Abstract
Law enforcement agencies struggle to hire officers. Law enforcement agencies are compelled to hold applicants to higher standards. Often, due to the danger that may occur, some applicants feel the pay is not worth the risk. Other applicants cannot complete the series of test such as physical agility, psychological, background checks and their criminal history. Even after an officer is hired, they are held to certain standards they must maintain to remain employed. In the State of Georgia, the Peace Officer Standard Training keeps a record of each officer in Georgia that provides the citizens with qualified, professional, trained, ethical and competent peace officers in law enforcement. Any violations could result in the officer certification being suspended or revoked and will show if a person has been fired or quit voluntarily. Hiring and Retention of law enforcement officers will need to be addressed. Police officers or Deputy Sheriffs are needed to maintain order, investigate crimes whether misdemeanors or felonies and crimes against children or the elderly. If agencies cannot retain officer’s criminals would not have consequences for their actions and society would revert to the days of outlaws and common law citizens. Not being able to hire and retain officers can have an impact externally and internally. If officers are not hired or retain the following could cause long term problems such as; officer burnout due to the overtime, case overloads for investigators or detectives, new recruits using the agency as a steppingstone until another job is found.
Highlights
Police officers and their agencies are being publicly scrutinized for recent acts involving Use of Force, and Civil Rights violations causing applicants to shy away from law enforcement
When law enforcement is impacted by the inability to hire qualified candidates and retain officers, stakeholders in law enforcement are affected externally and internally
The research includes how law enforcement dates back as early as 900 A.D. and the how it developed through the years to include being titled “Kin Police” to the first city in the United States to having a paid full time police agency
Summary
Police officers and their agencies are being publicly scrutinized for recent acts involving Use of Force, and Civil Rights violations causing applicants to shy away from law enforcement. When law enforcement is impacted by the inability to hire qualified candidates and retain officers, stakeholders in law enforcement are affected externally and internally. Internal stakeholders can be considered the criminal justice system and law enforcement itself while external stakeholders are those the criminal justice system serves and in some way, affects. There are a couple of solutions to the problem of hiring and retaining officers: News media which is an external stakeholder could show more positive news stories regarding law enforcement. This could possibly allow the public to see all officers are not corrupt. For example: if the agency does not allow a person who has a bankruptcy to be hired within 5 years of bankruptcy, have the candidate complete credit counseling through Employee Assistance Program before hiring
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