LOTS OF COPS ARE QUITTING AND NEW RECRUITS ARE HARD TO FIND

Why Police Have Been Quitting In Droves In The Last Year

 

LAPPL News Watch

June 25, 2021

 

As protests surged across the country last year over the death of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis police, Officer Lindsay C. Rose in Asheville, N.C., found her world capsized. 

 

                                         Lindsay Rose

 

Various friends and relatives had stopped speaking to her because she was a cop. 

 

During a protest in June around Police Headquarters, a demonstrator lobbed an explosive charge that set her pants on fire and scorched her legs. 

 

She said she was spit on. She was belittled. Members of the city’s gay community, an inclusive clan that had welcomed her in when she first settled in Asheville, stood near her at one event and chanted, “All gay cops are traitors,” she said. 

 

Thousands of police officers nationwide have headed for the exits in the past year. A survey of almost 200 police departments indicated that retirements were up 45 percent and resignations rose by 18 percent in the year from April 2020 to April 2021 when compared with the previous 12 months, according to the Police Executive Research Forum, a Washington policy institute.

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San Francisco Grapples With Drastic Drop In Police Recruits

 

As police departments across the country have had up to a third of its force quit or retire within the last year, the SFPD is facing a similar shortage. Department officials say they are seeing fewer applicants this year. 

 

Officers assaulted on streets, escalating violent situations, and non-stop calls to redirect funding away from police are part of why departments are having trouble getting more applicants these days. 

 

“With recruitment right now, we’re getting less candidates, and less people applying. That impacts how many we can bring through the academy doors,” said San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott. 

 

SFPD needs about 400 more officers, and the shortage has gotten worse from 12% in 2020, to now 18% shy of where it should be according to the department and based on an independent study commissioned by the city and Board of Supervisors in 2020. 

 

Store owners say they’re thwarting thieves almost daily and need help. “I don’t believe in defunding police departments. Don’t understand the logic. It’s ridiculous,” said shop owner Sammy Suleiman. 

 

By a 3-to-1 margin, city residents want more cops and expanded community policing, according to a new Citybeat poll released Thursday by the SF Chamber of Commerce. 

 

“We need more cops on the streets,” said Chief Scott. 

 

The poll also says 8 in 10 residents think crime has gotten worse over the years. But advocates of alternative policing solutions, are demanding funds be directed away from police departments.