It’s hard out there for police officers. And with ongoing staffing shortages, it’s only getting more difficult.
In Police1.com’s 2023 survey to gauge police officers’ sentiments about the challenges they face, respondents voiced serious concerns about:
- Recruitment and retention 48%
- Risk of prosecution for on-duty actions 21%
- Officer wellness and morale 17%
- Media coverage of police issues 7%
- Crime spikes 4%
- Ambush attacks 3%
It’s an ongoing struggle, as the challenges remained the same from its 2022 poll. While respondents’ concerns about staffing decreased by 4 percentage points in its most recent survey, officers’ fears of prosecution increased by the same number, and the need to address wellness and morale issues increased by 2 percentage points.
But there’s a reason recruitment and retention topped the list by a wide margin.
“Recruitment and retention have a trickle-down effect because staffing affects absolutely everything we do,” Warren Police Department Sergeant Colin McCabe said. “And now our residents are taking notice. Our run times are longer, and they are definitely not used to that.”
Sgt. McCabe echoed the respondents’ sentiments from Police1.com’s survey. He said his experience working for Michigan’s third-largest city’s police force mirrors the national poll, and he believes addressing staffing challenges will help alleviate the other concerns over time.
But time is of the essence.
“We went from having public discourse about defunding the police just a few years ago to public officials waking up to the fact their workforce is leaving,” Chuck Wexler, executive director of PERF, a nonprofit policing think tank based in Washington, D.C. told the Associated Press. “I don’t think there’s any question that there has been a sea change among political leaders.”
Here are police officers’ concerns, explained:
1. Recruiting and Retaining Police Officers
In 2008, the Warren Police Department hired just 5 percent of those who passed the interview phase, and its hiring list included more than 100 people who were eligible for two years. Fast-forward to 2024, and the numbers tell a much different story—one that is repeated throughout most police departments in the United States: There aren’t enough people applying to become officers. In Warren PD’s most recent hiring round, the number of qualified applicants who made the hiring list decreased by 97 percent.
Currently, the department’s staffing levels are down 10 percent. Knowing that it’s impossible to address that gap immediately, the union believes adding a drop plan is one approach that can help alleviate the officer shortage. Leaders believe this will help give officials the time they need to reach full capacity, which, given current hiring challenges, could take up to four years.
“The times of having to apply at 50 departments to try and get in the door is over, at least right now,” said Sgt. McCabe, who also serves as the Warren Police Command Officers Association President. “We have seven people on our hiring list—and the best candidates, the people who are ranked No. 1 and No. 2, they’re also on other department’s lists. These are competitive candidates, and most likely, they’ll get to choose where they want to go. That was not my experience.”
2. Fearing Possible Prosecution for Actions in the Line of Duty
Sgt. McCabe said most officers go into police work because they want to help and make a difference in their communities. But if an officer makes an honest mistake, many people outside law enforcement rush to judgment—and call for jail time.
“I think it’s in the back of everyone’s minds,” Sgt. McCabe said. “Nobody feels good about making mistakes, especially when they could impact other people, but when everyone has an opinion before we can even start our preliminary investigation, it wears you down.”
He compared it to Crowdstrike’s recent software update. The flawed deployment ultimately triggered the largest global information technology outage in history.
“Good faith mistakes do happen, but nobody wants to hear that,” Sgt. McCabe said. “Those computer guys were doing their jobs and made mistakes because we’re all human. Their names won’t be out there, but ours will. And they won’t go to jail, but we could.
“And that definitely affects our ability to recruit new police officers,” he said.
3. Establishing Programs to Increase Mental Health Awareness, Officer Wellness, and Morale
Sgt. McCabe said difficulties in recruiting and retaining officers go hand in hand with the pressing need for increasing officer wellness programs, not to mention overall morale.
“Because we’re down 25 officers, people have numerous opportunities for overtime. It’s good money of course, but constantly working all kinds of shifts gets old,” he said. “Officers are tired, they get worn out, and it shows. There’s just no way it can’t take a toll on morale.”
