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Arrested development
Clearwater police ranks have thinned. Here's why and what they're doing about it.
By DEMORRIS A. LEE
Published March 18, 2007
The Clearwater Police Department has 35 officers who can retire in June after 20 years. The St. Petersburg Police Department has at least 100 officers who can retire in the next four years. In Largo, staffing is down eight officers. But the staffing crisis facing area police departments isn't just because of retirement. Agencies are also seeing a dwindling pool of applicants. The result: Pinellas police agencies, like many others around the country, have become more aggressive than ever in their search for potential men and women to fill the uniform. Blame at least part of the problem of a shrinking applicant pool on a strong economy and the war on terror, local police agencies said. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have not only attracted some who might be interested in law enforcement; they have temporarily thinned law enforcement agencies' ranks, because many full-time police officers are members of either a military guard or reserve. The war on terror has also boosted the ranks of federal agencies like Homeland Security, Border Patrol and the FBI. That has increased competition with local agencies. Modern policing has compounded the problem. Agencies have increased their requirements for applicants, further shrinking the pool. Agencies are now looking for recruits with college degrees, although they will accept some with two years of college. Three years of honorable military experience or two years of law enforcement experience will suffice. To grow their applicant pool, some Pinellas agencies have launched ambitious multistate marketing efforts. In St. Petersburg, advertisements for new officers are published in the Chicago Tribune and the Philadelphia Inquirer. A loan of up to $14,000 is offered to officers who wish to buy or renovate a house in the city. And if any department employee helps to recruit a new officer, he is given eight hours of paid vacation. Once they land a candidate, agencies are finding that their problems aren't over. It can take six months to a year to get an officer from basic recruit school to walking the streets solo. Demorris A. Lee can be reached at 727 445-4174 or dalee@sptimes.com.
[Last modified March 18, 2007, 00:14:48]
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