APD's recruitment challenges

A report from the City Auditor criticizes APD for lacking an "effective recruitment strategy" as it tries to beef up staffing.

Among other things, APD's social media accounts don't engage in recruitment efforts –– that's left to the APD recruitment accounts, which have a fraction of the following. Existing youth recruitment programs target kids aged 8 to 18, but you've got to be at least 20.5 years old to enroll in the Police Academy, leaving a gap in engagement. The only APD program targeting adult recruitment focuses entirely on retired officers.

I asked former police union prez Ken Casaday for his thoughts. He said, "APD should be traveling the country for the best candidates because all business are fighting over a smaller pool of candidates. We should be on every military base and hit up every company laying off employees to get top notch candidates."

To be clear, last year was the first since the "defund" era when APD gained more new officers than it lost. But the road back to "full staffing," as somewhat arbitrarily defined by the department, will likely be a long one.

Even after getting a massive pay raise –– one that necessitated city finance staff to get creative with their budget estimates –– cops continue to grumble that the city's political environment is a turnoff to prospective recruits. Now they've shifted their focus to District Attorney Jose Garza, saying that he's too hard on cops and too lenient on everyone else.

The elephant in the room: the Police Academy

One oft-overlooked factor in APD's staffing struggles is the high attrition rate at the police academy.