Vacancy challenges for police agencies

By Stacy Gittleman

Most of the nearly 60 cadets training at Oakland Police Academy in Auburn Hills will have a job waiting for them at a local municipality this fall. They are men and women from their late teens into their 50s, and come from a diversity of social and ethnic backgrounds. As they complete a 19-week basic training course with standards approved by the Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards (MCOLES), many are already earning a salary from the municipality which is sponsoring their tuition, thanks to a grant system with federal and state monies that was set up in 2022. Upon completion of their initial training, they will head out to shadow a patrol officer to attain on-the-job experience and to further sharpen their newly minted policing skills.

There’s a lot more than physical conditioning and tactical weapons training that goes on during these weeks at the academy. While this is the typical association that comes to mind, thanks to Hollywood, a lot of 21st century police training also involves the human condition, conflict resolution and the ability to read verbal and nonverbal cues.

David Ceci is dean of public services and an instructor at the Academy. A 2002 graduate who was a sergeant at the Lake Angelus police department and has taught at several Michigan police academies, he instructs cadets on a 14-hour training course that delves into interpersonal communications. That’s twice the required hours set by MCOLES, he said.

“Though I am on the administrative side and have less of a hands-on role in being with the students, I still teach and enjoy teaching,” Ceci said. “There is a balance in teaching cadets. When they will go out on the job, there will be some instances when a person will be going through a mental health crisis, and they will need to show compassion and empathy. At other times, they will go out on a call to pursue an armed robbery suspect and they will have to be tough and make split-second decisions. There may even be a combination of the two, say if police are called to apprehend during a domestic violence dispute. That’s the dichotomy of the job, knowing when to give someone patience and time to talk and knowing when to act quickly and even use force.”

In class, Ceci runs his cadets through many role-playing scenarios to develop their communication skills and learn what to do when an altercation turns violent. Ceci said in the past few years, class enrollment sizes are remaining consistent at between 50-60 cadets per session. Still, the impact of the “defund the police” movement after the 2020 deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and others at the hands of the police cannot be ignored.

“Even before the killing of George Floyd, we were very specific about the tactics we teach in Michigan, and they avoid the practices that those officers in Minneapolis used,” Ceci said. “We were already ahead of the curve by teaching implicit bias training and fair and impartial policing tactics. Our classroom training was not governed by tragedy but instead looked at cultural changes and practices of the job that would best serve the public and our cadets. So yes, George Floyd did change a lot of the training landscape, but we already had a lot of those changes in play.”

Like most officers who were interviewed by Downtown, Ceci entered the force because he wanted to be a part of his community and give back to it by helping and protecting people.

When he screens prospective cadets, he hears the same thing – plus one more additional perspective.

“The cadets coming in now see policing as a noble profession,” Ceci said. “They do not like the image out there that bad people are entering the police force. Not only do they want to make a difference in their community, but they also want to prove it to the public that good policing exists. They want to restore nobility to the profession. They want to bridge the gap between public misconceptions of the police and what policing stands for. They see this as a task once they start their jobs.”

There are hundreds of empty slots in Michigan’s police ranks, a statistic that is consistent across the nation.

With an aging police force, cuts to lifetime benefits such as retirement pensions, and the “defund the police” protest movement souring the public perception of the profession, attracting new blood to law enforcement is more challenging than ever.

Police from the municipal to the county level acknowledge that the reputation of the profession has been tarnished. It will take meaningful effort to change through internal cultural policy changes and local outreach to educate the public about how the profession can be a meaningful path to serve and protect one’s community.

Robert Stevenson, executive director for the Michigan State Association for the Chiefs of Police, said that all his counterparts around the country complain about recruitment shortages.

Stevenson said the root of the problem in this state began in 2008 when Michigan shifted public employees from retirement pension plans to 401K plans.

Stevenson entered policing in 1974, when earning a pension, plus health benefits upon retirement, was standard. Now, those days are gone.

Stevenson said this is detracting people from joining a profession that asks to put one’s life on the line, especially if they leave a family behind if they are killed.

Stevenson serves on a committee that supports police departments when an officer is killed in the line of duty. Such was the case in late June when 51-year-old officer William Butler in Hillsdale County was killed in the line of duty during a traffic stop by an armed motorist. A veteran of the Army National Guard who served a tour in Iraq, Butler is survived by a wife, five children and grandchildren.

