The Thinning Blue Line: Applications for Law Enforcement Jobs Are Way Down
By Dan Kelly
Reading Eagle
September 5, 2019
BERKS COUNTY, Pennsylvania -- Alexander T. Trout said he knew he wanted to be a lawman since he was a boy in Sinking Spring.
"As a kid growing up, (many youths) wanted to be in law enforcement and that's pretty much the way I was," Trout said.
The 2013 Wilson grad spent four years in the Marine Corps, then studied criminal justice at Penn State Berks for two years before joining the Berks County Sheriff's Office in August.
In years past, Trout would have had a lot more competition for a job as deputy sheriff. As of the testing cutoff date of June 22, only 34 people had applied, 16 paid the $50 testing fee and only 13 actually showed up to take the test.
Incidents of police brutality, some proven and some unproven, and misconduct have affected public opinion of law enforcement, experts say. Law enforcement might now be seeing the longterm effects of fewer people desiring such a career.
Allegations of official oppression, police misconduct and the omnipresence of social media can combine to tarnish the image of the hero cop that young people like Trout have grown to admire.
"I would say all that didn't have an impact on my choice," Trout said. "Today, social media is such a huge part of society but I believe there are two sides to a story.
"I knew what I wanted to do regardless of how law enforcement might be perceived. I wanted to follow my dream."
Signs of the times
Berks County Sheriff Eric J. Weaknecht has a problem: filling open positions.
In recent months flashy digital billboards have popped up around the county.
"Looking for a career in law enforcement?" the colorful message asks.
"Become a deputy sheriff," it continues. "Apply today!"
The billboards flashes the CountyofBerks.com/Sheriff web address and confirms the county is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
"We have been having a hard time getting applicants for deputy sheriff positions over the last year," Weaknecht said in an email. "Talking to others in law enforcement they too have seen a drop in applicants."
The sheriff included stats that show 226 deputy candidates applied in 2009.
A decade later, in 2018 that number had dropped to 111, more than a 50 percent drop. Only 34 applied in time to take a test in June. Only 16 paid the $50 fee to take the test and only 13 of those actually took the test. Trout and another candidate were hired after background checks and interviews. One candidate's results are pending a final psychological exam.
"The others either didn't do well on the interview or failed the background," he said. "If this last guy makes it we will still have two vacancies to fill."
Weaknecht said the department's complement is 95, and the ratio of the number hired to the number of applicants is about the same as it was 10 years ago.
He plans to run the billboards next year because the response to them has been better than other avenues for recruitment.
The billboards have been donated this year but next year the department will budget for them, the sheriff said.
Significant attrition
Meanwhile, in the past year Weaknecht said he has lost five deputies to the state police, four to Reading police and three to suburban police departments, where salaries are higher.
In addition, Weaknecht said five deputies are eligible for full retirement at the end of this year. Another six will be eligible within the next two years.
"We have another nine who are vested and meet the age requirement but do not have 20 years," he said. "They are also collecting a pension from another agency so they could go at any time and receive a partial pension from the county."
Weaknecht said he started using the billboards this year when he noticed the numbers of deputy sheriff candidates was dropping precipitously. The highly visible digital recruitment posters have gone up in about 10 locations around the county.
Though it's small comfort, Weaknecht said he knows he's not alone in finding it hard to attract intelligent young people to join the ranks of his law enforcement agency.
"I hear that the issue is happening in all fields of law enforcement throughout the country," he said.
A national trend
"It's not a Berks County sheriff problem," said Trooper Marvin Armistead, the state police recruiter for Reading-based Troop L.
Armistead said the 15 troops across the state each have a recruiter and they are busy all the time keeping up with a retirement plan that allows troopers to earn a full pension after 20 years. It's possible for someone to become a trooper at age 25, retire at 45, and to pursue a second career in private security or as, say, a deputy sheriff. Many troopers, and other law enforcement officers for that matter, earn a second pension before they fully retire.
Like Weaknecht, Armistead said it is impossible to determine exactly which troopers will retire with 20 years and which will continue working to 25 or more years of service. So, the recruiting process is never ending.
"I work closely with the Reading police and other recruiters and they all are having problems finding recruits and with officers going over to other agencies for various reasons," he said. "It's a national problem."
To keep up, Armistead said state police recruiters must come up with 120 candidates three times a year, or 360 candidates per year applying and testing to become state troopers.
