A quick Google search of recent headlines reveals that the issue is a national one.
From Palm Desert, Calif.: “Law enforcement needs more officers.” From Pittsburgh: “Law enforcement job fair being held.” From Oregon: “Job fair to help fill more than 500 law enforcement openings.” So it no surprise that a recent article in The Columbian reported: “Clark County law enforcement agencies struggle to fill jobs.”
Yes, police agencies throughout the country are struggling to find interested and qualified candidates to fill openings. There are a variety of reasons for this, but one that cannot be overlooked is the public’s changing attitude toward law enforcement.
As a Gallup poll reported last summer, 52 percent of Americans said they have “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in law enforcement. And while the percentage has remained in a relatively narrow window between 52 percent and 64 percent in the annual survey over the past two decades, last year’s survey indicated that confidence in police has reached its lowest level since 1993.
This coincided with a series of highly publicized incidents in which police actions came under public scrutiny. In Ferguson, Mo.; Baltimore; Staten Island, N.Y., and elsewhere, black men were killed while being apprehended by white officers. These events often resulted in public protests and gave rise to the Black Lives Matter movement while leaving officers throughout the country feeling pressure from the scrutiny. As Breanne Nelson, human resources manager for the Clark County Sheriff’s Office, told The Columbian: “The way that the climate of the country is and the attitudes toward law enforcement, you have people asking, ‘Do I really want to be questioned about every decision I make?’ ”
The situation is a difficult one. While officers must be held accountable when their actions extend beyond the bounds of the law, the public also must be conscious of the problems that come when police officers are in short supply or when recruiting qualified and competent officers is arduous. Law enforcement agents put their lives on the line every day for the benefit for their communities, and the performance of a vast majority of officers is above reproach.
The key to addressing the issues rests with how officers are trained and how that training has evolved. As Sue Rahr, executive director of the organization that runs Washington’s police training academy, said: “We put a much stronger emphasis on constitutional policing. I think we’re seeing a lot of backlash where some agencies have gone too far in only focusing on enforcement without including the balance of protecting people’s freedoms and civil rights.”
Balancing enforcement with civil rights when volatile situations call for split-second decisions can be challenging. But law agencies throughout the country have rightly worked to emphasize communication as much as physical force these days. For police, as for citizens, tension often can be defused through understanding or listening, and those traits are essential to modern police work.
Yet the most pressing problem remains the ability for local law enforcement to recruit and train officers. Local agencies are busy hiring, but they also are facing shortages in coming years with expected large numbers of retirements. The Clark County Sheriff’s Office hired a record 17 deputies last year, but turnover has left the department with eight vacancies.
That is not just a problem for the sheriff’s office; it is a problem for the community. Because despite the feelings of some people regarding law enforcement these days, the fact is that we’re all in this together.
