PHILADELPHIA — Police departments across the United States are reporting an increase in their ranks for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 killing of George Floyd, leading to a historic exodus of officers, a study has found.
More sworn officers were hired in 2023 than in any of the previous four years, and fewer officers overall resigned or retired, according to the 214 law enforcement agencies that responded to a Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) survey.
Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police officers sparked nationwide protests against police brutality and increased scrutiny of law enforcement.
As more and more officers left, many departments have had to redeploy scarce resources by moving officers away from investigative work or quality of life issues, such as abandoned vehicles or noise violations, to address the increase in crime, and in some cases the shortages meant slower response times or limiting responses to emergencies only, police officials say.
“I just think the last four years have been particularly challenging for American policing,” said Chuck Wexler, executive director of PERF, a nonprofit police think tank based in Washington, DC. corner.”
However, individual departments are turning that corner at different rates, according to Wexler, who noted that many are still struggling to attract and retain officers.
Overall, the profession is “not out of the woods yet,” he said.
The Associated Press left phone and email messages with several unions and police departments asking for more staff.
The study shows that while small and mid-sized departments had more sworn officers than in January 2020, large departments are still more than 5% below their then-current headcount, even with a year-over-year increase from 2022 to 2023.
The survey also found that smaller departments with fewer than 50 officers continue to experience higher rates of layoffs and retirements.
The survey only asked for numbers, Wexler said, so it’s hard to say whether these officers are leaving for larger departments or leaving the profession altogether. He also said smaller departments, which represent 80% of agencies nationwide, were underrepresented in the responses PERF received.
Many larger departments have increased officer salaries or started offering incentives such as signing bonuses for experienced officers willing to transfer, something smaller departments can’t really compete with. At least a dozen smaller departments have been disbanded, leaving the municipalities they once served dependent on state or county help for policing.
But even some of the highest-paying large departments still struggle to bring on new hires.
“I don’t think it’s all about money. I think it’s about the way people perceive their jobs and feel supported,” Wexler said. “You have West Coast departments paying six figures but still seeing significant challenges in hiring.”
In addition to rewards and bonuses, many agencies are re-examining their interview requirements and recruitment processes.
Wexler believes some of these changes make sense, including allowing visible tattoos, reconsidering the importance of past financial problems and processing applicant background checks more quickly. But he warned that PERF is not in favor of lowering standards for training or for applicants.
Maria “Maki” Haberfeld, chair of the Department of Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, says departments are too focused on the number of officers. She worries that some are lowering education requirements and other standards to increase numbers, instead of trying to find the best people to oversee their communities.
“Policing is a real profession that requires more skills and more training than people can understand,” she said. “It’s not about tattoos or running a mile in 15 minutes. It’s really more about emotional intelligence, maturity and split-second decision making that doesn’t involve the use of lethal force.”
Haberfeld also warned that any workforce gains made through incentives could easily be wiped out, especially as officers, including some in riot gear, have broken up protests against the Israel-Hamas war at universities across the country.
“In policing, it takes decades for progress to be made and it takes a split second for public attitudes to deteriorate,” she said.
The PERF study showed a decline in layoffs overall of more than 20%, from nearly 6,500 in 2022 to less than 5,100 in 2023. However, layoffs are still above early pandemic levels in 2020, when a few more than 4,000 officers resigned. in all responding departments.
As with the increase in workforce numbers, the rate of decline in retirements depended on the size of departments. There were fewer retirements in large departments in 2023 than in 2019, slightly more retirements in medium-sized departments and higher retirements in small departments. The survey found a sharp decline in layoffs at large agencies with 250 or more officers and at medium-sized agencies with between 50 and 249 officers.
In addition to pay and benefit increases, the improved employee retention can be partly attributed to a shift in the way some government officials view their public safety departments, Wexler says.
“We have gone from a public debate about defunding the police just a few years ago to public officials waking up to the fact that their staff are leaving,” he said. “I don’t think there is any doubt that there has been a major change among political leaders.”