Eleven months ago, when a class of 60 Omaha police recruits began their training, city officials hoped the group would bring the department near its authorized strength of 906 officers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
But the newly sworn officers\u00a0\u2014 those with previous law enforcement experience who got their OPD badges in July<\/a>, plus\u00a0rookies who graduated in October<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 only offset the number of departures the force experienced.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n OPD’s net gain in police numbers since May is three officers. As of Friday,\u00a0the city’s number of full-time, sworn officers stands at 844, compared to a historic high of 886 two years ago.\u00a0OPD has never reached the 900-officer target announced by Mayor Jean Stothert and the department in 2017, two years before the agency’s fifth precinct opened in the Elkhorn area.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Todd Schmaderer<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Police Chief Todd Schmaderer has recognized the gaps, which follow a recent national trend of police departments having difficulty in hiring and retaining officers. Many attribute the problem to news media attention on policing and high-profile cases, stressors from protests in 2020 and\/or the COVID-19 pandemic.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n “We’ve seen a more aggressive number of those leaving the Omaha Police Department or either retiring early,” Schmaderer said. “A lot of the exit interviews just center around burnout and loss of interest in the career … Fortunately, we’re not near the level that some cities are.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Yet staffing levels could drop further before they rise.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Monday, 14 recruits begin training \u2014 if they stick around, six veteran or “lateral” recruits will become sworn OPD officers after 11 weeks of training and eight more will receive their badges after 22 weeks of training.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n If the pattern of departures continues, the small class may not even cover the losses that occur by the time the first recruits graduate. Twelve officers retired or left during the same 11-week period last year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Schmaderer said staff vacancies are an issue that needs to be solved but aren’t so high that residents should notice.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n “The public likely won’t feel the impact of it,” he said. “It’s not to that level. But it’s cause for management attention to deploy our resources appropriately.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Meanwhile, officials plan to start another recruit class at the end of this year. They currently are accepting applications in order to fill that class, which they said should be close to if not at the full capacity of 60 recruits. But troubles remain, as OPD extended the monthlong application period another 2\u00bd weeks, presumably because of a lack of job applicants.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Police union president Tony Conner said he was told that OPD received just over 200 applications in three weeks\u00a0\u2014 a fifth of the total number of last year’s applicants and 13% of the typical average of 1,500 applicants in prior years.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Sherie Thomas<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Acting Deputy Chief Sherie Thomas, who heads the Executive Services Bureau that oversees hiring and the training academy, declined to provide the number of people who have applied until the application period closes, which is now on April 18.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Conner said a large applicant pool is important because the process is arduous, with several steps\u00a0\u2014 a written exam, an interview and a physical, then backgrounding that includes drug and vision tests and a credit check. Some people don’t even show up to the first test, he said, and each part can weed out more and more applicants to find “the best and the brightest” that ultimately will represent OPD.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Even after a class is finalized, dropouts can occur \u2014 five of the recruits from the May 2021 class didn’t make it to graduation.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Conner fears that the impact of a decreased force could correlate to fewer services. But he said hiring requirements shouldn’t change.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n “If we maintain our standards, if there’s less services because there’s less officers on the street, I think the public would accept that before they ever accept us lowering our standards,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Thomas said there’s no need for concern regarding the availability of officers responding to high-priority radio calls. A new call center, which was created during the pandemic, also helps take nonemergency reports over the phone instead of dispatching an officer, she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The recruiting requirements are the same as they have been in previous years, Thomas said, but OPD now can offer a new incentive for out-of-state law enforcement officers. Such officers now can complete an 11-week training course instead of the full 22-week class that rookies take.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Monday’s class has 12 men and two women. The class is made up of 12 Whites and two Hispanics.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Officials had hoped the class would be closer to 30-35 recruits.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Thomas said OPD officials know that the class is smaller and not as diverse as they would have liked. Last year’s class\u00a0shattered previous records for diversity and size.