Police chiefs sounding the alarm on staffing shortages amid crime surge: 'Disheartening'
Interim Chief Adam Dustman and Chief Bill Grogan joined 'The Faulkner Focus' to discuss staffing shortages and how anti-police rhetoric and rampant crime has impacted the number of vacancies.
Police departments across the nation are facing an uphill battle to protect communities as they grapple with staffing shortages, rampant crime and widespread anti-police rhetoric.
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Interim Police Chief in Independence, Missouri, Adam Dustman, and Dunwoody, Georgia, Police Chief Bill Grogan discussed the ongoing challenges their departments face on "The Faulkner Focus."
Law enforcement work the scene following a police chase Monday, April 12, 2021, in Carroll County, Ga. Georgia authorities say multiple officers were injured when the passenger of a car shot them during a police chase that ended with one suspect killed and the other arrested. (John Spink/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)
"The vacancies that we have, that just creates more hats for our officers on the streets to wear in every function, both on the front lines of patrol and traffic and all of our community service functions, but also in investigations," Dustman told Harris Faulkner.
Despite grappling with mass vacancies alongside depleted resources, Dustman touted the officers' 100% solvability rate amid the ongoing challenges. His department currently has 38 openings.
He touted the department's incredible salary and benefit packages, but said even that hasn't been enough to mitigate the shortages.
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"When I started, we had 450 applicants for seven spots," Dustman said. "Right now we have 38 vacancies, and we are lucky if we can get seven applicants."
Photo from Independence Police Department Twitter (Independence Police Department Twitter)
The police department in Dunwoody, Georgia, currently has 10 vacancies. Chief Grogan thinks anti-police rhetoric has impacted the surge, prompting many officers to seek careers in other fields.
"We had an officer that resigned from our department earlier this year," Grogan said. "He became a day trader because he said he can go to work at QuikTrip and make more money than a police officer, and not have to have the risks that he faced as a police officer."
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"We had one that became a Delta flight attendant," Grogan continued. "Another went to Facebook, several went into construction… So it's definitely affecting our department."
According to the Fraternal Order of Police, the number of police officers killed this year has spiked 35%, with 123 officers killed in the line of duty. Ambush-style attacks have also spiked 14%.
"This country was founded on civil discourse, and we have to pivot in this country from seek to destroy, to seek to understand," Dustman said. "There's emotionally charged… arguments on both sides, and we have to find those commonalities to understand each other, even if we disagree."