Law enforcement agencies across the country are facing challenges with recruitment and retention — Johnson County is no exception.
Big and small local departments alike are facing similar problems.
The Greenwood Police Department — the highest-paid department in Johnson County — has struggled to fill all funded positions at its police department, for a number of reasons.
The Trafalgar and New Whiteland police departments are facing struggles in keeping officers at their small departments and remaining competitive with larger agencies surrounding them.
The Johnson County Sheriff’s Office and Franklin Police Department have seen lower numbers of applications but are faring better than other agencies.
Local police are struggling to compete with Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department and the Indiana State Police. Local chiefs feel the pressure to raise pay and offer perks to match the competition.
“All law enforcement agencies right now, they battle with one another,” Sheriff Duane Burgess said. “I’ve taken people from Franklin, I took somebody from Greenwood. We need to get it set.”
A nationwide issue
Earlier this month, the Police Executive Research Forum released the results of a survey of 182 law enforcement agencies which showed that while police departments are recruiting more officers compared to a 2020 decrease, departments have seen 47% more resignations and 19% more retirements in 2022 compared to 2019. Because of this, total sworn officer staffing has dropped by nearly 5% over the last three years, the survey says.
There are a lot of reasons that could possibly be behind the challenges, and some officials believe the change in attitude toward police is one of them — especially after the death of George Floyd in 2020 and protests to “Defund the Police.”
“There was a lot of talk (in the legislature) about doing away … with qualified immunity. That scared a lot of officers,” said Jim Ison, Greenwood police chief. “Basically, what the country has seen is a mass exodus of officers who have the time required to retire. They’re all getting out.”
Policing used to be looked at as something that could be a career. However, Ison is seeing more young people who look at it as something to try for a few years before moving on to something else.
They’re also more heavily weighing the benefits and the risks of the job.
“They’re realizing not only the civil liabilities, but the dangers of the job, the low pay for the amount of risk they take, that it’s not worth it (to them),” he said.
Burgess also believes police protests were a factor, along with the pandemic. Another part of the problem is society’s general shift toward remote work following the pandemic, he said.
Though there has been a change in public perception of police in many communities, Burgess says he hasn’t seen it here.
“We’re blessed in Johnson County because the residents understand what we’re doing,” he said. “We have great agencies within the county.”
There is also a dwindling pool of applicants, as every law enforcement agency is recruiting from the same pool of talent, Ison and Burgess said.
Small departments try to keep up
Trafalgar has a small police department, with only four full-time officers, including the chief and deputy chief.
However, the department has been down one officer since last June, after Officer Dustin Moody was severely injured in a car accident while on duty. Earlier this year, another officer left for another agency, Chief Charles Roberts said.
During a recent hiring process, Roberts received four applications, and only one showed up for the physical agility test. Going through a second round, Roberts received four applications again and narrowed those down to give a conditional offer to a new officer. This officer was sworn in as a reserve and will go to the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy in January.
Roberts says he’s seen pools of applicants get smaller, and he’s seeing fewer people interested in law enforcement than when he started back in the 90s. He could not pinpoint a reason why that is though.
Trafalgar has also dealt with a relatively high turnover rate. Roberts said officers, other than him and Deputy Chief Lee Britt, typically stay in Trafalgar for two to three years. That’s been true for the last decade, he said.
A couple of factors contribute to that, Roberts said. One is pay. Trafalgar has some of the lowest-paid officers, compared to other agencies in Johnson County. Roberts said he loses officers to other agencies in Johnson and Morgan counties that pay more and offer perks.
Trafalgar has a limited budget, which Roberts said he understands. He thinks the town council is doing its best to help the department. But in years past, other nearby agencies were getting 5 to 7% annual raises, while Trafalgar would get 2 or 3% raises, when they were already on the lower end of salaries.
Roberts advocated for and got approval to raise all full-time officer salaries by $5,000 in Trafalgar’s 2023 budget, which is a step in the right direction, Roberts and council members said at the time. That bumped Trafalgar’s base pay for an officer to $50,000. Previously, Trafalgar was one of police departments in the county to pay below $50,000.
Roberts does not think Trafalgar police should make as much as larger agencies, but he wants Trafalgar to be competitive with those agencies.
“You’re gonna have to find a happy medium. I know our budget is not as high as other agencies in the county, but you’re going to have to compare the general budget with other agencies of our size, plus compare that to agencies that are around us,” Roberts said. “When we hire someone and send them to the academy, they’re not leaving to go to other small agencies somewhere else. They’re leaving to other agencies in our area, for the most part.”