According to Stevenson, up until recently, when an officer like Butler was killed in the line of duty, their dependents lost their health insurance benefits. But thanks to a law that the Association of Chiefs of Police helped pass in 2022, if an officer is killed on the job, survivors are entitled to five years of health benefits amounting to $25,000.

When the dangers of the job mixed with a tarnished reputation of the profession following the summer of 2020, Stevenson said morale among officers plummeted. Police across the ranks, from patrol officers to upper administrators, began to walk away from the profession. Once considered a job taken up by multiple generations in a family, some officers began to discourage their children from entering the force.

“The summer of 2020 is when things got really bad,” Stevenson said. “Suddenly, there were massive cries for police reform to the point that police were vilified. We used to be considered society’s protectors and now there was this tone that people needed to be protected from the police.”

Stevenson continued: “We saw a lot of people leave the profession, including top administrators and chiefs and those who had served for a long time just walk away because of all the negativity.”

Yet despite everything, Stevenson said law enforcement is still a great profession and he would do it all over again. Stevenson said people admire, like and support their local police, as evidenced at how thousands of the public came to pay tribute on the day of Butler’s July 3, 2024, funeral in Hillsdale.

“People tend to like their local police,” Stevenson said. “The perception is that bad police work somewhere else.”

Everyone wants to live in a safe community, and that requires effective policing. At the same time, the increase of officers killed in the line of fire and the reputation of the profession mired in high-profile cases of police brutality are thinning the ranks nationally.

Taking notice, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), with the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services in April of 2023 gathered law enforcement administrators across the country for a one-day roundtable.

The roundtable’s recommendations were published in October 2023 in a 60-page document titled Recruitment and Retention for the Modern Law Enforcement Agency.

The roundtable concluded that there must be an internal shift in the culture of law enforcement and policing which “encourages positive relationships both between employees and with community members, recognizes the vital importance of mutual respect, and focuses on the value and growth of each individual to aid in overall recruitment and retention efforts by attracting potential candidates, improving morale, and providing a compelling reason for current officers to remain.”

It stated that police officers for the 21st century need an expanding set of skills and must better collaborate with other professionals, such as social workers and mental health professionals, in responding to individuals experiencing behavioral health crises.

Police departments need to update their hiring procedures and standards to fit in with modern culture. That may mean overlooking facial hair and tattoos, as long as they are not racially offensive or contain hate symbols, while still barring anyone with a violent or racist past criminal record from joining the police force.

According to the BJA report, training also needs to be modernized to reflect cultural changes and rely less on intimidation and more about understanding the needs of a community.

The report stated: “Many agencies are shifting training to highlight and develop the core values and skills associated with a community-oriented mindset. The police academy should not only train officers in the physical and tactical aspects of the job but also equip them for day-to-day interactions in their communities.”

The report recommended that year-round hiring must replace the more traditional annual or semi-annual posting for job openings, and that police departments should use more electronic and online tools for filling out job applications, including using artificial intelligence chatbots to answer routine questions as an applicant filled out online applications.

Once applications are completed, there should be more resources so law enforcement departments can staff retired or part-time workers to expedite background checks.

And, to add a personal touch, the committee recommended that once someone completes an application, the applicant should receive a personal phone call from the department acknowledging their application was being processed.

In assessing a 21st century law enforcement applicant, the report said one’s emotional intelligence should be evaluated and prioritized at the same level as physical and tactical weapons abilities, pointing to research that showed that strong emotional intelligence is linked to fewer cases of excessive force and improved relationships within the community.

At the local level, many police and public safety departments are working to incorporate the BJA’s report into their practices and culture. According to the Birmingham Police Department’s 2023 report, recruitment and retaining officers through enhanced wellness benefits were two big focal points of the year.

The police administration pulls from a diverse pool of candidates and has a presence at local job fairs at all local colleges and universities. In 2023, Birmingham hired four police officers, one part-time dispatcher, and two part-time parking enforcement assistants.

For the first time, the city will have a full-time school resource officer for the 2024-2025 school year.

To improve on its policing practices, Birmingham Police in 2023 went through a certification program through the Michigan Association of Chiefs.

Birmingham Chief of Police Scott Grewe, in the department’s annual report, stated: “The accreditation process opens our department up to intense scrutiny by outside assessors to determine if our current policies and procedures are patterned after nationally accepted best practices. Our certification … is validation that the high standards we hold our staff to is aligned with national best practices.”

