On Monday, Aug. 8, the 112th Greensboro Police Academy class graduated and the recruits joined the ranks of the Greensboro Police Department (GPD).
And despite the fact that the newly sworn police officers had completed more than 900 hours of training and instruction, this is bad news for Greensboro.
Only 13 recruits graduated from Greensboro Police Academy, which means the currently depleted ranks of the GPD will soon have even more vacancies.
The GPD currently has over 100 vacancies. The way the GPD counts officers is somewhat hard to follow but according to GPD figures the number of vacancies in sworn officers has grown by 14 since February.
Every year through normal attrition – mainly retirement but also resignations, firings and injuries and transfers – the GPD loses an average of 60 officers. So simply to maintain the status quo each of the two Police Academy classes during the year needs to graduate 30 officers. In reality each class needs to graduate more than 30 because not all the graduates will make it through the training process.
Graduating only 13 in this class means that at the end of the year the GPD will be down another 17 officers through normal attrition. If a number of officers decide to leave to work in another jurisdiction for higher pay or better benefits, such as take-home police cars, then the attrition rate will be higher and the GPD will be down more than 17 officers.
Former Police Chief Brian James in speaking to the City Council about the dwindling number of sworn officers said that what the GPD needed to fill its ranks was to graduate about 40 recruits from each Greensboro Police Academy class for a few years.
So if the goal was 40 then this class was 27 officers short of meeting that goal.
James at that time said that the GPD had learned to operate more efficiently and was filling in for the vacant positions by using overtime. But he also said that could not be done indefinitely because officers can only work so many hours.
The 2022-2023 City of Greensboro budget passed by the City Council in June raised police salaries only enough to keep the GPD from falling further behind other jurisdictions. But despite the massive tax increase the budget did not raise police salaries enough to reverse the trend of the ever shrinking GPD, nor did it provide take home police cars something all of Greensboro’s peer cities provide.
This is definitely a growing problem for GPD. Attention to applicant qualifications should be reviewed. At a point in the past qualifications was downgraded in favor of maintaining applicant diversity. How is this being handled today?
There’s no question that GPD must remain competitive in terms of compensation and benefits, but performance expectations have to be a major consideration before enrollment in a recruit class. Student exposure to policing could become a separate subject of study in the public schools and community college systems. Law enforcement has got to return to a position of respect in the community, especially among the young.
Looks like it has more to do with salary and department funding cuts… like police departments across the country.
How many were in the class? What was the graduation percentage? How many had the basic qualifications to be admitted to the class? These questions need to be answered.
Congratulations to those 13 graduates. I hope the current city council will not destroy their desire to serve.
I guess as long as Demrr and run Greensborwe will have a short of police attending the academy. Democrats,this includes the current group national and local, are the main reason we are having this shortage.They believe that we should eliminate all police forces and use social workers to administer the law to criminals . Also the city council puts their 2 cents in and just Royally messes everything up.Also give city of Greensboro credit,they voted back in all city council back in. They are all Democrats .So Greensboro people get ready and don’t whine whenever the city council raises your trash rates then your taxes rise on everything else because the Democrats know one thing and that is spending. They know how to spend your money.
Thanks for demonstrating the importance of English mastery, and of passing the recent school bond.
I’m no cop lover, but everyone knows we need an effective law enforcement system. Government is bathing in money at the moment, so the least they can do is to properly fund one of their basic duties.
God bless these men and women for stepping up. Too bad they work for a mayor and city council that don’t have their backs.
Citizens of Greensboro, you may not be aboard the GPD Hindenburg, but you certainly are stuck underneath it. Keep your eyes on the ground and ignore that warm tickle on the back of your neck. Know that as the world comes crashing down around you that it will all be over soon. This is what you voted for.
26 murders and counting, or double the number of GPD graduates, if you want to count them that way, but there’s nothing to see here.
There were major losses in all emergency services during COVID when vaccines were mandated. This one issue is being overlooked. As long as vaccines are mandated for these jobs there will be shortages in filling them just as there will be in the military.
There will also be issues with filling these positions as long as there are “politically correct” concerns that change constantly. The officers, firefighters, and paramedics are consistently monitored as to what they say, how they say it, how they touch people, and how they describe people, all of which keep them from doing their jobs effectively. When you’re not able to describe the color of a subject being sought in a crime or tell the hospital whether a patient is a male or female for treatment you can’t do your job. The fact that there are now computer programs for medical groups with 34 pronoun choices explains the stupid place our society is right now, and emergency services can’t work efficiently under those conditions.