While down officers, Roberts works to make sure the town is protected. Trafalgar has several paid part-time and reserve officers, who have stepped up to help, he said. He and Britt also take on more shifts to help. If there are ever gaps in coverage, the sheriff’s office fills in to help.
“When we took this job, we knew, especially working in a small department, we knew we’d have to do whatever it took — and when I say we I mean Deputy Chief Britt and I,” Roberts said. “We knew we’d have to do whatever it took to cover the town and make the town safe.”
The New Whiteland Police Department is facing a similar problem. In a period of six months last year, three officers left to go to the Whiteland Police Department. Not long before that, two other officers also left, with one leaving for GPD.
The department is now fully staffed with eight full-time officers, but the applicant pool was smaller than in years before, Chief Joe Rynerson said. The department is also planning on adding a ninth officer soon too.
Rynerson thinks the national attention on police officers has made fewer people want to go into the profession. Officers are also more often jumping to other departments that generally pay more.
“It’s a trend that I don’t like, but people are just going from department to department,” Rynerson said.
Rynerson brought up this issue to the town council in February. He asked them to help him find more ways to keep officers.
Pay was brought up, and New Whiteland police are generally in the middle of the road, compared to other agencies of its size around Johnson County, aside from Whiteland Police Department.
Starting pay for a new officer in New Whiteland is around $55,000, and that is bumped up to $60,000 once an officer completes the academy. By comparison, Whiteland now starts officers at $65,400, after it increased police pay by 5% this year.
Other than Whiteland, comparable town police departments in the county, including Edinburgh and Trafalgar, start officers at less than New Whiteland, even after raising pay in 2023.
Rynerson still thinks New Whiteland is doing fine for a small department, and the salary is comparable, along with the equipment. He thinks there is still room for improvement.
“We’ve got a supportive council for the police department. We have got equipment,” Rynerson said. “And our salaries are up there, higher than a lot of the smaller departments. So I’d have to say no, it could be better. It can always be improved. However, I think we’re okay where we’re at right now.”
New hiring bump for Greenwood
For the last few years, the GPD has been struggling to get applicants for the department’s open positions.
In 2019, the agency had 314 applicants during that year’s hiring process. In 2020, the number dropped to 49 — and the agency only hired one officer who had made it through all the training, Ison said.
During the next hiring process in 2022, the agency only received 11 applications and again only hired one.
“The past 20 years, I can’t remember a process where we’ve had under 300. We usually have between 300 and 400 applicants.” Ison said.
Facing staffing shortages, last year the agency formed a recruitment committee and revamped some of its recruitment methods.
“They had input on what they thought would be appealing to some of the younger generation and college students and military personnel that are just getting out of college and the military looking for jobs,” Ison said.
One thing GPD did was create a professionally produced recruitment video that highlighted some of the benefits they have available. They also advertised at universities, used websites like Zip Recruiter and advertised out of state, Ison said.
“A lot of officers were looking to leave some of the larger metropolitan areas and go to the smaller suburban police departments where local leaders gave them more support,” he said.
GPD also raised officer pay. In 2022, the agency raised the starting salary for people with less than three years of experience from $50,000 to $60,000. For lateral transfers from other departments, they now get hired at the first class patrolman salary of $70,000, Ison said.
Greenwood’s efforts are paying off, Ison said. The agency had 139 applicants for the 2023 hiring process. From that list, they made a list of 30 and on April 21, hired 12 of them — the largest hiring class ever, he said. That’s enough officers for a whole shift.
With the 12 new officers, GPD has staffed 74 of their 77 positions. Three more officers will be hired in August, which will fill all positions currently funded by the city budget, he said.
Among those new officers sworn in last month was Nicholas Gray. He came from the Tippecanoe County Sheriff’s Office, where he was a deputy for six years. Gray decided to make the move to Greenwood because he’s heard good things about the city and its police, he said.
“Right now in this economy, that has to be your number one concern with any field of work, but Greenwood has great benefits,” Gray said. “The other thing is, Greenwood seems to be a growing area. It seems to be on the up … This community seemed very supportive of law enforcement, of course in this field, that’s super important that the community is supportive of what we do.”
Unlike Trafalgar in New Whiteland, for GPD, the agency has not had a problem with a lot of resignations, Ison said.
The majority of the agency’s losses have been to retirements, and there have also been a few lateral transfers between agencies, he said.
“We don’t typically lose officers to other agencies. We’re an agency where they come to us,” Ison said.
Though there have been a lot more retirements in the last few years, the bright side is for younger officers who come in, there are plenty of opportunities for them to advance to new roles, he said.
