In my current residence of Idaho, some LE agencies are having trouble filling vacant positions. One county sheriff’s department told the Moscow-Pullman Daily News that things have gotten so bad for them that during a three-week period in which the department announced it was hiring, it received only seven applications. When the county sheriff reached out to each of those applicants inviting them to attend an initial testing session, only three showed up. This sheriff’s department is not alone in its struggle to find applicants. A New York Times article published this summer found that police departments in big cities are struggling to fill thousands of openings.
Idaho’s hiring problem with this particular county sheriff’s department presumably isn’t the salary, which is more than $18 per hour for deputies with no experience. In the article, the county sheriff said he understood why people don’t want to apply to be a sheriff’s deputy, pointing to the many national stories that put law enforcement in a “negative light.”
As the sheriff alludes to, one can only speculate that this negativity is having at least a small part in keeping people from applying. Policing can certainly be a thankless job—not to mention that it is a trying time to be a police officer. The Pew Research Center reported earlier this year that while 79 percent of police officers say they have been thanked by a community member for their service in the last month, about 67 percent say they have been verbally abused by a community member during the same time period.
Are you having a tough time finding candidates—qualified or not—to fill empty positions? If so, please share your experience with me at [email protected]. In order to increase interest in and exposure to vacant positions, the Fort Worth Police Department (Texas) had to get creative and developed a Star-Wars-themed recruitment video that gained national attention last year. How are you getting the attention of potential applicants?
I want to draw attention now to our school resource officers. Congratulations to Deputy Dan Sperry, Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office (Idaho) who this summer was presented the NASRO Floyd Ledbetter National School Resource Officer of the Year Award. The annual award recognizes an SRO who has made specific and significant contributions to his/her local town, city, county and/or school district. As the 2017-2018 school year goes into full-swing, the staff at Southcomm Law Enforcement Media wishes all SROs a good and safe year.
Stay safe, readers!
Submit your questions, news tips and comments to [email protected].
Adrienne Zimmer | Editor
Adrienne Zimmer was the Editor of Law Enforcement Technology magazine, a monthly business-to-business publication that covers technology trends and best practices for public safety managers from 2017 to 2019. LET is part of Officer Media Group, which also publishes Law Enforcement Product News and Officer.com. Adrienne has been in publishing since 2013.