On paper, Grewe said his department looks like it’s fully staffed. Its 2023 report tallied the department makeup with one chief, three captains, four lieutenants, six sergeants, 16 officers, eight full-time dispatchers and four part-time dispatchers; plus 14 members powering its auxiliary team. There is also K9 Maple. The average salary in the department is $68,615 according to Indeed. The approved 2024-2025 budget for the department is $9,158,900.

However, Grewe explained that it can take a new hire up to a year to meet his department’s rigorous standards. After completing the academy, a rookie will receive more on-the-job instruction and a few months partnering with a more seasoned patrol officer before going out on solo patrol.

Grewe told Downtown in July that two additional hires were training as cadets in the police academy.

“We continue to recruit going forward as we have pending retirements and other unforeseeable circumstances that could open up other positions,” he said.

Though applicants – at a minimum – must have an associate’s degree, most of the department is staffed with those holding a bachelor’s degree or higher. But steep competition to draw new cadets to one department versus another is making this a job seeker’s market in law enforcement.

“We are seeing more candidates going to the police academy after getting an associate’s degree knowing that they’re going to be immediately hired because new recruits are so badly needed,” Grewe said.

Grewe explained that to put more potential recruits into the pipeline, the academy is running training coursework classes throughout the year which is something that did not happen in the past.

“Police officers are in such high demand that people with associate’s degrees are getting job offers and are sponsored by departments for their training at the academy,” Grewe said. “Departments are competing against each other, so the academy is pumping out more recruits than ever before. It is a misconception that the applicant pool is smaller. I think there are more job candidates today than a few years ago. But what we are seeing now is that every department is dealing with shortages. So, for the applicants that are coming out of the academy who are not already hired by a department, departments are vying against each other to hire them. The competition is steep.”

Another prong to Birmingham’s recruitment strategy is to elevate the department’s profile in the community through more outreach. Resource officers go out into the community and are present at school presentations, town halls, programs and speaking engagements. The officers are also available to the community to offer active shooter training or sessions to learn more about home safety and security.

“This is something that Birmingham police started a few years ago and now it is in full swing,” Grewe said.

In terms of creating a supportive work culture, Birmingham kicked off a wellness and mental health component to its benefits to alleviate the on-the-job stress that comes with the job.

“Stress and trauma impact many on our staff, from the dispatch officer handling a 911 call to our clerical administrators who must read the reports and look at photos from a crime scene,” Grewe said. “All these incidents leave a lasting impact.”

It is important to Grewe that all his staff have access to its Checkpoint wellness program.

“I want to make sure my staff has the immediate tools to reach out for help any time they need it,” Grewe said. “Anyone in the police department can refer someone to our Checkpoint program. If we notice a coworker suffering or dealing with a traumatic incident, or maybe a personal issue, that person can anonymously report someone to the Checkpoint program, and then our peer support team will reach out to that person and offer assistance, counseling, or maybe even just a conversation on the phone to see where that person is in needing assistance.”

Grewe said the addition of this wellness program is evidence that the culture is changing compared to when he joined the force 25 years ago. Back then, he admitted that the rule of thumb for facing adversity, stress or trauma on the job was “suck it up and get back to work.”

“The Checkpoint program has been well received and many of our officers and staff have already taken advantage of its offerings,” Grewe said. “Our staff have already seen the benefits of our programs of bringing in social workers as needed for our external community police work. To bring these services internally has been a positive change.”

Grewe continued: “What’s important is that my officers are mentally fit and prepared to go out into the community and be as effective as possible to do a good job when out on a call.”

The Bloomfield Township Police Department, which has also particpated in the Association of Chiefs’ certification program, is currently budgeted for 67 sworn police officers, 13 dispatchers, two animal welfare officers and six Bloomfield Village police officers.

Patrol is the largest division in the department, consisting of 29 uniformed officers, eight supervisors, and two K9 teams. Patrol personnel are organized into four platoons, providing around-the-clock police service.

In 2023, Bloomfield Township hired six officers and one social worker.

The FY 2025 budget in the township for public safety, which includes police, is $42,734,811. For Bloomfield Village, police is $700,000. As of July 9, 2024, the average annual pay for a police officer in Bloomfield Township was $54,819 a year, according to Indeed.

