ROCHESTER, N.Y. — News10NBC has been reporting on the Rochester Police Department’s call for officer applications over the past few weeks.
So how do other departments compare?
Police staffing by the numbers
Irondequoit says it’s fully staffed with 53 officers.
Gates currently has 35 officers with one opening.
Brighton has 39 officers, also with one opening.
Greece did not give an exact number but said it should be fully staffed at 100 officers after the latest batch of police academy graduates become hirable.
RPD currently has 611 officers with 120 openings.
What’s causing it?
We spoke with Gates Police Chief Rob Long to find out what may have caused such a drastic drop in recruits overall.
“Post pandemic, issues with Covid and people wanting to work more from home, stuff that’s happened out in Minneapolis and even local things here with different issues going on in the city. It’s made it a less attractive position for candidates,” Long said.
Long said RPD is a fully staffed level police department at over 700 officers. Gates’ fully staffed level is 36 officers.
“When I started taking civil service exams 25 years ago to become a police officer, you’re looking at about 3,000 eligible candidates on those lists. This recent exam that was handed out, we had about 300 eligible candidates, and then they just did the physical fitness portion of the civil service process in March for the entire valid civil service list. And that 300 and something has dropped down to 111,” Long said.
Long said the biggest bottleneck for getting new recruits out on the street is the lengthy hiring process. From the time candidates take the written exam to the time they finish the whole hiring process can be 12 to 24 months, Long said.
Officer safety
Meanwhile, RPD’s push for applicants also comes within just six months of four officers being shot across two separate incidents. RPD Head of Recruitment Sergeant Justin Collins spoke with us last week about what he tells potential applicants who may be concerned with safety.
“I think the jobs, like police officers, firefighters, those that serve in our community, in the military, I mean, these jobs are calling for the most part, people realize that they want to do something bigger than themselves. I hit on, and it’s not a cliche. Our men and women in this Rochester Police Department put their lives on the line every day for strangers, and they do it with a pure heart because they want to serve and they want to help. And that is what makes this job fly by,” Collins said.
RPD says it has had 969 applicants for the upcoming civil service exam. That’s up about 35 percent from last spring’s test, but it’s too early to know how many of those applicants will be hired.
Rochester Police Department has 120 officer openings while neighboring towns are nearly fully staffed WHEC.com.
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