PC: Fox 11 Online
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — A lot has changed in the field of law enforcement over the last decade, and especially throughout the last five years.
Among those changes and adaptations is how recruits come to be sworn officers. Most agree police recruitment looks wildly different than it did in decades past.
“You could go to a testing for a police department, and there would be hundreds of people testing for two positions,” says Lt. Kristopher Thoreson, a recruiter with the Green Bay Police Department. “Some agencies would hold testing once a year, if that, because the depth of the positions were filled.”
However, in recent years, interest in the field has dwindled for a wide variety of reasons, like many other job fields.
It could be because there’s a closer eye on law enforcement than maybe ever before. The COVID-19 pandemic certainly changed the job, too, as well as opened up endless possibilities for flexible, remote work in a variety of other fields, which plays a role in steering people away from the law enforcement field.
All of this makes it harder for departments like Green Bay’s to recruit officers like they did in the past.
“You’re seeing more departments fishing from the same pool of applicants,” Thoreson says. “It’s almost like the market flipped where it’s in the applicant’s favor. If they’re in good standing, a good person, and they’re interested in this career, really, they have the share of multiple opportunities [to decide] where do they want to see themselves working and living.”
The city of Green Bay is budgeted for 190 police officers, and right now, they have 17 officer positions open. Thoreson says in order to help ensure they fill those open roles, departments will sponsor police recruits.
In other words; the department will pay the $6,000 police academy tuition for recruits and pay them a full wage during it, too.
“It’s full time. It is a 720-hour program, and for those who did their four years and spent time in college, imagine having to go 8 to 4:30 every day, plus paying for the academy, which is just over $6,000 for tuition, and trying to juggle a job and a family on top of that,” Thoreson says. “You don’t want to see great people financially not be able to seek that opportunity.”
The reimbursement program is funded through the Department of Justice, so funding for police academy recruits isn’t coming from the GBPD annual budget.
In Green Bay, the process now works like this: a prospective officer will get hired by the city of Green Bay as a “recruit officer.” While in the academy, the recruit will be paid $21/hour. Upon successful completion of the academy, they will be hired as a full-time officer with the Green Bay Police Department, where the starting pay for officers is $34/hour.
Recruits who fail the academy or drop out will have to pay back the department themselves.
GBPD pulls from NWTC and Fox Valley Technical College academies, and Thoreson says almost every student in the academies is sponsored these days, especially as departments also work to fill positions lost by the retiring baby boomer generation.
“It’s very rare that you see unsponsored candidates going through. They still exist, and good for them,” he says. “Some people just need to get through and get their certification, but financially, that’s a lot.”
Sponsoring recruits has helped the Green Bay Police Department too, but there’s still plenty of competition with surrounding agencies — and many open positions.
Thoreson says those who are considering a job in law enforcement or with the GBPD should reach out and talk with recruiters about the job and the process.
Another huge factor, he says: “Scheduling a ride-along. I think the ride-along with our officers is probably where a lot of people fully grasp what this career entails.”
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