The pressure of these jobs is intense as it is but being fired because one chooses to not have a vaccine, and feeling that you are always monitored about what you say, do, think, or write, whether on the job, at home, in public, in private has become too much to sacrifice for a job where most people don’t respect you and are in fact trying to take your life, your home, and your livelihood. This problem won’t change until society changes and decides that having stability and order is better than chaos and lawlessness.
I believe that you said at all which is all true and I commend you for speaking the truth it would change not being mean but my God the right way society should live and be protected thank you thank you well spoken
Let us be honest with ourselves. One of the actual reasons for the current problem with the low number of police officers is hamstringing the police from enforcing the laws. Honorable police officers have a problem with picking and choosing what laws to enforce. Liberals do not want laws enforced, especially laws that could lead to an arrest of a certain minority group. This applies to vehicle violations such as broken taillight, seatbelt, speeding and such. Liberals, including Greensboro liberals, believe these traffic stops target Blacks. Liberals believe that if the police stop enforcing traffic violations, less Blacks will be arrested for violations beyond the traffic stop. This may be accurate, but it makes all of us less safe. Many violent criminals have been caught from a broken taillight stop. How many workers put their lives on the line every day, Walmart greeter, software engineer, politician, an unemployed mayor, lawyers, community organizers, nonprofit administrator, city council members? No, but a police officer does.
Good. The state needs less state-apppinted murderers. Let the idiots in special police handle it. At least they can be held accountable by the law when they murder our community members.
Your comment speaks volumes about your lack of knowledge of the problem. If your comment was meant to be serious, then you are void of facts. Good luck to you.
Here is a bit of trivia for you. Not only is the police department over well over 100 officers short they don’t have enough cars in their fleet for the existing officers to drive. This means that supervisors are having to double their officers up in the patrol cars. Pretty soon I guess some of them will have to start walking a beat. This is sad and looks like it is going to get worse. You have to look no further than who you have running city government.
Urban policing by bicycle has worked well in the past.
GPD already has bike squads. They primarily work downtown. They are running on skeleton crews, especially in patrol. You know, the officers that answer your 911 calls.
Greensboro is too much of a sprawl for that to work. We are 135 square miles of territory. That is not practical to patrol by bicycle, especially when an officer might have to travel all the way across town to get to a call. The downtown officers that do use bikes have enough trouble running up and down those few blocks. Imagine them trying to pedal to your aid somewhere across town. See you in an hour, hope you don’t bleed out while you wait.
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and getting the same results!
Since we have the same city council with Zack instead of Justin we will see the same results. This council refuses to put GPD on par with surrounding agencies. They have defunded the police without publicly “defunding” the police. Still no take home cars, like everyone else has.
I don’t mind the take home patrol cars but they should all be marked so the crooks will know an officer lives in the area. Remember city council, it’s easy to spend someone else’s money. Don’t have to answer to anyone.
I attended the graduation. Far too many failed the course due to lack of work ethics such as study for a written test. That’s a larger problem in our society. Laziness is to blame.
Laziness, maybe. I think it is lack of mental capacity. Most college graduates today are not as capable and competent as high school graduates were 50 years ago. Why is that? There is more than one right answer.
And of course Nancy hot pants was there to show her appreciation.
By your implied comment, she thinks she is. What is she now, 61-years old? Almost old enough for social security.
It’s almost as if the existing police are even telling recruits to go elsewhere since Hamilton got indicted. A new officer has no reason to stay. It makes no sense to police in a county where Avery Crump is the evildoer who decides if your case will go to grand jury and decides how it will be presented.
Avery Crump is from the Bronx, New York City. The same place Ocasio-Cortez represents.
They do tell officers to go elsewhere. If you are in the gossip at GTCC where most of the areas officers get additional training, everyone across the state knows to avoid GPD. You make more $ and have a car in Graham. And less hassle. And a county where the DA is not waiting to make examples. But your council does not give a s?!$. A small raise this fall and MAYBE another one next May. It’s like putting a band aid on a sucking chest wound.
It’s the terrible low pay.
“You pay peanuts – You get Monkeys’ – simple really …!!!