Local law enforcement agencies are having a hard time recruiting police officers. They can commiserate with local school systems, which also are trying to staff classrooms amid an ongoing teacher shortage.
But there is something particularly striking about Andy East’s reporting in The Republic over the weekend about the shortage of law enforcement officer candidates. A profession centered around the strong bonds of duty, service and fraternity is struggling to fill the ranks.
Last week, “the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department and Columbus Police Department had a collective 18 openings for officers — amounting to about 8% of their combined workforce. And that is even with CPD hiring four officers earlier this month,” East reported.
This is not just a local problem, either. The International Associations of Chiefs of Police noted as far back as 2019 that law enforcement was facing difficulties attracting and retaining officers. As East noted, the chiefs’ report concluded that “multiple social, political and economic forces are all simultaneously at play in shaping the current state of recruitment and retention. They are both systemic in nature and reflect individual-level considerations, making solutions to the problem particularly challenging.”
A blunter way of saying that is this: police officers have demanding, stressful, sometimes thankless jobs, don’t get paid enough for putting their lives on the line to serve and protect, and so lots of people who think about becoming a police officer choose not to. And all of that was before the social reckoning after George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police.
You could almost take that quote from the police chiefs’ report and apply it to teacher recruiting too. As The Republic previously reported, local school systems are finding fewer qualified applicants for open positions, as the state of Indiana began the school year with an estimated 2,500 teacher vacancies.
There is no doubt that our community and our state must have good, qualified people willing to enter law enforcement to serve and protect, just as we need good, qualified people to teach our children.
The question, then, becomes how our society can make these professions and other public service professions more attractive to young people who are thinking about their futures. Novel ways have been tried in the past with success. Such efforts could once again address some of our basic needs for public servants.
For example, past programs provided secondary education grants to students who, in return, commit to a period of public service. Such programs serve multiple needs. They guarantee a talent pipeline to address shortages in public workforce professions. They recognize and reward individual commitments to public service. They expand these career opportunities to a more diverse pool of candidates. And not least, such programs express our collective commitment to honor and reward the hard work and sacrifices of those who choose to devote themselves to public service.
The state of Indiana is sitting atop an embarrassment of riches — a $6 billion surplus. Our leaders would be wise to put a meaningful sum into efforts to make public service an accessible, affordable, attractive and honored career option for Hoosiers who want to help.
