Thanks to recruitment efforts, employment gaps in Raleigh law enforcement are trending downward.
After a year seeking solutions to the staffing shortage in the Raleigh Police Department, recruitment efforts have paid off. A rise in violent crime last fall highlighted the department’s staffing shortage and even led the city to turn to private security to fill the gaps. Now, the RPD has just 45 vacancies*, compared to around 84 vacancies at this time last year. In addition, there are 42 new recruits in the current academy.
“We are trending in the right direction regarding filling in those gaps, and our recruitment efforts are credited with reducing the number of vacancies,” says Chief Public Information Officer Lieutenant Jason Borneo. “These include recruitment events where our recruiters attend career fairs, or hiring events where potential recruits can learn about the RPD. Our social media pages have played an integral role in communicating our message to the community.”
According to Borneo, these trends can also be credited to the demonstration of the unique values and benefits of the RPD, including lateral and language incentives and opportunities such as take-home cars and serving as canine and motorcycle officers, or on SWAT or crash investigation teams.
With these reduced gaps in the force, RPD is hoping to improve response times. “It’s a concern to us,” maintains Chief Estella Patterson. “We serve a community that expects when they call 911, an officer is coming. We are going to do everything we can to make sure our officers are coming, but we do recognize we live in a city of almost half a million… so that is going to task resources. We have to be committed to customer service.”
*These numbers are prone to fluctuate weekly with resignations, retirements and new hires.
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