Police departments around the country, especially in large urban areas, are experiencing alarming increases in the rates of officer resignations, early retirements and moving to smaller suburban law enforcement agencies.
This trend poses a significant challenge to American policing at a time when many cities are grappling with rising violent crime rates and budgetary constraints. Obviously, this affects all of us to varying degrees.
One recent study examined a diverse sample of 14 large police departments across the US and paints a troubling picture. Eleven of the 14 departments reported higher rates of resignations and early retirements than what would be expected based on pre-2020 observations.
Across all the departments, an extra 1,429 officers were lost over what normal turnover would predict, equating to a loss of authorized strength 5.4% higher than expected. And this is a conservative estimate since no department in the study was operating at full authorized strength.
It’s crucial to understand that these losses are in addition to “normal” attrition or the levels of resignations and retirements that would have been expected based on pre-2020 levels. In other words, the excess rate across all 14 departments nearly doubled the underlying turnover rate in 2016.
The implications of this silent crisis are profound. As experienced officers leave the force and less qualified recruits take their place, we risk jeopardizing the quality of policing in America. This problem is further exacerbated by the fact that with most departments it takes roughly 18 months to transform an inexperienced recruit into a rookie officer capable of answering 911 calls and performing other duties.
In some metropolitan cities, the acute resignation crisis has led to a near doubling of call-response times. As resignations and retirements keep mounting, the effects of this crisis could extend for decades, destabilizing workforce cohorts and undermining public safety, as well as public confidence in the ability of the system to provide that safety.
The financial burden of high police turnover is also severe. As departments struggle to fill the void left by departing officers, they incur significant expenses in hiring and training recruits. The costs associated with background checks, recruitment, academy training and field training are substantial, placing added strain on already-stretched budgets.
At many police departments, the cost of hiring and training a brand-new officer is estimated to be as much as five times that officer’s salary. It might cost $300,000 to hire and train an officer who will be making $60,000 once in the job.
The above noted costs of hiring and training new officers do not include signing bonuses which are becoming increasingly common. Signing bonuses are frequently $30,000 or more. The Alameda Police Department in California is offering $75,000 hiring bonuses for new officers.
Furthermore, this phenomenon creates a competitive atmosphere among departments, with many trying to lure already-trained officers from other agencies by offering higher salaries and better incentives. Seattle and New Orleans, among others, have offered $30,000 bonuses to lure trained officers away from their current agencies.
The bottom line is police officers are leaving their careers for other pursuits at a record rate. The problem is most acute in large urban areas where not only are more existing officers resigning or retiring early, many are relocating to law enforcement jobs in smaller cities and the suburbs.
The reasons for this troubling trend in law enforcement are many. High among them is the fact that crime is rising rapidly across the country, especially in urban areas. Making matters worse, crime against law enforcement officers is rising rapidly as well. The number of officers shot in the line of duty was up over 14% last year, according to the Fraternal Order of Police.
Adding other reasons for death among law enforcement officers, total deaths of officers in the line of duty jumped by 55% from 2020 to 2021, with many succumbing to COVID-19-related illness, according to statistics from the National Law Enforcement Officers’ Memorial Fund.
Finally, there is one other reason why more and more law enforcement officers are resigning, retiring early and moving to other professions. It used to be that people joined law enforcement because they had a heart to serve, and they wanted love and appreciation from the recipients of that service. And they got it for the most part.
Unfortunately, that’s just not the case much anymore. With troubling trends like “defund the police” and others taking hold, most police officers don’t feel loved or appreciated these days. Many say they feel increasingly unappreciated, disrespected and unwanted in recent years.
It’s no wonder then that more and more law enforcement officers are leaving the profession. This is a disturbing trend which deserves more discussion, but I’ll leave it there for today.
As far as violent crime, there’s another trend over the last decade or 2 that you forgot.
In many jurisdictions, a 18 year old person, full grown but psychologically still a child in many respects, emotions turbocharged by puberty (I’ve been calling it “testosterone poisoning” for decades), can buy any sort of firearm up to .50 cal. Autoloading with a large magazine, not a muzzle loaded musket capable of 1-2 shots/minute.
But that 18 year old can’t buy a beer. Or cigarettes.
And carry such firearm in public places, open or cancealed. Far, far away from home, shooting range, hunting areas.
Police chiefs love talking about their “tools”, like wiretapping, door-bashing entries and searches, random stop & frisk, etc. What about the tools of licensing firearm possession without “shall issue” mandates, universal background checks, safe storage regulations (like no-brainer stuff like keeping the chamber empty and mag out of the semiauro pistol in the night table drawer)? And repealing “stand your ground” laws that correctly or incorrectly are interpreted by much of the public as “shoot first, ask questions later”.
Who’d want to be a cop when every “law-abiding citizen” on the street is carrying, and we know just from human nature that 10-50% of them are assholes?