State police academy reports no shortage of recruits, despite social justice climate
Published 2:38 pm Wednesday, September 23, 2020
- Oregon State Police
Law enforcement leaders around the country have said in recent years that fewer people want to be peace officers, a trend that was reinforced after the death of Black man George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis in May. But in Oregon, the number of people taking the state’s 16-week basic police training remains largely unchanged.
At the start of September, 363 people had been through, or were in the process of taking, basic police training, along with 152 corrections officers and 158 emergency dispatchers, according to the Department of Public Safety Standards and Training. This is similar to 2019, when 437 people enrolled in basic police training, 180 enrolled in training to become a corrections officer and 118 to become an emergency dispatcher.
Those figures are down from 2017, however. That year, 482 people sought to become police officers and 211 to become corrections officers.
As for retirements, 478 officers were scheduled to become eligible to retire in 2019-2020.
Due to the recent economic slowdown, some Oregon police agencies have stopped hiring, leaving vacant positions unfilled, according to Eriks Gabliks, director of the state law enforcement agency, which oversees the state police academy. Some have begun layoffs, as the North Bend Police Department did in June.
Though the state’s public safety agency isn’t seeing fewer recruits, it is worried its funding allotment won’t be approved by the Oregon Legislature in the next biennium, Gabliks said.
The state budget is already stretched thin due to the COVID-19-caused economic slowdown and now massive wildfires around the state. Gabliks said if the agency’s latest funding request isn’t approved in December, newly hired officers would have to wait until July 1, 2021, for an open class when the agency’s 2021-2023 budget begins.
“There is no guarantee that our request for scarce budget dollars for additional basic police and basic classes will be approved as we know other state agencies also will have similar important needs that need to be evaluated for funding,” Gabliks said.