As in many municipalities, Bloomfield Township in the early 2000’s phased out its pension plan for police and replaced it with a 401K plan.

Bloomfield Township Police Chief James Gallagher explained how change put a bit of a damper on incentivizing new recruits.

“People seeking out a career in law enforcement do so because of the excitement and variety of the job and being able to give back to the community,” Gallagher said. “It used to be that you knew you were not going to get rich, but for your service, you would receive a regular paycheck. Then, there was the knowledge that upon your retirement, you would receive a good pension.”

Gallagher said as time went by, municipalities realized that long-term legacy benefits were leaving them financially strapped, so pensions were phased out for 401K plans for new hires.

By not being tied down to a pension in one town or city but rather a portable 401K that will follow them to any job, Gallagher said this benefits structure has allowed officers the flexibility to move around in a field traditionally known for an officer to stay with one department for their whole career.

“Moving from a pension plan to a 401K made employees portable,” Gallagher noted. “As generations progressed, if an officer was at odds with one boss, they could just pick up and work for another police department or another one even after that. That’s one of the things we’re seeing now. (Law enforcement departments) are taking employees from each other.”

Bloomfield Township Captain Dan Brown oversees hiring procedures. He explained that in the past, an officer would have to commit a minimum of 10 years to one department to be eligible for pension benefits. This vesting period ensured loyalty to a municipality.

“That vesting period made officers like me loyal,” said Brown, who joined the department in 2002. “I was not going to work here for seven years and then move to another agency. I would lose those years of service. So, the kind of officer who went through this vesting period is starting to dwindle as the older guys retire. The number of officers from older generations who stayed with one department for their entire career is dwindling.”

Brown added that the vesting period for a 401K can be as short as three years.

In terms of healthcare benefits, Brown said that benefit packages vary between municipalities. In Bloomfield Township, municipal employees such as himself who have been grandfathered into a pension plan have a different healthcare structure than more recent hires who have a health savings account. In this benefits model, they put money into the account over a 30-year career. They can then use these funds to purchase a private healthcare plan until they qualify for Medicare, said Brown.

But these options are not ideal.

“I think what you’re going to see in the future, with officers not having a pension or guaranteed healthcare in retirement, is cops working longer,” Brown said. “That’s going to mean a 55 or 60-year-old patrolman working the midnight shift. And that’s a young man’s game. You don’t want someone that age chasing criminals through someone’s yard.”

Bloomfield Township has the distinction of being one of only four law enforcement departments in Michigan that require candidates to have a bachelor’s degree, a requirement going back to 1977, while most departments accept a lower level of education starting at an associate’s degree.

Gallagher said because of the bachelor’s degree requirement, the township may be missing out on some candidates with military backgrounds, and the township board of trustees is in discussions with township supervisor Dani Walsh to move funding to better compensation and benefits and currently, an earning assessment is in the works, but he could not comment further.

Walsh did not respond to requests to comment.

The city of Bloomfield Hills since 1970 has had a public safety department model where first responders are trained in policing, firefighting and emergency medical services. Other smaller municipalities like Beverly Hills, Berkley, Oak Park and Huntington Woods also have public safety departments.

Bloomfield Hills has $7 million in its 2024 budget for 24 uniformed personnel and a chief of public safety.

Public information officer sergeant John Corrigan said when Bloomfield Hills hired him 10 years ago, he beat out 60 applicants for the job. Now if the city is lucky, there may be five or 10 applicants for each opening.

“It is a challenge finding qualified personnel to apply to our department,” Corrigan said. “We’ve seen a downturn over the last five years not just here but nationwide. It is challenging to get people to pursue this profession. Then there’s that extra aspect to our department because we also need to find people trained in firefighting and EMS.”

To help in filling the ranks for this trifecta of skills, when the right candidate comes along with any one of the three first responder skills, Bloomfield Hills will hire them and then sponsor them through training.

Corrigan speaks from first-hand experience. When he joined the department, he was a trained firefighter with four years of experience in Macomb County.

“I enjoyed serving the community as a firefighter but I wanted to pursue a more active job, and then realized there existed a position called a public safety officer, so I threw my hat in the ring,” Corrigan said. “I was very fortunate to get this position. When people must make a 911 call, it is often the worst day of their life. When you respond to that call, there is meaning in giving that person even a little bit of peace of mind.”

