South Dakota is part of a nationwide shortage of people who want to be cops:
The Sioux Falls Police Department received 634 applications for open officer jobs in 2010, but only 373 applications during a 12-month period in 2018-19, a 41 percent decline.
….Peter Ragnone, criminal justice program director at [Western Dakota Technical]… said that when he was hired as an officer [in Rapid City] in 1991 more than 100 people applied for about five openings, a ratio of 20 applicants for one job.
Now, he said, the agency and others in South Dakota typically see about only three applicants for each open officer position.
…When [Aberdeen Police Chief David] McNeil entered law enforcement 27 years ago, an open position as a patrol officer would attract up to 250 applications from people eager to be an officer.
“In recent years, we have had the jobs open until filled, so somebody can come in off the street and start the process,” McNeil said [Bart Pfankuch, “Police Agencies in South Dakota Struggle to Recruit, Retain Officers,” South Dakota News Watch, 2019.04.10].
Pfankuch reports that the number of full-time sworn law enforcement officers on duty per 1,000 residents fell 11% from 1997 to 2016. Should we be worried?
Crime stats alone suggest we shouldn’t. From 1997 to 2014 (the latest date the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Statistics website makes available), the violent crime rate dropped 39%, and the property crime rate dropped 40%.
Now police do more than simply respond to crimes, and these nationwide statistics don’t change the challenge places like Clark face in recruiting qualified people to move to a town of 1,050 people and be just one of two full-time cops for $40,000 and darn little vacation time.
But speaking very generally, we should keep in mind that a reduction in the nation’s police ranks relative to population has coincided with a much larger drop in crime rates. We don’t need to recruit more police to fight more crime, because we are enjoying a big multi-decade decline in crime rates. If South Dakota is having trouble recruiting qualified police officers, we need to focus on the labor question: are we willing to pay dedicated public servants a fair market rate for their service?
Looks like another field that could use h2b workers
Lol
That’s a poor joke
Counties are going broke
This is a concern as people want protection but don’t want to pay for it
If the same force generates any money by picking people up, that force is run out of town because you don’t pick up the locals attitude
Double sword 🗡
Screaming when taxes increase
Scream when police don’t answer fast enough
State income tax would help this profession as well as education
Big cities are having a hard time finding diversity options for new hires. In cities like Minneapolis and St. Paul, with large Somali and southeast Asian populations, cops of the same ethnicity create a better relationship between that community and police. Hence, they said cops more and crime rates drop. Finding Black recruits is not as difficult.
Even in cities the total number of applicants per opening is down.
Pfankuch notes as Debbo does that things are tough all over for police recruitment. Diversity here does matter: when the police force looks more like the community it protects, more people will feel included and safe. But wow—wait another thirty years, and let’s see how we old white folks feel when all the cops are from the only growing segments of the population, the brown and red.
T mentions a key South Dakota point: counties provide rural law enforcement, and most counties have thin budgets and no good revenue sources. The only way to solve that problem is the same solution we’ve used to keep rural school districts open and K-12 education consistent statewide: statewide tax and funding. Since the Legislature refuses to give counties any new taxing authority, would we be better off imposing a state income tax and using some of the proceeds to fund an expansion of the Highway Patrol to handle rural law enforcement?
So here is some frustration
We have a leader who priorities in office are to protect the pheasants for th router of state money can come in and kille them., wreck township roads and some trespress and are disrespectful.
Chances for a luxury tax on hotel rooms like MN, even Sidney Ne taxed me almost 13% for a meal before the tip, are slim to none because of the hunter protection law. Th eopportunuty for recouping tidbits here and there are out there. Vegas has a resort fee tax on motels some as high as $50 a night, that’s not included in hotel fee. So if there is not state income tax, start texting th people, the leader wants coming here
Apologize the typing and spelling
I have terrible hunt and peck