NC PD leaders, sheriffs call for state support as staffing shortage persists

By Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan
The Charlotte Observer

ZEBULON, N.C. — Local law enforcement leaders are looking for more support to help them fill vacancies faster and keep more officers on the job.

Zebulon Police Chief Jacqui Boykin said her department had four vacancies.

“That doesn't seem like much.” But when we are talking about a workforce of 26 people, it is very important. A quarter of our patrol division is missing,” Boykin told reporters Wednesday during a news conference at the Department of Justice building in downtown Raleigh.

“And we are desperately looking for people who are interested in serving their community, interested in being part of this noble profession.”

“But honestly, the recruiting pool is shallow,” Boykin added, “and anything the legislature can do to help us improve our position, to increase that pool, would be a benefit to myself, to a small agency and for agencies that are more rural in nature and don't necessarily have the candidate pool that some of the larger companies have.

Other police chiefs and sheriffs also spoke about their vacancy rates during the news conference that Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein held to talk about overall public safety needs.

Here are other takeaways from law enforcement.

Why is the shortage of law enforcement personnel important?

Emergency response

Stein said he regularly hears about chiefs' and sheriffs' struggles with hiring and retaining officers.

“Responding to violent crime and drug trafficking takes work,” he said. Stein said the vacancies place a greater burden on existing officers.

He said that, especially in smaller law enforcement agencies, shortages mean emergency calls are responded to more slowly.

Agent security

Apex Police Chief Jason Armstrong said another factor in the staffing shortage is that officers “feel safe and are out on the street.” And one of the things we hear regularly when officers are considering leaving the service is because they work so much alone, or they're in a large rural area and their replacement might be 20, 30, 40 minutes. .”

“You get into a fight, if you get into an altercation where your life is on the line, it’s not an ideal situation,” Armstrong said.

He said officers should feel confident knowing they have the support they need every day and night on the job.

Prison security

Durham County Sheriff Clarence Birkhead said all agencies are “suffering from staffing shortages.”

“At the Durham County Sheriff's Office, in our detention center, we currently have 83 vacancies. We accommodate nearly 400 people in our establishment. So it stands to reason that I need the appropriate and adequate personnel to operate this facility in a safe and secure manner,” he said.

What are the possible solutions to the recruitment and retention problem?

Incentives for out-of-state recruitment?

Birkhead said some solutions to vacant positions are better wages and “removing some barriers so we can recruit from out of state and fill our vacancies.”

Armstrong said the state could create more incentives to recruit law enforcement officers from out of state, including reducing barriers that for him meant nearly 200 hours of training additional, even though he already had a 20-year career in law enforcement, notably as a police officer. chief.

“North Carolina has an opportunity to send the message to future police officers that this is the state you want to be in practicing this profession,” Armstrong said.

Incentives for retired officers to work?

One recruiting solution Stein proposed was to urge state legislators to adopt House Bill 768, called “Law Enforcement Officer Return to Work from Retirement,” which allows retired officers to keep their retirement benefits even if they return to work. The bill passed the House by a vote of 118-0 in May 2023, but was not taken up by the Senate.

Better salary?

Raleigh has one of the lowest salaries for entry-level officers, but the city manager's proposed budget calls for an increase in starting salary and a 10 percent raise for some officers.

The Durham City Manager proposed increase in salaries for new officers by 14% to $54,817 to help with recruitment and retention.

Financial assistance?

Orange County Sheriff Charles Blackwood said Criminal Justice Fellows Programwhich forgives community college loans, is one way to help with recruitment.

Blackwood said recruitment and retention “is not a problem unique to North Carolina or law enforcement.”

“I believe we can all agree that over the past five years, every facet of the American workforce has been impacted. In short, time has changed; the same goes for how we recruit our employees,” he said.

Blackwood said that in the past he could count on new hires to stay for 10 or 15 years, but “that’s not the case anymore. And we shouldn’t be surprised if, in a few years, they may decide that law enforcement isn’t for them or that they want to move on to another agency or a better-paying job.”

What vacancies are agencies seeing around the Triangle?

Here is more data on vacancies in the Triangle Police Department:

The Orange County Sheriff's Office currently has five vacancies, Blackwood said.

The Mebane Police Department has four vacancies out of 46 sworn officer positions.

The Durham County Sheriff's Office has 10 law enforcement vacancies and another 83 at the jail, representing a 37 percent vacancy rate, Birkhead said.

The Apex Police Department has five vacant positions.

The Raleigh Police Department has between 80 and 90 vacant positions, or about 10% of the workforce.

The Durham Police Department is approximately 75% staffed, with more than 130 vacancies among sworn officers.

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