny of police killings, morale has dropped to the point that few people want to be officers.
The Numbers From The Marshall Project Were Misleading
The Marshall Project states that local police agencies lost about 4,000 employees per annual number comparing 2019-2021.
However, if you look at data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the country lost 11,009 police officers from March of 2020 to March of 2021.
If we have a preliminary yearly number of 11,009 for 2021 that indicates that we may have a bigger problem with officers leaving than we originally thought.
More On Cops Leaving
USA Today: Police departments are grappling with a “historic crisis in recruiting and retaining” officers because of a tight labor market during the pandemic and community frustrations, the Justice Department said, recommending a series of policy changes Tuesday to find and keep officers.
The recommendations came in response to a survey of 182 police agencies across 38 states and Washington, D.C., that found a decline in sworn officers and hiring that couldn’t keep pace with losses.
The total number of sworn officers dropped from 83,497 in January 2020 to 79,464 in January, according to the survey by the Police Executive Research Forum.
More From The Police Executive Research Forum:
A 5% decrease in the hiring rate.
An 18% increase in the resignation rate.
A 45% increase in the retirement rate.
Agencies With 250 Or More Sworn Personnel Saw The Biggest Decreases.
There was a 29% reduction in the hiring rate for agencies with 250-499 officers.
There was a 36% reduction in the hiring rate for agencies with 500 or more officers.
A 63 Percent Reduction in Hiring Police Officers
Agencies participating in the survey reported that there has been a 63% decrease in applying to become a police officer.
Data states that (72%) of officers are now less willing to stop and question suspicious persons
The TRACE– Do Fewer Cops Mean More Private Security?
If we don’t have enough police officers, we hire security officers.
At a recent West Philadelphia community fair for people seeking to have criminal charges expunged from their records, children defied gravity on bouncy houses and residents grooved to the beats of homegrown rappers. Steps away, four armed guards were on patrol to prevent new crimes from being committed.
Across the city, as worshipers arrived at a northeast Philadelphia mosque — a converted single-family home with a congregation so large its members spill out the door and onto the paved lawn and alley — they sought protection not just from Allah, but also from three guards clad in black tactical gear, clutching rifles with Glock handguns on their hips.
Certified by the Pennsylvania State Police, the guards’ proliferation, some believe, is a direct result of the city’s record gun-violence epidemic and the police department’s inability to hire and deploy enough officers. Between 2019 and 2022, the number of newly certified private guards and those renewing their licenses rose by 9.5 percent in Philadelphia, from 569 to 623, according to the State Police. Statewide, that number increased by 6.7 percent, from 3,212 to 3,428.
Pennsylvania isn’t alone. Nationally, private security officers outnumber public police 1.3 million to 800,000.
Conclusions
So after being told by major national news organizations that there was no “crisis” in police officer retention or hiring, we now have a declared “crisis” by the US Department of Justice.
Are we coming to a point where we have no choice but to hire security officers to do the jobs of law enforcement? Is this why firearm and security sales are skyrocketing? Is this why some states are encouraging teachers to carry firearms? Is this why red flag laws are not being enforced? Is this a contributing factor to violent crime increasing to record levels per the National Crime Victimization Survey? Is this a partial reason why we have a record fear of crime?
No one is suggesting that cops are blameless as to egregious use of force issues. No one is suggesting that we don’t hold the profession accountable.
But we don’t condemn the entire medical profession for endless well-documented mistakes. We don’t call for journalism to be defunded when their public approval rating is at rock bottom while the public (regardless of demographics) holds law enforcement in high regard.
The solution to a lack of cops is a reassessment of how we train, pay, equip, or portray law enforcement and an understanding that dramatically fewer cops have considerable public safety issues.
Is law enforcement at a literal crossroads per the US Department of Justice? A better question; is public safety at a crossroads?
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