As of press time, Bloomfield Hills had three openings in its public safety department. Corrigan said the political climate in the last few years has tarnished the image of policing for many.

“It’s just harder to find people that are willing to go into this profession knowing that they are going to be under the microscope,” Corrigan said. “Because we know this, we offer a lot of training to help our officers to be confident on the job. We put a lot of faith in our officers and are confident they will not put themselves in a negative situation.”

That extra help for individual police departments comes from the Michigan Supplemental Act of 2022. There are six separate grant programs: $11 million in Competitive Community Policing Grants for community policing programs that develop collaborative partnerships between law enforcement agencies and the communities they serve; $4.5 million in Community Policing Grants for violence prevention programs in select areas such as Detroit, Saginaw and Genesee County; $2.7 million for MCOLES licensing fees to pay for the licensing costs for out-of-state law enforcement officers relocating to Michigan for employment with a local law enforcement agency; $3 million for narcotics training and equipment; and a $7.5 million in grant funding for Police Athletic Leagues.

Lastly, there is a $30 million grant for law enforcement training to pay up to $24,000 per recruit for academy training. Administered by MCOLES, funding for an employed recruit is on a first-come, first-served basis and a single agency may receive funding for up to 25 recruits.

As of August 2, 2024, $29,408,189 has been distributed for public safety training with $591,810 remaining in the fund.

While this funding is taking the edge off paying for the training of recruits, Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard for years has been pushing for the construction of a dedicated training facility for current Oakland County officers to enhance and refresh their skills. For now, they train in a facility that was built in the 1970’s and needs to be completely replaced, Bouchard said.

As one of the largest arms of law enforcement in the state, the county sheriff’s department oversees over 1,400 employees and operates on an annual average budget of $202 million. It currently has about 50 job openings.

Bouchard said with more real-world training scenarios, perhaps the June 22 ambush-style killing of sheriff’s deputy Bradley Reckling, a nine-year county veteran, could have been avoided. Reckling was shot multiple times from perpetrators in a stolen car that he had pursued into Detroit. He leaves behind a wife and three daughters.

Bouchard said the number of officers killed in the line of duty is currently “through the roof.”

The killing of Reckling falls under a deadly statistic. According to a 2023 report released earlier in 2024 by the FBI, from 2021 to 2023, 194 officers were killed by felons in the line of duty, more than in any other consecutive three-year period in the past 20 years. But perhaps even more disturbing and what goes underreported, Bouchard said, is the number of police who die by suicide.

First HELP, an organization that tracks law enforcement and first responder suicides, reported in 2024 that between 2016-2022, there were 1,287 public safety personnel suicides.

“The pressure on the men and women as well as the danger in public safety is at an all-time high,” Bouchard said. “People go into police or first responder work not for the money but because they want to help people and make a difference.”

Bouchard said he would like to see police have access to a state-of-the-art training center built for police the way the Detroit Lions get to train for playing football. He has been advocating for funding for better training resources since he wrote a white paper in 2014 with a list of recommendations to Michigan state lawmakers.

Bouchard said a state-of-the art facility should be built where first responders – from rookies to special operations units – can run real-world scenarios where officers can train on making split-second decisions, such as high-speed car chases, pursuing criminals on foot or through urban areas and can keep skills sharp and save lives of officers. Bouchard said police in Oakland County train in a shooting range in Brandon Township built in the 1970’s that lacks provisions to create these real-world scenarios.

He said a good example of a modern facility exists in Kent County, which features a large indoor shooting range capable providing state-of-the-art firearms, subject control and taser training and other role-playing training that otherwise requires large, outdoor spaces.

In 2020, the proposal for creating such a facility to the tune of $88 million went before the Oakland County Board of Commissioners but has stalled ever since.

In response, William Mullan III, Oakland County Public Information Officer, released the following statement to Downtown.

“Oakland County is dedicated to the safety and training of our deputies by continually investing in equipment, mental health resources, and training programs, including active assailant response. County Executive Dave Coulter’s proposed fiscal 2025 budget includes funding for a new training officer and expanded mental health support for deputies. While the existing training center in Brandon Township has recently received new equipment for realistic training scenarios, we recognize the need for ongoing assessment and improvement. We have completed a study regarding requirements for a potential new training center, which is included in our capital improvement plan, and have facilitated conversations between the county and Oakland Community College about mutual training facility needs. The reality is the previous administration disinvested in capital needs, and existing county buildings are behind in critical upgrades, but we are budgeting in a manner now to plan aggressively to address these needs in the years ahead.”

