A new billboard looms on the east side of Indianapolis, revealing Seattle's picturesque skyline along with a simple message from its police department to officers here: We're hiring.
The job ad's presence, more than 2,000 miles away from the Space Needle, is creating a stir. It's a "canary in the coalmine," said Fraternal Order of Police President Rick Snyder. Such an expensive advertising blitz is necessary, he said, when a department bumps into trouble hanging on to trained officers.
The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department may be forced to mimic Seattle's approach, Snyder said, if IMPD leadership does not shore up its own efforts at retention. Otherwise, younger officers will bolt to other departments that offer better pay or equipment.
“You’ve got to aggressively recruit new candidates and keep your existing employees happy and engaged,” Snyder said. “If it’s not Seattle, it’s going to be somewhere else. It could be as close as Carmel. It doesn’t matter where they go; we’ve lost them.”
As in Seattle, officers have been exiting IMPD at a concerning rate. Mayor Joe Hogsett’s administration expected to lose 69 officers this year for reasons ranging from retirements and resignations to terminations. So far, however, about 100 people — 74 officers and 21 recruits — have left IMPD, according to an early September staffing report. Many were retirees who, after 32 years of service, had maxed out their pension benefit.
That puts IMPD on pace for the most attrition in one year since at least 2007, when 131 officers left.
Indianapolis crime crackdown highlights need for more officers
The uptick in IMPD departures threatens to stall Hogsett’s efforts to curb violent crime. Hogsett has argued that Indianapolis’ escalating criminal homicides can be attributed, in part, to dwindling police force numbers during the post-recession years, which forced IMPD to cover more territory with fewer people. IMPD fell from a high of 1,682 officers at one point in 2010 to 1,502 in 2014.
IMPD Chief Bryan Roach said during an August interview that the department is working to grow its recruiting classes. But new recruits are not an immediate solution, he added, because some drop out and officers who are in training are not out on patrol.
The city budgeted for 1,712 officers this year, which would be a gain over 1,681 in last year’s budget. But the city is behind on its goal — and it might not even come close to the budgeted figure depending on the size of IMPD's December recruiting class.
One reason for the likely shortfall is that it is getting tougher to recruit, Roach said. The city sought 60 new officers in June but only accepted 46.
“We didn’t lower our standards,” Roach said. “I think you look across the nation, it’s harder and harder to get people to be police officers, whether it’s the economy, whether it’s media-driven.”
Hogsett’s 2019 budget calls for 1,743 officers, which includes those who are operational and in training. But missing the mark for 2018 would put the city behind heading into next year. Budgeting for a larger police force only helps if Indianapolis can find and retain officers.
“We have 500 applicants for our June (2019) class,” Roach said. "We’re looking at those applicants and reaching out to them to see if we can bring them into that December class. We’re intentional about having that operational number being higher.”
Seattle police looking far and wide for new hires
The Seattle Police Department is dealing with many of the same issues as IMPD, including recovering from a hiring freeze earlier this decade.
And like IMPD, Seattle is an aging department. About one-third of the force is eligible to retire, said Officer Carrie McNally, a detective in the recruiting unit.
With 100 to 130 new openings per year, though, there is a push to recruit not only local entry-level candidates but experienced officers in other parts of the country.
"Recruiting is one of the highest priorities of the office," McNally said. "This year, we're working a little harder."
For an officer with the right training and at least two years of experience, a lateral transfer to Seattle would require only an additional two weeks at an academy and six weeks of field training, McNally said.
Seattle recruiters have targeted their local gyms and advertised on steaming-music service Pandora in the past. Now, McNally is buying billboards in Chicago and Detroit, too, and casting her eyes on Atlanta and Houston for testing this spring.
But when McNally flies to Indianapolis in early November, it will mark the Seattle Police Department's first testing of prospects outside Washington in about 10 years. Indianapolis was selected because of its proximity to several other jurisdictions within a couple of hours.
Fraternal Order of Police sounds warning
To Snyder, the Seattle billboard is one more factor that could cause IMPD officers to leave the department.
Hogsett officials dismissed concerns about the billboard.
"I don't think it's necessarily something that citizens here should worry about," said Thomas Cook, Hogsett's chief of staff. "I think they should take heart that IMPD's officers are considered, on a national basis, to be the types of folks that anybody would want in their community."
FOP President Snyder, though, said he has been warning city and IMPD leadership for years about the need to ramp up efforts to draw in lateral transfers and retain the existing officer pool.
IMPD's staffing, meanwhile, remains lower than even 2016's numbers.
"I know I've got to hire at least 120 police officers next year," Roach said.
