(NewsNation) — Police departments are struggling to recruit new officers as public opinion about the job evolves and violent crime continues to rise.
Those in the industry say it’s a mix of factors pushing would-be officers to other professions.
“If you’ve got a college degree, why would you want to work midnights or have to go through all this public scrutiny when you can go get better job working Monday through Friday?” said police officer Brian Smith, who works for both the Prairie State College and Steger police departments in Illinois.
Departments across the country have been warning about officers leaving the profession in droves for the past two years.
Although the number of sworn police officers increased by 26% between 1987 and 2016, that growth was outpaced by that of the general population, according to the Council on Criminal Justice.
The result: 11.5% fewer officers per capita in 2016, per the most recent data available. At the time, serious crime was declining, meaning there were more officers available to respond to serious offenses, according to the CCJ.
Since then, major events placed law enforcement under added scrutiny. Namely, the death of George Floyd, who was killed by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020, and more recently, the widely criticized police response to the Uvalde, Texas school shooting on May 24.
A Gallup poll conducted in June showed that overall confidence in the police declined between 2021 to 2022.
“The police department does get a lot of criticism for whatever the police do,” Smith said. “It’s not a question of what the criminal does. It’s always what the police actions are. And so that’s going to be a problem because the police don’t find any support now from the community or from the own agency because everyone’s trying to be politically correct.”
Police departments aren’t the only public agencies struggling to bring new hires on board, but the added scrutiny could be a deterrent.
A majority of police officers feel their jobs have gotten more difficult since high-profile incidents have dominated the national conversation, according to a report by the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP).
But people’s opinions about policing are often formed by their perception of the officers in their own communities, according to Wesley Skogan, a professor at Northwestern University’s Institute for Policy Research.
“People can walk and chew gum at the same time…People’s views of the police tend to have a lot stronger connection to local police and local media,” Skogan said.
Alongside public scrutiny, police departments are dealing with a rise in violent crime, up 5% in 2020 according to the FBI. Homicides skyrocketed by 29%.
In areas where staffing is particularly low, communities could face longer response times, fewer solved cases and fewer dispatchers to field calls, according to the IACP recruitment report.
“If law enforcement agencies continue to lose officers without bringing in a number of qualified recruits to replace them, communities will soon begin to feel the effects,” the report read.
A generational emphasis on work-life balance and a tendency for younger generations to move jobs or professions also are contributing factors. In some cases, departments are willing to look past histories of controlled substance and marijuana use, according to the IACP report.
“Some agencies have taken to evaluating current policies that could be creating an initial barrier to applicants such as a no-tattoo policy,” the report stated. “Other policies, like strictly disqualifying anyone with past use of controlled substances, are also starting to be reconsidered.”
But right now, these efforts aren’t moving the needle in some places.
“They’re coming up with bonuses…they’re coming up with a lot of different things, but still it’s not getting the people to sign up,” Smith said.