Bouchard said that the nationwide vilification of police needs to stop. It has gotten so bad that one of his colleagues within the state told him that uniformed police officers were denied service at a diner because “they don’t serve cops.”

“(After the George Floyd demonstrations), there was a lot of demonization of police,” Bouchard said. “Police executives across the country condemned it, denounced it and called for better police training. The Oakland County Sheriff’s Office banned the use of chokeholds 20 years ago, but Minneapolis was still teaching and practicing it. Yet politicians keep talking about police reform, as if the police are entirely broken.”

Bouchard said like in any profession, there is room for improvement, but to repeatedly call for police reform makes it sound like policing is completely broken. Bouchard said that nearly one million professionals in law enforcement make tens of thousands of contacts with the public daily. Most are routine and positive and go off without a hitch.

Bouchard said better resources for training, coupled with community outreach, can help. Over the last 18 months, the department has been reviewing and revising its policies and procedures and considering best practices from across the country to improve.

Bouchard said that to counter the scarcity in law enforcement numbers, some states have lowered the bar in terms of qualifications for hiring. “That is where departments can run into trouble, when people want to enter the profession for the wrong reasons – to feel a sense of power or authority rather than purpose and service to their community. “
State Representative Donni Steele (R-Bloomfield Township, Bloomfield Hills, Auburn Hills, Orion Township) agrees with Bouchard that with all the property taxes collected in Oakland County, there should be enough available funding to invest in newer and advanced training facilities. Having such a resource, and the knowledge that they would be highly trained to face the on-the-job dangers of law enforcement, would be one way to attract recruits.

Steele, who attended Reckling’s funeral, is concerned about rising crime rates – including armed car and home break ins – and the increasing danger that more armed crime places on law enforcement. She said this summer’s tragic record of three officers in Michigan killed in the line of duty is only making matters worse.

“There is a fear right now of the danger of this high-risk job,” Steele said. “That is playing into part of why we are having a difficult job finding officers.

Steele said that one way to attract people to the profession is have more positive contacts with the public in the community beginning at young ages.

“You are going to see the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office have a bigger presence at high school, college and community job fairs,” Steele said. “By showing up in these places, it will help to alleviate the stigma that the police are bad and they’re trying to hurt people. We must be careful with our words. The police I know, they are in the job to serve our communities. They are trying to protect a civil society. We are concentrating too much on the bad apples.”

In a recent success story on fighting crime, the Troy Police Department and other agencies in early August broke up a Latin American crime ring responsible for a rash armed car robberies and home-break ins.

With over 100 officers and 75 civilian employees on its staff, Troy Police is the largest police force in Oakland County. The city’s adopted 2024-2025 budget includes $42,587,899 for public safety. Troy officers are offered a four-day work week of 10-hour shifts and start work with four weeks of vacation with additional hours of leave time. Officers earn on average between $76,000 and $91,000, depending on experience and rank and receive $5,000 of Police Academy reimbursement.

In addition to standard patrol and investigative units, Troy police also operate 23 special units and assignments in criminal investigation and intelligence, hostage crisis negotiation, and coordination with federal authorities such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

All officers in Troy begin as patrol officers and can then move up to specialized operations if they seek promotion, according to community services sergeant Ben Hancock.

For example, Hancock explained that if there is an opening in the FBI Task Force, the opening will be advertised internally through the department’s detective bureau. Officers are given a deadline to apply and there would be an interview process conducted by Troy as well as by federal agents.

Competition for these spots is steep and competitive and takes some extra classes and training.

“In Troy, we are fortunate enough to have the manpower and working coordination with external state and federal agencies to give our law enforcement opportunities to work in these special operations,” Hancock said. “If there is an opportunity in one of these special units, our officers pick up the training they need on their own (in a private class paid for by Troy police), and then, if selected, get up to speed with the skills they need while on the job. To attend these classes, Troy Police Department will either pay for them if they are given at the academy or bring in private instructors.”

Despite the specializations, the Troy Police Department still struggles to attract and retain officers, said Hancock.

