Who wants to be a police officer?

Across the country, interest in becoming a police officer is down dramatically. In Nashville, Tennessee, job applications dropped from 4,700 in 2010 to 1,900 last year. In Seattle, Washington, applications have declined by nearly 50 percent, in a department where the starting salary is $79,000. Even the FBI saw a sharp drop, from 21,000 applications per year to 13,000 last year, before a new marketing campaign brought an upswing.

And retaining officers once they've joined is getting harder too. In a Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) survey of nearly 400 police departments about voluntary resignations, 29 percent of those who left their police job voluntarily had been on the force less than a year, and another 40 percent had been on the job less than five years.

"There's an increased potential for officers to be criminally liable for making a good faith mistake," said Terry Sult, the Hampton, Virginia, police chief. "We're seeing a lot more media coverage of officers being prosecuted, and that weighs heavily on a lot of officers' hearts. ... That's a stressor on whether I want to stay in this position or not."

The videos of police misconduct, or fatal shootings, have damaged the perception of American police officers, but not irrevocably, said Antoinette Archer, director of human relations for the Richmond, Virginia, police. For many people, "they're taken aback by the brutality, not by the profession," Archer said. "If we can be inclusive" of women and people of color, "those individuals who can see a part of their fabric in the department will come forward. ... If the environment is not inclusive, you're going to lose them."

But whatever the reason for officers leaving, the process of replacing them has gotten tougher. Nearly 66 percent of the nearly 400 police departments surveyed said their number of applicants had decreased. Hiring in a healthy economy is one problem, police officials said, because private industry can offer better salaries.

Still, pay isn't the main reason many pass policing by, Deputy Seattle Chief Marc Garth Green said. "Number one is validation," Green said. "The validation that they're putting their life on the line. There's no respect for that," and he blamed the news media for undermining respect for police authority.  (Stars & Stripes, December 4, 2018)
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In July 2018 we saw that Seattle Cops Flee the Force in 'Mass Exodus' Because of Politics. And in August 2018, Lacey, WA Police Department is a ‘Mess,’ Union Says.

When officers can't expect and don't receive support from department leadership you cannot expect them to stay with their departments. And when officers are unsatisfied with their work environments - ranging for internal politics to outright hostile workplaces - this attitude will be reflected in the community, greatly limiting applications to work within those departments.

Most men and women in law enforcement are no-doubt decent people who really care about their communities, but if we are going to keep good men and women in law enforcement we need to ensure that they are supported by their departments and by their communities as a whole.

 

Operating in Hostile and Non-Permissive Environments:
A Survival and Resource Guide for Those Who Go in Harm’s Way