Upholding Public Safety: Unfilled Police Shifts and 911 Response Reality
Upholding Public Safety: Unfilled Police Shifts and 911 Response Reality
Unstaffed police shifts are media hype today, but are rapidly becoming a dangerous reality for tomorrow
Imagine calling 911 and hearing that no one is coming. For most people, it is a nightmare scenario. Many officers I know have had this experience, where you call for backup and realize that you are on your own for several minutes. A deputy chief shared that in the 1970’s as a patrol officer he was called to back up a county deputy in a town 23 miles away. He radioed to send a closer unit. They told him he was the closest unit.
I was chaperoning at a county fair in the 1990s that devolved into a riot and while in lockdown one of the police explorers experienced a medical emergency. On the event channel, dispatch advised, that there were no rescue units on my detail - or countywide. Seeing a teenager experiencing a life-threatening emergency, watching him lose color and warmth before you, and knowing that no help is coming is a haunting experience. My explorer survived as did the deputy mentioned earlier.
These should be the lessons from the past, a bygone age, but they are rapidly becoming the reality of today.
The backbone of policing
Patrol is the most visible and recognizable presence of government authority. Ideally, it is where a law enforcement career begins. A marked squad car functions as a one stop shop offering an emergency response vehicle, a pursuit vehicle, crime scene processing, traffic control and prisoner transport. There are innumerable improvised uses with a focus on lifesaving and safety. Some of my interns found it unfair that to become a detective, you had to first serve in patrol. I corrected them pointing out that most of the time, detectives had to excel and distinguish themselves in patrol to earn an assignment in investigations.
Most days in patrol, anything can happen. There are many routine calls, even routine emergencies. Officers who pursue self-initiated activities often intervene in crimes recently committed, being committed and about to be committed. An officer whose traffic stop was thrown out, despite being perfectly valid, found the lone rear seat passenger in illegal possession of an AK-47. I’m confident that the officer prevented a possibly deadly drive-by shooting. Years ago, the news was reporting that officers would no longer respond to unoccupied burglaries, car burglaries and minor theft cases due to fiscal concerns. Today, agencies are limiting responses, pushing more people to self-report, and getting to the point where victims don’t even bother reporting minor offenses.
Media reports highlight unfilled shifts
Recently stories have made national headlines where complete patrol districts have been without any patrol officers. Last June in Fairbanks, Alaska it was reported: ‘Chief Ron Dupee says the department will no longer have patrol officers on duty between 8 a.m. and noon. “We’re going to a two/10-hour schedule for the patrol officers,” Dupee said. “So patrol officers will be here starting at noon, and then the second shift will come in at 10 p.m. and work till 8 a.m.”’
In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a similar story: “In February 2023, Allegheny County Police began supplementing Pittsburgh patrols in Downtown Pittsburgh. And dispatchers still frequently put out calls for officers willing to work overtime in almost every zone.”
” (Also) In February, (Pittsburgh Police Chief) Scirotto announced a slew of operational changes to the police bureau that set four 10-hour shifts per week. That allowed officers more days off, and reduced the 3 a.m to 7 a.m. shift by about a dozen officers, adding staff to shifts with the most service calls.”
Baltimore and St. Louis are both experiencing serious staffing shortfalls. “…In the southern police district (of Baltimore) this past weekend, only four scheduled officers were on patrol Saturday and Sunday mornings. Commanders were forced to recruit 12 other officers to work overtime in order to fill critical vacancies.” Baltimore remains understaffed by 500 officers.
St. Louis was functioning on a skeleton crew when, ‘In September, only two police officers were initially assigned to a district just south of downtown, when they both called in sick, leaving the department scrambling.“If it just takes two or three people being off work to shut a district down, that’s a problem,” Steiger said. “It’s dangerous, not to mention the size of the districts comparative to when there were nine districts. They’re so much bigger now, to have two or three people covering them, it’s just not enough.”’
The 50th state suffers a similar fate. ‘The State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers is urging the Honolulu Police Department and county leadership to address a shortage of 437 officers that leaves areas of Oahu with “limited to no coverage” several days a week’
However, Austin, Texas was the national story.
‘On Saturday, Feb. 17, Bullock says an entire sector of East Austin was left for two hours without a single patrol officer assigned. "It is not normal for us. Usually about that time, we would have somewhere around, you know, anywhere from 10 to 14 officers that might be available or working that particular time," said Bullock.’
Both Austin and San Diego have spent more than $50,000,000, each, in annual overtime for their officers. An officer in Austin earned $334,819 in a single year with more than a quarter million of that in overtime.
Understanding the gravity
While it may have caused an unnecessary panic, we are looking at law enforcement leaders who have done an acceptable job under the circumstances. The current metaphor is a shipwreck survivor bailing water out of a leaky lifeboat. The boat remains buoyant until too much water comes in. At a point, the survivor’s choices become irrelevant.
We need to understand the grave reality which is that law enforcement executives are rapidly running out of levers to pull and complete shifts will soon, unexpectedly, go unfilled. There will be no one left to call to work an overtime shift. There will be days, very soon, where 911 police service calls either get no response or a uselessly long response.
No one who has intellectually assessed the policing staffing crisis deems it impossible to solve. However, based on my review of hours of police recruitment videos, we are clearly not hitting the target. One was literally a parody of a used car ad featuring all the agency’s specialized vehicles. In an ironic twist, the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department won the best recruiting video while experiencing the poorest return on investment.
Current approaches have proved ineffective. Policing, and all public safety including fire, EMS, and corrections must move in a new direction. If you, your agency, and your region are ready to shift your focus to authentic and effective recruiting, it will be the first and second links in the references.
There’s no plan B and we aren’t getting a second shot at this.
Please keep all peace officers and support staff in your prayers.
References:
https://www.safeguardrecruiting.com
https://www.policemag.com/command/article/15308579/the-officer-shortage-and-its-many-effects
Some agencies that were once staffed to handle two simultaneous critical incidents, no longer have the personnel to do that, but they still train like they do, he said. “Train to your actual capabilities not to your ideal.”
https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/crimes-go-unreported-as-richmond-police-understaffed/
https://www.kut.org/austin/2024-02-09/austin-police-department-overtime-staffing-shortage
https://www.wtae.com/article/pittsburgh-police-staffing-changes-violent-crime-initiative/46937644
https://www.wesa.fm/politics-government/2024-04-04/gainey-innamorato-pittsburgh-police-shifts#
Excellent work, sir. Part of the reason we're seeing such dismal recruiting numbers, from what I've observed, is because we aren't recruiting the right people. My department goes to career fairs at colleges and universities.
I was confused when I first learned of this because I assumed we were doing heavy ex-military recruiting. That's been a reliable source of new officers for decades on end. But I was informed city leadership was actively trying to avoid recruiting from the military community. They want fresh-faced college kids with social work on the mind, not law enforcement.
Excellent analysis, as always. This is a truly frightening scenario, and I sometimes wonder if the American public truly understands the gravity of the situation.