“In theory and on paper, you would think that these growth opportunities would attract more officers to join at the entry-level,” Hancock said. “But just like everywhere else, we are short-staffed. By the time we post a job opening and human resources sifts through who is qualified, we may have less than 10 applicants for five or 10 openings. In some years, we may get more candidates than others. But then the force has retirements. Overall, we are short of five officers of where our budget allotted for to be fully staffed.” Hancock said he could not put his finger on exactly why it’s getting harder to attract new blood to the force.

“There isn’t just one specific thing,” Hancock said. “Maybe the George Floyd movement plays a factor, as well as the fact that we replaced pensions with 401K plans in retirement. Maybe the younger generations do not want to be involved in police work. A few of the people Troy has hired are lateral transfers who have worked in other departments or law enforcement agencies. Or that they have retired from one agency but are relatively young and want to continue to work. It can also be that law enforcement has a different retirement pay structure, where we used to have pensions, now many departments have migrated to 401K plans.”

Hancock said being five officers short is something that the public will not notice in terms of service or response time. It just means more overtime for existing staff members, and it is harder to get time off.

“It’s not like we are projecting people retiring in big numbers in 2025, but each year, we do get people in top positions retiring, and each year, we need to fill those positions in addition to filling out the ranks of our patrol officers. I do hope our efforts will bring more people into this very rewarding profession. Especially in my job (as a community resources officer) I get to interact with the community in a positive way daily. When you join law enforcement, you can really make an impact on the community you live in.”

West Bloomfield this summer had open applications for officer positions in hopes of increasing its ranks from 74 to 82 officers according to deputy chief Dale Young. Young said 11 total people applied for police officer positions, but only nine met the minimum requirements for the posting.

West Bloomfield officers earn $67,849 on average, from an entry level salary of $61,743 that includes sponsorship training at the academy. Academy-trained officers with two years of experience get a lateral sign on pay of $76,740 and the top paying positions pay $92,803. The 2024 total budget for police was $22,436,261.

Young said these days it is not unusual to have only one applicant apply for a job. “And this is even when we offer to hire someone with either an associate or a bachelor’s degree,” Young said. “We will hire someone and sponsor them through the police academy. Or we will hire someone who just graduated from the academy, and we’ll take people who have had previous law enforcement experience.”

Young said that even though the force is short eight officers, the public will not notice that in terms of service to the community.

“Thankfully, we haven’t hit a low number yet that would impact our service to the public,” Young said. “We have been able to backfill through overtime to provide the same level of service.”

According to Young, it is no exaggeration to say that every police department across the state is hiring.

“You might as well call every police department in the state of Michigan,” Young told Downtown. “Every department is down a few officers. You might be fortunate to find a department or two where all their positions are filled, but it’s only a short time before the more senior members retire or, for whatever reason, an officer decides to go to another agency or leave the profession altogether.”

Young said he works alongside four generations at his department, from Baby Boomers to Gen Z, and there has been some friction between them because they ask for different perks.

“When I first started, all those senior to me wanted the overtime and tried to get as much of it as possible,” said Young, who describes himself at the tail end of the Millennials. “Those newer to the workforce now want a work-life balance to spend more time with family or pursue personal interests.”

Young, who joined the West Bloomfield force in 2004, is third generation law enforcement, and remembers being told about loyalty to one department and moving up once you got your foot in the door.

“That is the advice I have lived by,” Young said. “But things are different now. People are looking around to where they can get time off, and get the most premium time (weekends, nights and holidays) off. It has been an interesting adjustment and I feel like in general, law enforcement is trying to adjust.”

Promotions in West Bloomfield hinge on one’s level of education, extra training and certifications. To become a sergeant, Young explained one must be promoted through a combination of written and oral examinations, seniority points, how many years of service to the department and finally, being selected by the chief of police from the top three candidates. The same process is true for becoming lieutenant and anything senior than that is a direct selection by the chief of police.

Young said to attract the next generation to law enforcement, doing the same as what’s been done for generations is not going to work. He knows that just mentioning police can be controversial in a politically charged situation, especially in these years following the George Floyd killing and the ‘defund the police’ movement.

“It would be great to have external programs in the middle and high schools that expose students in a positive way to what we do in law enforcement,” Young said. “If more students had positive exposure to learn what law enforcement entails, it may be more appealing as a career choice.”