'Defund Police' Hurts Recruiting: Ex-Riverside Chief

La Grange IL

27 September, 2021

10:25 AM

Description

RIVERSIDE, IL — Police departments have a harder time recruiting officers because of an anti-police environment that involves messages such as "defund the police," Riverside's former police chief says. Last year, when the Riverside Police Department gave its annual recruitment exam, it drew the lowest turnout in 42 years, former Riverside Police Chief Weitzel said. Usually, the department attracts more than 200 for the test, but only had 62 apply last fall. "Unfortunately, the negative rhetoric around defund the police, less police, police somehow are the 'bad guys' has severely/dramatically reduced our ability to recruit new officers," Weitzel said in an email to Patch over the weekend. Now, more and more police departments are seeking lateral transfers, meaning hiring police officers from other departments. One of the reasons is that the pandemic shut down police academies for a long time, Weitzel said. But he said lateral transfers would probably never be needed if departments had enough qualified recruits to apply. "The balancing act is we must still allow new officers that either come to us from the military, college or other avenues to still be able to apply for police officers and be a part of the department," Weitzel said. "We can't just solely concentrate on lateral transfers. There is room for lateral officers, but it has to be shared by a desire to still hire new police officers that have worked their whole entire life to be able to be put in a position to be hired as a police officer." Weitzel, who retired in May after nearly 40 years with the Riverside department, said police agencies need the full support of elected officials, and in many areas, officers are not getting that. As an example, he pointed to Chicago, which he said has become a big source of lateral transfers for suburban departments. He said departments have advantages in hiring officers from other agencies. Because they are fully trained, lateral transfers save a lot of time and money, he said. A new recruit, by contrast, could take up to 10 months to get trained and be on the street, he said. But Weitzel said departments must also do extensive background checks for lateral transfers to make sure they are not getting some other agency's problem. "The trend of hiring lateral officers has definitely taken off since the pandemic," Weitzel said. "This is mainly due to low recruiting by police agencies due to the negative perception there is by some that law enforcement is not the profession to go into anymore. I certainly disagree with that." Weitzel's three sons followed him into law enforcement.