Police Jobs Go Begging

The Los Angeles Police Department is in the dubious position of jeopardizing federal money to pay 150 new hires because it can’t maintain the force above the federally required 9,771 officers. That makes it imperative that the LAPD offer more incentives to potential recruits without diminishing its standards.

Police hires are a nationwide problem. Henry County, Ga., is paying new recruits a signing bonus of more than 3.5% of their annual salary. New York City embarked on a megabucks media campaign for more officers and wound up with fewer than half of the recruits it drew without fanfare back in 1996. In Orange County, the Santa Ana and Orange police departments are 12% and 10%, respectively, below their authorized number of officers.

Most observers say that the hiring crunch is a byproduct of the booming economy. The availability of more safe and lucrative jobs means fewer people willing to take $43,000 to $46,000 a year in starting pay for a job that involves considerable personal risk.

The young and computer-savvy can select from an array of new jobs related to information technology or biogenetics. E-commerce accountants can begin at $54,000. A bioinformaticist, who does the computer drudge work of tooling through data in search of relevant patterns in a plant’s gene map, can start at $75,000 to $100,000, according to U. S. News and World Report.

The concept of job stability has also changed. Not very long ago, jumping from job to job was considered a sign of failure and/or immaturity. Now it’s standard procedure for getting ahead, and that mitigates against traditional 20-year service jobs and small, incremental raises like those in the military or law enforcement. Another factor is the increased appeal of private security work, which is now offering salaries that are more competitive with those of sworn police officers.

That brings it all back to the kind of competition that will be necessary to fill out the ranks of the LAPD. Signing bonuses and unconventional recruiting strategies are ideas worth trying. But lowering standards is not. In some cities and towns, men and women with arrest records make up a growing percentage of police academy recruits. That can’t be allowed here.

The LAPD’s Rampart Division scandal has shown the city what can happen when cops go bad. It can only be worse if the training academies accept candidates of questionable character.