The San Diego Police Department is having problems retaining officers and attracting recruits. The pay isn't great and there's competition from other law enforcement agencies. So SDPD hired a consultant to help figure out what would increase interest in joining and staying in the department. Full Focus reporter Amita Sharma has the story.
There was a time when young men and women flocked to the San Diego Police Department vying to be officers in America's finest city. The beaches, the weather and decent pay all made San Diego quite a draw for recruits says Captain Bob Kanaskie.
Captain Bob Kanaskie: A while back, it was kind of nice, we used to sit back and wait for people to come to us because people wanted to come here.
But times have changed. Kanaskie says there are currently 210 vacancies in the department, the highest he's seen in his 26 years with the agency. Filling those jobs is top priority but that's no easy task according to recruitment officer Robert Acosta.
Officer Robert Acosta: Recruiting officers right now is hard. Generally, across the nation our entire pool is down to about 250,000 people of qualified applicants that actually want to do this job.
Police experts say SDPD is not the only police agency facing a shortfall of officers. Departments across the country are having a tougher time recruiting because of stiff competition from a military in the middle of a war and new law enforcement agencies like the transportation and safety administration and the department of homeland security.
San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders: Also I think it's not as attractive a job for the younger generation.
San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders is himself a former police chief of SDPD.
Sanders: I think it's still fairly old school in terms of police officers don't have facial hair still. They don't have piercings. They don't have tattoos. I think that we're not appealing to crowds and we've got people my age making decisions on what police officers should look like when maybe that's not the best way to do it.
The pool of applicants has changed in other ways too.
Captain Bob Kanaskie: A lot of our youth are really interested in getting higher paying jobs or moving from one job to another or looking for a job that keeps their interest piqued a whole lot longer than what it was in the past and people aren't looking to spend 25 or 30 years in one job.
To be sure, there are other reasons San Diego has an officer shortfall. A three-year fiscal crisis at city hall has left the agency at the bottom end of the pay scale prompting officers to leave in droves for other departments. The exodus motivated Sanders to deliver an "I feel your pain message" to officers last year.
Sanders: I know the past few years have been difficult for you as police officers. I know that staffing numbers are problematic. In most cases you've endured no increases in your pay or benefits and in fact many of you have seen a take home pay decrease.
He promised to eventually give officers pay hikes and indeed a 4 percent raise is on the table. Sanders also appealed to police loyalty to stem officer flight.
Sanders: I ask you to remain a proud member of the San Diego Police Department. I ask you to stick with me and your fellow officers. I ask you to stick with the department that trained you and to remain with our citizens who need you.
The public has been affected by dwindling officer numbers.
Kanaskie: It does mean that maybe we don't get to certain calls in the time that we used to, however, emergency calls will still be our number one priority and responding to citizens our number one priority.
To boost their chances of drawing potential applicants, police recruiters are going to Fitness Expos, parades, UFC fights and golf tournaments ….in short wherever there is a gathering of people.
Acosta: I could talk all day long about why you should come to our department. We have nine divisions. Each of our divisions are the same size as one small agency so that's a big advantage. There's a lot of room for movement. A lot of room for promotion. Our department we're by the beach. You want to work beach team. You work beach team.
How does he explain the city's fiscal troubles?
Acosta: Here's what I tell people …in every company no matter what line of work you're in, your company is going to have low points. The city of San Diego is no different. I've been on this department for 9 years. It's my understanding that during the last 30 years, the city of San Diego has had this problem two other times. Those are pretty good stats if you think about it.
For 23-year-old Allyson Boyd, city hall's problems couldn't be further from her mind. She's enrolled at the police academy and wants to be an officer because she loves the idea of developing the street smarts that come with the job.
Allyson Boyd: I've seen cops that can go up to people and they can almost tell you their life story just by looking at them. They just know more stuff than other people would on the streets. They can tell who would be using drugs or who would be in a gang just by looking at them whereas a regular person would have no idea or maybe get a bad feeling about them but a cop would know about them.
Even though Boyd spent several hours on a recent hot morning at the shooting range as part of her training, recruitment officer Steve Markland says he and others constantly tell interested recruits that police work isn't as risky as it once was because of new tactics, resources and training.
Officer Steve Markland: We don't have to put ourselves in a dangerous position. That's one of the things that people don't understand. We don't actually have to stand there and get beat up. We're smarter than that.
The department's top brass hopes it is smart enough to attract more officers and keep the ones it has.