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The city also is hiring for 30 civilian, non-sworn positions that are vital to OPD operations, Thomas said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n “We are hopeful that our current recruiting process is successful in attracting individuals that will assist us with being reflective of the community we serve,” she said. “We will continue to be intentional in our recruiting efforts.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Police departments across the nation have tried various strategies to recruit, said Jessie Huff, an assistant professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Some departments, she said, have been offering signing bonuses and housing stipends but also adjusting credit score and physical fitness standards. Huff said departments should consider additional ways to appeal to a broader pool of applicants, which should include women and people of color.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Jessica Huff<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n “People are concerned that this is lowering the bar or lowering the standards, but that’s not the case,” she said. “We can still use thorough background-check processes to bring in the right people but eliminating some barriers to\u00a0include those who have the potential to be great officers but couldn’t meet basic roadblocks.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n OPD recently started a TikTok account, called joinOPD<\/a>, which on Friday had more than 93,000 followers and more than 210,000 likes across their 14 videos, which show short snippets of life as an officer and the hiring process. One 8-second video of an officer and his K-9 has racked up more than 1.3 million views.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n And OPD has a direct pipeline to UNO students interested in a law enforcement career, with the help of retired OPD Sgt. Kim Retzlaff, an adjunct professor and the internship coordinator at UNO’s criminology and criminal justice school.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Kim Retzlaff<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Retzlaff has gotten phone calls from local, Nebraska and even out-of-state law enforcement agencies looking to hire qualified applicants. UNO’s program, which is available on the University of Nebraska’s Omaha and Lincoln campuses, consistently has increased its enrollment since 2017\u00a0\u2014 this semester, Retzlaff said, 985 students are taking classes.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Retzlaff has formed a Future Law Enforcement Professionals group and encourages students to attend meetings, which feature speakers who work in all sorts of niches that agencies can offer. She was heartened to recently hear from 10 future students\u00a0\u2014 all women\u00a0\u2014 who were interested in a law enforcement career.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n “When I speak with students, I tell them that law enforcement is changing, it’s progressing,” she said. “I think that it’s still a very noble profession and one that’s not gonna go away. We need peacekeepers in our community.”\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Current OPD officers are leaving for various personal or professional reasons. According to city human resources records, 54 officers left the job in 2021, compared to 30 in 2017. (The records count a person’s final employment date with the city, not his or her last working day on the job.)\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n A larger percentage of the departures is coming from officers on the Deferred Retirement Option Program, which is open to workers with 25 years of service. The plan allows the city to retain experienced officers longer and gives the officers a financial incentive to stay.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n However, more officers are deciding to retire earlier than planned or move on to other opportunities\u00a0\u2014 in line with the “Great Resignation” phenomenon that the nation has seen in the last two years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Former Officer Christy Jaworski retired in April 2021 after 22\u00bd years on the job. About two years before that, she had been considering retiring to spend more time with her son, who is now 8 years old. She also said she wanted to take care of her health after she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n “I was on call a lot,” said Jaworski, a former detective in the child victims and domestic violence units. “I just wanted to be there more for my family.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n While she said the pandemic didn’t accelerate her decision, it was made clearer after she worked the May 2020 civil rights demonstrations . She recalled seeing a sign that said, “A good cop is a dead cop,” which jarred her.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n “I saw some very hateful people toward police officers … I know that it doesn’t reflect everybody, but it was very hard to see a job that I love so much become so hated by the vocal minority,” she said. “That was not the deciding factor, but it definitely made my decision easier in my mind.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Because of all the factors, she said, she didn’t feel that a 2% pension increase per six months of work was worth it, so she retired as soon as she was able.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n “The police department is very understaffed in general\u00a0\u2014 all police departments probably are,” she said. “I know of a few people who just were in the detective bureau, and the caseloads were really high.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Tony Conner<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n People are also reading\u2026<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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