When he was a child, Clark County Sheriff’s Deputy Alex O’Hearn enjoyed accompanying his father, a former Woodland reserve police officer, on ride-alongs. After working numerous other jobs, O’Hearn, 27, began working for the sheriff’s office in 2018.
His father was excited, but also a bit concerned.
“He told me that I was crazy and that I should keep working for the railroad because I made twice the amount of money and I was safe,” O’Hearn said. “But he knew that (policing) was always what I wanted to do.”
Like many law enforcement agencies, the sheriff’s office has struggled with hiring. The office has revamped its recruiting efforts in the past couple of years as retirement timing and competition from other agencies present hurdles.
In the past few years, there have been successes — 19 deputy sheriffs were hired last year. But challenges await: Six to eight retirements are anticipated from a staff of 148 sworn deputies before July 1, the end of the fiscal year.
“So we have to keep pumping a lot of people through because we know, at any given time, any year, we can lose 10, 15, 20 people, and so we’ve got to hire that many,” Sheriff Chuck Atkins said. “We’ve been fighting that for the better part of three years already.”
Step one for Atkins, about 1 1/2 years ago, was to appoint veteran Sgt. Fred Neiman to oversee recruiting. It was the first position of its kind in the sheriff’s office.
“It was kind of intriguing to me to come into a program where, really, there’s nothing there other than a few thoughts,” Neiman said.
Of the 19 hires last year, 13 were entry-level deputies and six transferred from other law enforcement agencies. The six lateral hires represent a strategy by the sheriff’s office to bring deputies aboard more quickly.
Between background checks, interviews, attending the Basic Law Enforcement Academy in Burien and field training, it can take a year for entry-level deputies to begin work in earnest. Lateral hires, who do not need to spend as much time training, can start months earlier.
“It’s almost like a bargain for us, in a sense, because they bring in whatever instruction they’ve had,” Neiman said. “You bring that experience in and you mix that with entry-level, new employees, that really helps bring that along and helps really enhance their career paths.”
The six laterals last year came mostly from nearby agencies — Vancouver, Battle Ground, Kelso, Aberdeen and Portland State University — plus one deputy from South Dakota.
Like the sheriff’s office, the Vancouver Police Department has also upped its recruiting efforts in recent years. It has 212 sworn officers and has been authorized to fill an additional 21 positions by January.
As a result, the two largest law enforcement agencies in the county often compete in an intense labor market.
Competing for cops
“It’s very competitive to say the least,” Vancouver Police Sgt. Steve Dobbs said. “We’re all competing for the same people. I don’t think, in general, people understand how difficult it is.”
While representatives from both agencies stress that they have respect and admiration for each other, they aren’t shy about touting themselves to potential hires.
“If they’re testing for other agencies, I’ll tell them, ‘Well, go on a ride with that other agency and see what they do, and maybe that’s more for you,” Neiman said. “But I’m thinking that you’ll see what happens here is more attractive as far as your opportunities and the way everything works.”
Atkins, for instance, pointed to the fact that while the Clark County Council sets his office’s annual total budget, he is not their employee. Police chiefs are employees.
“They’re hired by their city council and city manager. And so, not saying anything bad about them, but saying they really do need to work hand-in-hand with the philosophy of the city government to keep the job that they have,” Atkins said of municipal police chiefs. “So there are, I think, more restrictions. I have more freedom because the people elect me or they don’t. If I mess up, I don’t get elected.”
But those agencies may also poke holes in what the sheriff’s office views as some of its more attractive features.
Take-home cars — patrol vehicles that deputies can also drive to and from home — and the ability to work both in urban and rural environments have become two of the sheriff’s major selling points for potential hires.
“We really do have a diverse working area,” Neiman said. “It’s a unique opportunity to work for a sheriff’s office that has that.”
Dobbs, however, has a different take. He noted that because Vancouver police have more sworn officers that cover a smaller area, backup can arrive quickly.
“They have less manpower on the road than we do,” Dobbs said. “You could be way out in the middle of nowhere by yourself.”
As far as the take-home cars, being more plugged into work coming to and from home can add stress, Dobbs said.
“I can argue that both ways,” Dobbs said. “It’s a trade-off.”
Specialized squads
Both agencies also tout various specialty units that may be appealing to potential hires. Vancouver police run bomb disposal and gang enforcement units. Marine patrol and courthouse assignments are often pitched to sheriff’s office recruits.
“People realize we’re a full-service agency just like Vancouver is, meaning we have plenty of specialty units and changes you can do routinely throughout your career to keep it fresh,” Atkins said. “And a lot of smaller agencies don’t have that ability, and we have that.”
The sheriff’s office also must make up for a considerable advantage that the Vancouver Police Department has: pay. The city, for instance, offers lateral hires a $10,000 signing bonus that doesn’t fit in the sheriff’s office’s budget.
“We can’t do that right now, so we have to find ways to get them in the door, you know, and we just need to be quicker,” Atkins said.
Once Neiman was named to the recruiting assignment, sheriff’s employees began attending more hiring workshops, holding additional testing and recruiting workshops, and offering ride-alongs for interested candidates — 78 last year.
“There’s nothing better than that face-to-face contact with them,” Atkins said. “Even if we might pay less than somebody else, the fact that we talk to them on the phone as human-to-human, they feel that attachment almost immediately, and it gives us the help.”
The office is also working to expedite qualified applications through the human resources process, Atkins said. The hope is that officers and deputies who may send applications to multiple agencies across the state or region will be more likely to choose the sheriff’s office before hearing back from another agency.
“A lot of officers, they choose the first department that hires them,” Dobbs said.
The sheriff’s office has also given previously hired deputies access to brochures and recruiting cards to hand out while on patrol.
“We’ve really made it clear to our employees: You are our biggest recruitment tool,” Atkins said. “You need to speak about why do you work as a deputy sheriff rather than as, pick an agency. Why are you here?”
For O’Hearn, the ability to work both in rural and urban environments was the biggest draw, along with the take-home car.
A couple of months ago, O’Hearn’s father joined him for a ride-along for the first time. It’s now become a regular activity every week or two.
“When I applied, I thought it would be the hardest one to get. I was like, ‘Man, that would be so cool, the sheriff’s office,” O’Hearn said. “I wanted that experience of working for a place that does everything, dealing with super remote places up north or super condensed places down in the city.”
