Police faces see recruitment struggles, surge in retirements

PHILADELPHIA — Amid growing calls for police reform and national debate over the deadly use of force, police departments in Philadelphia and beyond are struggling to retain and attract officers, law enforcement officials say. We are anticipating that the department is going to be understaffed by several hundred members, because hundreds of guys are either retiring or taking other jobs and leaving the department,” said Mike Neilon, spokesperson for the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge #5, the union that represents city police officers. When you vilify every police officer for every bad police officer’s decision, don’t want to take this job anymore,” said Pat Colligan, president of the New Jersey State Policemen’s Benevolent Association, the state’s largest police union “It’s been a very trying and difficult time to put on the badge every day,” he added. “There’s a recruiting crisis.” Departments across the country are grappling with the fallout of Floyd’s murder, said Jack Rinchich, president of the 4,000-member National Association of Chiefs of Police. In New Jersey, Col. Patrick Callahan, the acting superintendent of the New Jersey State Police, said the state’s largest police agency is facing a “historically low” applicant pool this year.