"It's not like the 1990s when we had 15,000 to 20,000 come out for an exam," he said. "I'll have a recruit sign up and then there will be a (negative) media report about a law enforcement agency and that potential applicant will call and say his wife doesn't think it's as safe as they thought it was and they will decline and go to some other kind of employment, and that happens throughout the year."
Armistead said he regularly meets with recruiters from other states and they all report having trouble finding an adequate supply of willing recruits. He said he went to a recruiting session at John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York and met law enforcement recruiters from all across the nation.
"After the event, I asked the guys from Portland (Ore.) if they were just there to enjoy a vacation in New York," Armistead related.
"They said they were testing John Jay grads the following day and if they agree to come out they were offering them a $10,000 relocation bonus," Armistead said. "I was like, 'wow' it's scary to think that people out in Portland and Seattle were looking for recruits in New York."
‘Very disturbing’
Maki Haberfeld, professor of police science at John Jay, said she researched recruiting and training of officers and is keenly aware of the issue of declining applications.
"Absolutely, I'm seeing it nationally," Haberfeld said. "I was working in Dallas, Texas, last year because of this very thing. There is absolutely a drop in applicants and I do attribute it to the very negative publicity about encounters between the police and the public."
Haberfeld wrote an op-ed piece for the New York Daily News on July 24 after some city residents doused two NYPD officers with buckets of water. City officials dismissed the incidents as simple horseplay.
She wrote in part:
"As somebody who has studied the police profession for over three decades, I am flabbergasted. Can you imagine what the political reaction would have been if roles had been reversed — if it had been police dousing civilians with water?
"Our democracy, in this city, in the United States or around the world for that matter, will not survive without a professional, efficient and well-respected police force. Yet it appears that our politicians think respect is a one-way street."
Haberfeld said she wrote the piece because she believes more and more that if no one will stand up for the police, soon there won't be anyone to recruit from.
The declines come as the nation already has what she considers very low standards for police candidates. She said the average requirement is that an applicant have a high school GED.
"This is very disturbing to me, because I am a big proponent of mandatory college education for police officers," she said. "It will be hard to continue to advocate for this if nobody wants to become a police officer."
Haberfeld said in her experience potential law enforcement candidates are being constantly exposed to negative images of police.
Social media tie?
Tom Maioli was an agent and then a supervisor with the Pennsylvania attorney general's office for 25 years and has taught criminal justice at Penn State, Messiah and Bloomsburg universities. He currently is executive director of the Pennsylvania Sheriff's Association.
Aside from examples of negative media attention on law enforcement, the rise of social media also tracks with the decline in applicants in the past decade, Maioli said.
Social media got its start as far back as 1997 with various blog sites and chat rooms but really came into bloom with the dawn of true social media sites like Friendster, which was launched in 2002, Myspace in 2003, Facebook in 2004 and Twitter in 2006.
Weaknecht said he started seeing a decline in deputy candidates around that time. He provided numbers of recruits from 2009 to 2019 that shows a steady decline in applicants.
Maioli said the association is conducting a statewide survey regarding retention and recruitment issues. Depending on the results of the survey, the association may take steps to get the numbers of applicants back up.
He said there is a sheriff's office in all 67 Pennsylvania counties and most, if not all, are reporting a sharp decline in deputy candidates.
A learning experience
Barry J. Harvey said he doesn't remember his students being recruited so heavily as they are now.
Harvey is chairman of the criminal justice program at Alvernia University. Previously, he was a trooper in the state police organized crime unit in Philadelphia.
Like Haberfeld at John Jay, he's concerned about lowering education standards for law enforcement officers.
Harvey said Philadelphia police previously required cadets to be 19 years old and have at least 60 college credits, or an associate degree in criminal justice.
"About two years ago they were not getting enough applicants so they changed the process, did away with the college requirement, accepted a high school diploma or equivalent but raised the minimum age to 24," Harvey said.
"The theory was we don't need educated cops but we do want more mature ones," he said. "I'm not sure that's the right approach."
Even so, Philadelphia police still recruit at Alvernia, as do a growing number of law enforcement agencies.
"I have never seen so much recruitment as I have in the last three to five years," Harvey said. "They want to come into class with applications for them to sign up.
"They've been here from Loudon County, Va.; U.S. Customs and Border Enforcement; the municipalities from suburban Philadelphia and yes, even the Berks County Sheriff's Office."
If there is an objection to a law enforcement career it's usually not coming from the students.
"The parents don't want them going into law enforcement because of all of the negative aspects of it that are presented on the news and through social media," he said.
"Whatever the reason, police departments are struggling to find candidates."
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