It’s becoming painfully obvious just how intensely competitive
the recruitment and retention of qualified police officers really
is these days.
It’s becoming painfully obvious just how intensely competitive the recruitment and retention of qualified police officers really is these days.
The Hollister Police Department presently has four vacant officer positions, with a fifth job expected to open in coming months. That leaves just 10 patrol officers to work three shifts a day, seven days a week. As police Sgt. Ray Wood so succinctly said: “It’s crisis mode.”
And it’s not just a local problem. Police departments throughout California – especially in smaller cities – are dealing with the same staffing shortage. Even when they can make hires, the fix is often only temporary because experienced officers have so many opportunities to go elsewhere and earn more money.
Maybe Hollister can’t afford to pay its police officers as much as, say, San Jose. But it’s clear that we can’t afford to just wring our hands and hope that the situation will somehow improve one of these days.
The City Council took a step in the right direction this week in approving Police Chief Jeff Miller’s request for recruitment help. The council agreed to resume sending new recruits to the police academy, paying them a reduced salary and covering their tuition and fees, and also to offer cadets who agree to hire on with the Hollister Police Department a little extra incentive by reimbursing their academy costs.
But it’s just one step in dealing with a problem that demands a long-term solution. The city needs to develop public safety programs and partnerships that will get the police department out of constant crisis mode.
One priority should be a police-affiliated youth program that would provide local teenagers who are interested in law enforcement careers with a pathway that could lead from high school volunteering to the police academy to job opportunities with the Hollister Police Department. Officers with roots here not only come into the job with valuable community knowledge and connections, but they’re more likely to stay with the department.
The city also needs to explore and pursue partnerships with other law enforcement agencies, including the San Benito County Sheriff’s Office. Local crime problems such as illegal drugs and burglary tend to bleed from one jurisdiction into the other. At some point, it might be in the best interest of the whole community to move beyond mutual aid agreements to some form of consolidation.
It’s also important to give officers who do go to work in Hollister good reasons to stay. This might involve anything from bonuses awarded for longevity to a program that gives officers financial help getting into Hollister’s high-priced housing market.
Public safety is one of local government’s most important functions. Recent headlines about drug and gang activity, drive-by shootings and the rise in burglaries in Hollister are evidence that we’re not as safe as we used to be. Unfortunately, we aren’t likely to see that situation improve until we get more police officers on the street.
