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Police departments stave off low numbers

The days of waiting for applicants are over. 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. And fewer recruits are making it from the police academy to the streets.

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.

"The days of waiting for a candidate to come to us are gone," said Sgt. Terry Teunis of the Clearwater Police Department. "We've got to go get them."

* * *

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 protracted wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have not only attracted some young men or women 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 law enforcement agencies like Homeland Security, Border Patrol and the FBI. That has increased competition with local agencies.

"Competition has never been fiercer," said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a Washington, D.C., police think tank, who said he has heard of agencies offering $10,000 bonuses to woo job applicants. "If you would have told me 10 years ago that would happen ... I would have said you were nuts."

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 prior law enforcement experience will suffice.

"Since we are trying to get people with college backgrounds, we are going for a smaller piece of the pie," said Tom Lange of the Police Applicant Screening Service, an organization that screens Pinellas County's law enforcement applicants. Among the requirements: a decent driving record, a clean record and little or no experience with drugs.

Local agencies said the higher standards are necessary in today's world, where an officer needs to be aware of new laws, be able to communicate in person and in written reports, and quickly decide whether to use a service revolver, mace, a Taser or no force at all.

"It's more to it than just going out there, slapping on a badge and carrying a gun," said Clearwater Officer Michael Hatch, who came to work in Clearwater from North Carolina in April. "As a police officer, you have great power, and that's the ability to take away someone's freedom. And like in Spider-Man, with great power comes great responsibility."

Selling it

To grow their applicant pool, some Pinellas agencies have launched ambitious multistate marketing efforts.

In April 2006, the Clearwater Police Department created a lieutenant position to take charge of the personnel and training areas, and in 2005 a sergeant was designated to lead the recruiting effort. The department started going to job fairs and colleges as far away as New York, selling Clearwater's crystal-blue waters as a destination.

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.

"We like to view our agency as having 700 recruiters," St. Petersburg Assistant Chief Cedric Gordan said of the entire police staff. "We encourage each employee to go out and recruit."

Toll of training

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. Including pay and equipment, that's a $62,462 price tag in Clearwater. The problem is, fewer of those recruits make it to the street.

In Clearwater, from 2000 to 2006, the Police Department hired 137 recruits but lost 52 between the start of police academy and the conclusion of field training, according to a December 2006 department report.

In St. Petersburg, the department can expect a 25 percent loss from retirement alone. At one point, attrition through field training was close to 30 percent.

Remedies

To cope, local agencies have worked to streamline what can be an arduous hiring process of background checks and physicals.

St. Petersburg can now hire an experienced officer in three months. St. Petersburg has 30 recruits in the police academy and will have another class during the summer.

To help retain officers, Clearwater now assigns each new police candidate a mentor from the time he or she enters the police academy. Also, new recruits are given two weeks to ride with an officer without being evaluated. Clearwater also has streamlined its process for applicants with former policing experience.

"We have focused the approach to hiring," said Lt. Mike Waters, Clearwater's personnel and training commander. "Time will tell how effective the new changes are, but I can tell you with confidence, things are better."

Fast Facts:

Modern standards

- Usually a college degree

- Or three years of honorable military experience

- Or two years of law enforcement experience

- A clean record

[Last modified March 17, 2007, 19:45:09]