Chatham Co. law enforcement dealing with vacancies - WTOC
CHATHAM COUNTY, Ga. (WTOC) - A Chatham County leader said hiring is the number one issue facing law enforcement right now, and there’s no easy solution.
Chatham County Police Chief Jeff Hadley said, in his just over three decade background in law enforcement, he’s never seen as high of a percentage of officers getting out of the profession altogether.
Like other area police agencies, CCPD does exit interviews to see what’s leading an officer to leave their department.
“To see folks just leave to go drive a truck, which we have, or some have gone back to school. Some went to work in other industries…is a little surprising to me in my experience,” Chief Hadley said.
Chief Hadley and other police leaders acknowledge some officers are leaving the profession after a short time because of the stress of the job and a demanding schedule.
“Maybe that shift schedule doesn’t work for you, and there’s other options out there for you to go work and make a living and have a career,” Chief Hadley said.
And fewer officers on staff puts a strain on those who do stick with the profession, possibly shortening their police career lifespan.
“Because it’s hard to take time off, it’s hard to go get additional training. And so that’s that situation where there’s kind of this instant curve of losing police officers. And then that affects the overall picture. Because at the end of the day, you’re not as effective if you don’t have a full team,” Garden City Police Chief Gilbert Ballard said.
Here’s the breakdown of where three of the largest agencies in the area stand on open positions. Office-wide, Chatham County Sheriff John Wilcher says he has 177 vacancies. Savannah Police has 76 openings, and CCPD has around 20.
“If anybody’s got any suggestions how to fulfill the void, we’re killing ourselves trying to do it,” Sheriff Wilcher said.
Chief Ballard pointed out, departments in areas experiencing a lot of growth, like Pooler, are having to battle staffing on two fronts - filling already existing vacancies and roles being created to handle the population growth.
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source: http://www.wtoc.com/2021/12/20/chatham-co-law-enforcement-dealing-with-vacancies/
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