SPECIAL REPORT: Local law enforcement seeing decline in applicants

Police used to be associated with the phrase “Most Wanted.” But now, it’s becoming more an issue of “Help Wanted” for law enforcement agencies across the nation.

According to data from the FBI, most agencies in the U.S. are seeing a decline in the number of people applying to work in law enforcement. Local agencies in Bannock County are facing a decline as well.

Intense physical training is only one hurdle that those hoping for a career in law enforcement have to overcome. Other requirements applicants must meet are passing a polygraph and thorough background check, passing a psychological exam, having no criminal record and no recent drug use.

Local law enforcement agencies said it’s tough to find quality applicants that meet those standards. In fact, agencies said finding any applicants is harder than in years past.

“where we would have 10 to 15 apply – to 20 – apply for each position, we’ve only had four or five,” said Bannock County Sheriff Lorin Nielsen.

“We’re getting a relatively few applicants,” said Chief Randy Severe, with the Chubbuck Police Department. “And I mean that literally, a few applicants. As compared to 20 years ago, there’d be 60, 70, 80 applicants.”

Idaho State Police also report a steady decline in numbers.

Statistics from ISP show that the number of applicants who successfully pass testing has slowly dropped in recent years.

Numbers in 2012 were 466 successful applicants; in 2013, 493; in 2014, 378; in 2015, 288; and in 2016, 271. Due to extra recruitment efforts, the number of successful applicants jumped back up a bit to 304 so far in 2017. But that is still lower than in years past.

The law enforcement program at Idaho State University said it hasn’t necessarily seen a decline in the number of applicants who want to join the program. The problem it is seeing is that more and more who apply are not always acceptable.

“I think we’re getting about what we always have had in the past,” said Cal Edwards, the law enforcement program coordinator at ISU. “It’s just that more applicants can’t get in because of things in their past – background checks, things that they’ve don. “So we turn away 50 percent of the applicants just because they don’t meet the standard to get in anymore.”

One of the biggest questions, and most recent problems, facing Idaho applicant standards is the use of marijuana.

Currently, minimum state requirements say no marijuana use in at least three years. But with marijuana now being legal in surrounding states, local agencies report that’s a conflict for hiring them in Idaho.

“We have someone apply for us who comes from one of those states where that’s legal, then that presents a bit of a problem for us,” Severe said. “We’re not forced to hire them, but on the other hand we don’t want to pass up an otherwise excellent candidate for legal behavior in his own state.”

Nielsen, who is part of the POST council, said it is currently working on possibly lowering that requirement to just one year. He said individual agencies would still have the ability to decide if that standard is acceptable to them for hire, but it allows a wider pool of applicants to apply.

“It sounds like we’re lowering our standards but in reality, we’ve got to look at the dynamics of the job pool that is out there,” Nielsen said. “Somebody could make a mistake and we can’t have that destroy a whole possible career.”

Local agencies said the low pay and the increasing violence and stereotypes against police are also big factors that deter applicants. However, local agencies don’t feel that violence against officers is necessarily a top factor for Idaho because the Gem State doesn’t see the problems other states see in that regard.

Officers who have years of experience on the job said the key to working in the field is to want to help others. They said that’s what makes it so rewarding and has kept them on the job.

Nielsen said a lot of people sit back and think “someone should do something about that.” He said he’s in a job where he can do something. He hopes others will want to make a difference too.

On the Idaho Department of Labor’s website, there are currently around 100 job openings for law enforcement across the state.

Idaho State Police is also adding an additional application period for 2017 to try and encourage more applicants. That enrollment period for August has 247 applicants.