Warren PD is making a serious commitment to addressing its officers’ wellness. It is only one of three departments in Michigan with a full-time peer-support wellness program (the other two are Wayne State University Police and the Grand Rapids Police Department), and Sgt. McCabe sees how it makes a difference for officers.
“Because it’s run by our peers—and mandatory for certain events—it takes the pressure, or spotlight, off of people. The program adheres to critical incident debriefing, and you don’t have to speak, but you have the opportunity,” he said. “And if you need it for anything else, whether it be a radio run that you didn’t like, or if you’re going through a divorce, or you’re having financial problems, you can reach out.”
Sgt. McCabe said he’d like to see more departments implement peer-support programs based on FST5, or Frontline Strong Together, Wayne State’s first responder program for police, fire, emergency services, dispatchers, corrections, and their families.
“Over the events of the past few years, it’s become apparent that police officers need access to this,” he said. “It’s important for them.”
4. Pushing for Accurate and Balanced Media Coverage
Sgt. McCabe recognizes the wide differences between media outlets and reporters and editors’ varied approaches to newsgathering.
That said, he believes police department leaders would do well by their officers if they started proactively engaging the media, much like the practice of community policing. By reinforcing the fact that an officer’s career choice and their work are valuable, officers can be seen as resources to help tell those stories.
5. Addressing Spikes in Crime
Warren, Michigan, hasn’t experienced an increase in crime like other U.S. cities. Sgt. McCabe credits the department’s overtime details—putting additional officers on the streets during high-call volume periods—as one tactic that addresses staffing shortages and response times and works to deter crime. But he said it’s not a long-term solution.
Instead, the real solution lies in addressing recruitment and retention issues, according to Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia. When a Dallas City Council member asked him to name the one thing officials could do to reduce violent crime and reverse the city’s 13 percent increase in murders in 2023 from the previous year, he answered succinctly.
“Staffing,” Chief Garcia said, as reported by the Dallas Observer.
Academic research proves he’s right. Morgan Williams, an economist at New York University’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, led a project to determine the effect of adding one officer to patrol a city. Their findings, reported by NPR, revealed that increasing a city’s police department staffing by one new officer a year could prevent between 0.06 and 0.1 homicides. For average-sized cities, that translates to hiring between 10 and 17 new police officers to save one life a year, which researchers estimated could cost an additional $1.3 million to $2.2 million every year.
6. Combatting Ambush Attacks
Police officers must face the very real scenario of being in the line of fire while in the line of duty, and 2023 earned a dubious distinction: 378 officers shot, the most since the Fraternal Order of Police started keeping records. There is a sliver of a silver lining, as advances in trauma care and anti-ballistic technology have reduced fatalities, but 46 police officers lost their lives last year.
But a new threat is emerging.
“There were 115 ambush-style attacks on law enforcement officers in 2023, which resulted in 138 officers being shot and 20 were killed,” National President of the Fraternal Order of Police Patrick Yoes said in a statement.
Yoes’ statement implores voters to call on their elected officials and “speak out against the violence against law enforcement officers.” He specifically highlights the Protect and Serve Act, introduced in February 2023 to establish a new criminal offense for “knowingly assaulting a law enforcement officer and causing serious bodily injury (or attempting to do so) in circumstances that affect interstate commerce.” The bill remains stalled with the House Judiciary Committee.
“It’s an officer’s job to keep people safe,” Sgt. McCabe said. “In return, they also want to be safe when they’re at work and when they go home. It’s unfortunate we need to train for this scenario. It may affect retention, though people haven’t told me that specifically. It’s definitely a concern, however.”
Patrol Officers Need Help and More Resources
Over the past few years, younger workers have forced corporate company leaders to address mental health and wellness—with access to an increasing slate of benefits. Considering the exponentially more intense, emotional, and stressful work environment police officers must operate in, one could argue that officer wellness and morale comprise a component of each of their reported concerns.
But the bottom line is that addressing staffing shortages will deliver the highest return on career investment for police officers and their communities.
