Law enforcement recruiters in Kansas facing challenges

Law enforcement agencies around Kansas are struggling to recruit new officers, and officials speculate that negative publicity that has accompanied a number of high-profile incidents could be playing a role.

From the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., in 2014 to the firing of a school resource officer in South Carolina last month for his tactics in detaining a student, law enforcement is feeling the heat of public scrutiny.

“It has an impact on your 19-, 20-, 21- and 22-year-olds that maybe at some point were looking to get into law enforcement and over the last couple of years, they’ve seen the negativity,” said Capt. Brent Allred, who oversees the Wichita Police Department’s training bureau.

“Maybe they’ve changed their mind now: ‘Why would I want to be a law enforcement officer with all that stuff going on?’ ” he said.

Many factors

But other factors may be playing a bigger role in making recruiting more challenging these days, recruiters say.

“College is so expensive,” Allred said. “You get out of school $40,000, $50,000, $60,000 in debt. ‘What job can I get that will help me pay off my debt?’ ”

Law enforcement positions, which typically start at around $20,000 a year in smaller departments around Wichita, won’t be among those jobs, officials say.Graduates looking to pay off college debt will gravitate toward higher-paying careers.

“When you come to work in a law enforcement agency, you’re never going to get rich,” said Sedgwick County sheriff’s Col. Richard Powell, who oversees the department’s training center and firearms range. “You’ll get an honest wage for an honest day’s work and good benefits.”

Connecting with younger people coming out of high school and college is proving to be a struggle for law enforcement recruiters, Crawford County Sheriff Dan Peak said. His brother teaches a criminal justice course at a college in Utah, he said, and a common theme has emerged in conversations with students.

“They anticipate they’re going to graduate and go right in as a detective,” Peak said.

They expect to work 9-to-5 shifts with weekends off, he said.

“ ‘Entitlement’ is the word of the day” for many young applicants, Peak said.

The reality is much different.

For new police officers, deputies, corrections officers and detention deputies, “the very first thing that happens to you is you’re going to go to work nights – late nights,” Powell said. “You’ll get Monday and Tuesday off, and you’re going to be working holidays and miss a lot of family events – birthdays, weddings.”

Many open positions

The unappealing work shifts may also be a factor in why interest in law enforcement positions has been waning, officials say.

When he became a Kansas Highway Patrol trooper in 2003, Chad Crittenden said, he was one of more than 800 people who applied to become a trooper. Fewer than 300 signed up for the most recent test that is part of the application process, he said.

“I would definitely say we’re struggling with applicants,” Crittenden said. “Some of it is, I think, some people just don’t want to be in that field because of the negative light that it’s been in.”

The recruiting challenges for law enforcement agencies are significant because many are dealing with substantial manpower shortages. The Kansas Highway Patrol has more than 100 open positions – and there are just 19 cadets in the highway patrol academy class now underway in Salina.

When the highway patrol was fully staffed in the 1990s, Crittenden said, the agency did not hire new troopers for more than four years. That decision is now haunting the agency due to a higher-than-usual number of retirements in recent years, he said.

The Wichita Police Department has more than 50 open positions for officers. While the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Department has only two open positions for deputies, Powell said, it took one of the largest academy classes in years – 14 – to reduce that shortage.

The Shawnee County Sheriff’s Office in Topeka has 34 open positions for deputies, Sheriff Herman Jones said. That represents more than 27 percent of the 125-deputy staff.

“I’ve had two slots open for the last four months,” said Randy Rogers, sheriff of Coffey County in eastern Kansas. “That’s tough for a rural sheriff when you’re sitting here with a 14-man department.”

Those 14 deputies cover 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“How do you fill those shifts without compromising officer safety?” he asked.

The shortage means there are times when only one deputy is on duty in a county covering 760 square miles, he said.

There are so many unfilled positions for detention deputies at the Sedgwick County Jail that current deputies are on mandatory overtime, Powell said. The most recent academy class had 26 new detention deputies graduate, but the jail still has more than 40 openings.

“We simply can’t tell the inmate ‘We’re shorthanded today. Behave yourself, and if you need something, ring a bell,’ ” Powell said.

Changing standards

The recruiting challenges have forced many agencies to review – some officials would say lower – their standards for hiring.

“We have to make adjustments,” said Jones, the Shawnee County sheriff. “Law enforcement evolves. We’ve always evolved. We have to look at the standards we have when it comes to recruiting.”

Many years ago, using marijuana at any time was an automatic disqualification for applicants to the Wichita Police Department. Now, Allred said, past marijuana use is acceptable as long as it is not within the past three years.

When he became Coffey County sheriff in Burlington nearly 20 years ago, Rogers said, if he saw any drug or alcohol felony convictions on an application, “I immediately tossed that person.”

Today, he said, “You’re seeing that more and more on applications – young people trying drugs. Do I accept that as a norm? Or do I stick to my standards when I was brought up that that’s a no-no?”

Those decisions take on added significance should that law enforcement officer one day be called to testify in court, officials say.

If a law enforcement officer had a history of drug use or petty crime as a teenager or young adult, Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center director Ed Pavey said, “Will defense attorneys use it as a character flaw” to impugn their testimony?

Brady-Giglio

In the 1972 case Giglio vs. the United States, the Supreme Court mandated that prosecutors should disclose any and all information that may be used to impeach the credibility of prosecution witnesses, including law enforcement officers. That includes information such as prior criminal records or other acts of misconduct, such as lying or acts of deceit.

With that mandate in mind, Powell said, the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Wichita have sent a clear message: “If there is any potential for that credibility to be challenged in court, we don’t want to have to go there. Don’t hire anyone that has anything in their background that could cause their credibility to be questioned.”

“Our applicant pool has shrunk significantly” because of potential credibility issues involving recruits, Powell said.

“The Brady-Giglio requirements have changed the way we look at people,” he said. “The requirements are so stringent now.”

Applicants could be disqualified, for instance, if they shoplifted a CD as a youth.

“Now it’s more than ‘Shame on you,’ it’s ‘You should never have done that in the first place,’ ” Powell said. “You can be held accountable for your actions as a juvenile.”

Wichita police officials have offered positions to 13 people in the next academy class that begins in January. Allred said he would love to get that number to 20, but with only 36 applicants in position to be considered, that goal may be beyond reach.

New recruiting methods

Nelson Mosley, interim police chief for the city of Wichita, said his department needs to identify new methods to recruit officers – particularly more women and minorities.

A committee has been meeting for several months to identify new tactics, Allred said. The department will hire an ad agency to create a marketing campaign, he said, and plans are already in place to shoot a recruiting video.

Law enforcement agencies need to learn how to connect with millennials to better present what they have to offer, officials say. That includes becoming adept at the use of social media sites such as Instagram, Twitter and Facebook to communicate information rapidly.

“Where social media can be the death of us” when incidents of police misconduct go viral, “it can also be a valuable tool in recruiting,” said Peak, the Crawford County sheriff.

Law enforcement agencies around the country are offering cash and housing incentives for applicants who agree to stay on the force for specified periods. Bonuses tied to college debt reduction could be tempting as well, said Crittenden of the Highway Patrol.

Letting potential recruits know the technology law enforcement officers commonly use could also be an effective lure, Jones said.

Cash and electronics aside, officials said, one of the best parts of the job is recognizing how they’re making a difference in their communities.

“It’s a very good job,” Allred said. “It’s a rewarding job. … We’ve got to get that message out more effectively.”

This story was originally published November 28, 2015 at 5:17 PM with the headline "Law enforcement recruiters in Kansas facing challenges ."