Franklin doing fine, sheriff still recruiting
Through their robust recruitment efforts, Franklin Police Department is not seeing the same problems, Chief Kirby Cochran said. Though the recruitment pool is smaller than in years past, quality officers emerge from it.
“I can’t complain. Would we like to have more applicants? Yes. But the applicants we’re getting we’re getting some very, very solid applicants, some folks with some criminal justice degrees, some with military background,” Cochran said.
FPD recruits on social media, through advertising and by visiting colleges and Central Nine Career Center. At colleges, they focus on students in criminal justice and law enforcement classes to get to the people who may be interested in a law enforcement career, Cochran said.
The last seven of 11 officers hired were from Franklin, or within five miles of the city.
“I attribute it to a lot of the community partnership work we do and the exposure we get with social media. And we are out in the public a lot,” Cochran said.
FPD offers some perks, such as longevity pay. Cochran also has a goal to raise base pay to around $70,000 to be more comparable to larger agencies like GPD and the Sheriff’s Office. He said a high base pay is one of the best hiring incentives, as that will be the number that eventual retirement pay is based on.
For the sheriff’s office, while the number of merit deputy applications is down, the numbers are up for positions in the Johnson County jail, Burgess said.
JCSO is still falling short on applicants for other positions in the jail such as kitchen workers and cooks, he said.
Over the last few years, Burgess has worked with the Johnson County Council to raise salaries to get qualified applicants. He’s been thankful for their help, but there is still work to be done, he said.
“The pay raises, they’ve been very, very nice to me,” Burgess said. “I’d still like to see my numbers up higher for the law enforcement officers coming in.”
Burgess is concerned about the possibility of deputies leaving as the Indiana General Assembly recently approved significant pay raises for state police.
Incentives offered
Greenwood police have offered a wide variety of incentives in order to entice officers to join and stay with the department, This includes having “fantastic” health insurance, Ison said.
The city has a health clinic through Franciscan Health where officers and their immediate family can go for free. Last year, the department started a Tactical Athlete Program with Forte Medical Science, which is also free, Ison said.
Police employees have free memberships to the Greenwood Community Center and the Greenwood Fieldhouse — and their families can join for discounted rates. Those who take on special assignments like SWAT or K-9 receive specialty pay, and those who are on call for any reason also get an extra $30 a day for being on call, he said.
One of the biggest incentives in Ison’s view is officer equipment. GPD officers get take-home cars, with mileage restrictions. For 2023, the agency will purchase 32 new vehicles — almost half of their fleet — to replace current vehicles.
“Most of the new officers that are starting this year, by the end of the year, will have brand new vehicles,” Ison said.
One area that could be improved is longevity pay. Greenwood stopped offering it in the early 2010s, but many of GPD’s officers are grandfathered in and continue to receive it. Restarting this practice is ultimately up to the mayor’s office and the city council, Ison said.
Trafalgar offers a take-home vehicle for full-time officers. In terms of benefits, the town of Trafalgar pays 95% of officers’ health insurance, and they get a $3,000 health savings account.
JCSO does not offer specific incentives other than standard county benefits such as health insurance and clothing allowance. Instead, the agency tries to provide the best working environment possible — and by changing with the times, Burgess said. For example, JCSO now allows officers to grow a beard and is working on an update to the department’s policy against visible tattoos, he said.
The future
Local agencies are considering many options to recruit and retain officers going forward.
Trafalgar started a committee with Roberts, Britt and council member Jason Ramey to come up with retention solutions. One idea is proposing longevity pay to entice officers to stay in Trafalgar longer, Roberts said.
“I mean, we’re gonna have to offer some kind of, something unique … and find that right person that wants to have their career here,” Roberts said.
In New Whiteland, Rynerson wants to ask for longevity pay, along with a health savings account and a clothing allowance. These are some perks many other departments offer, including Whiteland and Franklin, for example.
Rynerson also thinks the recruitment rut law enforcement is in will turn around eventually.
“I don’t think it’s going to be soon, but I do see where it’s going to turn around because this is still a good, noble job,” Rynerson said.
Burgess is going to keep working with county officials to move the needle on pay and work environment, he said.
“We’re going to keep working toward getting pay raises, to get that up so that we don’t have that (staffing) issue in the sheriff’s office,” Burgess said.
In Greenwood, continuing to raise officer pay is one of the options on the table.
“We’re going to continue to do what we have to do to remain competitive and make sure our officers are well paid and taken care of,” Ison said.
Daily Journal reporter Noah Crenshow, Multimedia News Editor Emily Ketterer and Editor Leeann Doerflein contributed to this report.
