Community support leads to better police retention, officials say

It's well understood law enforcement careers are not for everyone. Many who think they want to be police officers soon realize the job is not right for them, Northwest Arkansas law enforcement officials said.

Law enforcement has a 14 percent attrition rate, higher than two other low-pay, high-stress jobs of teaching and nursing, which clocked in at 13 and 12 percent, respectively, according to the North Carolina Criminal Justice Analysis Center.

The majority of officers who quit do so within the first five years of service, and most of those within the first two to three years, according to multiple national surveys.

But the growing police agencies in Northwest Arkansas seem to fare better than most around the country. While places like Dallas and Tulsa -- which pay significantly better -- are losing hundreds of officers, agencies in this area have few vacancies.

Local officers and deputies cited community support as one of the main reasons they decided to work and stay in the region.

Rogers officer Don Lisi graduated from the police academy in August and said it's a great area to be in law enforcement.

"It's big enough that it has that metropolitan credibility, but at the same time it's not absolutely wild. It's a town of good people, for the most part, who have a good respect for the law," Lisi said.

A young person's game

The Rand Corp., a nonprofit national public policy think tank, found three in four officers work for only one agency in their career, regardless of the time period of that career.

Of those who leave or transfer, it's a quick exit from the job -- 25 percent leave within 1.3 years after being hired and 50 percent do so within 3.2 years.

While no hard data was available, the average time in this region is 3 years, said Training Supervisor Clint Braxton Scrivner with Northwest Arkansas Law Enforcement Training Academy and was echoed by other police officials.

While most officers stick with one department, gone are the days that they stay for decades, said Gene Page, information officer in Bentonville. Since the '90s police have largely been told "this is a young person's game," Page said.

"We were told that quite often, and I saw a lot of experienced officers pushed out and retiring early," Page said. "When I started law enforcement, it was not unusual to have officers in their 50s and 60s still working the street. Those men and women were a plethora of information."

About 50 percent of Bentonville's 74 certified officers have been with the department for more than 10 years, Page said.

"It'd be nice to see the men and women coming in now stay until retirement," he said. "It would be better for the community greatly not only from a budget standpoint -- you're not paying to train officers -- but by having greater knowledge and decision-making out on the streets."

Whether officers move to a different city department, to state or federal law enforcement or go into a different line of work altogether, it means agencies often have to go through the process of hiring and training someone new. It can take nine months to a year for someone to go through the hiring and training process.

Between recruitment, hiring, equipment and training, the cost of a new police officer from the time of application to independent functioning may exceed $100,000, according to the Police Foundation, a national nonprofit group.

It can take three to five years of service to recoup the agency's initial investment, Northwest Arkansas law enforcement officials said.

That investment is another reason departments want to retain the increased number of officers being hired.

There has been a 66 percent increase in police and deputy positions across Northwest Arkansas since 2012 to try to keep up with the increased call volume from a growing population.

Switching to private sector

Better pay, regular hours and less stress can entice officers to consider jobs in the private sector, police officials said.

Northwest Arkansas' larger police departments pay officers $34,816 to $52,499 annually. They pay for all uniforms and equipment and offer health and dental insurance. Springdale has a take-home car program as part of its benefits package.

Long, irregular hours also can be a strain on officers and their families. Hours differ by department and position. Some work 12-hour shifts with a four-day weekend every two weeks while others work nine-hour shifts and get every third day off every other week.

For Adam Howard, former Benton County criminal investigations captain, it was the need for a new challenge.

He was inspired to become an officer during a ride-along with his father during college, and he quickly moved up the ranks during his 14 years of law enforcement, he said. He reached captain at age 34.

"At that point I had 20 years left until retirement, so as I started to evaluate what my career was going to be for the next 20 years it wasn't really intriguing to me to be in an administrative position and you never want to step back," said Howard, now 36. "I'd obtained my goals in law enforcement."

Howard wouldn't have left for just any job in the corporate sector, he said, but it has been a smooth transition from criminal investigator to being a Wal-Mart global investigator. The job, which he took in September 2016, is to investigate anything and everything that could put the company's brand in jeopardy, he said.

He is excited about the upward mobility his new job offers and, of course, pay is always a factor, he said.

"Law enforcement is grossly underpaid. I don't think it's a secret with anybody," he said. "It's never going to be a job someone does to get rich, and to be honest, I don't think a lot of us leave it because of that. You get fatigued mentally, and it gets tough. I know for me, that was a big factor."

Page said mental health management is one area where agencies nationwide have neglected officers. They go from one stressful call to another, such as from a fatality to a child being abused, and they often adopt a tough guy mentality, he said.

"You can imagine the effect to the psyche after 20 years of doing that. It's like filling up a glass: At some point you have to let it out in some way," he said. "You're a human being. You can mask it, but over time it will have an effect on you because you're not superhuman."

Community, agency support

Agencies can significantly improve retention by increasing employee engagement and changing an agency's image with its employees and community, according to the Rand Corp. research.

On the latter, officers and deputies said the Northwest Arkansas community is more positive about law enforcement, and people find ways to express support, whether it's a handshake and "thank you for your service" from someone on the street or an officer's lunch being paid for unexpectedly.

"It's a very patriotic area, but then again, all the agencies around here are very professional," said Benton County Deputy Mark Pitts, who has been in law enforcement for more than 28 years.

It positively helps, officers said, because they aren't usually interacting with people at their best.

Most of the larger agencies in the area stay connected with the community through social media, which serves to create more of a personal connection with residents and as a platform to praise quality work and milestones of employees.

Having an attractive website and community presence can go far in recruiting and maintaining officers, said Nelson Lim, a sociologist who analyzes recruitment, retention, diversity and other police personnel issues for Rand Corp.

A good relationship with the community can go further than increasing salaries, Lim said.

Pitts said he has seen this firsthand, counting off officers he knows who made a lot more money in bigger cities but chose to come to Northwest Arkansas.

One benefit of sticking with a law enforcement career, as with many public jobs, is the retirement benefits, police spokesmen said.

Arkansas public employees are eligible for retirement after 28 years of service regardless of age; at age 60 or older with 20 years of service; or at age 65 with five years of service, according to the state Public Employee Retirement System.

Some officers, like Pitts, decide to work past retirement. Pitts retired Sept. 1 and is now on a delayed retirement plan.

"I enjoy the work, and every month you work it puts money in an account over and above your salary," he said. "I can leave any time I want to leave."

NW News on 12/04/2017