And the shortage of sworn fully trained police officers is getting worse, not better.
In March, according to a staffing study on the Greensboro Police Department, there were 611 sworn fully trained police officers on the street when the Police Department was authorized for 683.
The current numbers are worse. According to Assistant City Manager Trey Davis, the current authorized strength of the Police Department was increased to 691, but the current number of fully trained sworn officers has dropped to 601.
That leaves the department 90 officers short of a full complement and explains why, at the Monday town hall meeting, several bar owners said that when they call the police, they get no response.
The numbers at first glance don’t look as bad if you include the officers in training. There are currently 17 officers in the police academy, three officers who are in the process of completing their training and 25 recruits who have been accepted into the next academy class, for a total of 45 officers that should be fully trained and on the street in the next year.
However, as James told the City Council, what the Police Department needs to get up to full strength is to graduate classes with 40 recruits.
Mainly through retirement, but also from resignations and dismissals, the Police Department loses about 60 officers a year. To stay even, the two police academy classes each year need to have about 30 officers each.
Graduating 17 officers from the current police academy class will still leave the department at a net loss because of attrition.
Since March, the Police Department is down an additional 10 officers and, according to the current police academy classes, the department is still headed in the wrong direction.
The Greensboro City Council, when faced with this issue, did include a raise for police officers in the 2021-2022 budget, but it did not raise the salaries so that Greensboro police officers are the highest paid in the Guilford County, much less the state. The City Council also refused to provide take home police cars for officers even though, according to the staffing report, Greensboro was the only police department of the peer cities they reviewed that didn’t have take home cars.
Mandate Mayor has found plenty of money for her cabal’s nonprofits and plenty of money to extend water and sewer service for her developer donors, and plenty of money for a 100 million dollar performance arts boondoggle so she can listen to fiddling while (Rome) Greensboro burns. Money for police that should be protecting the least among us is however not being voted for is unacceptable.
Two unsafe places where violence could occur are unsupervised underage parties with alcohol and folks riding around town with illegally purchased and illegally concealed handguns. When our oligarchy faces zero or little penalties for unsafe behavior it is very telling.
If you read AMERICAN MARXISM a better understanding of what is happening in our beloved country AND Greensboro will come to life. Like all liberals they are safe with our money spent in areas like the arts but disregard the men and women in blue that protect us. Raising the salaries and allowing police officers to take home is obviously not a elitist need.
EVERY ONE ON THE COUNCIL VOTING Against THE MEN and WOMEN in blue should be retiredASAP.
As long as the city council and society keep scrutinizing, berating, and trying to micromanage every action the police take these numbers will continue to decline. This will take years to correct even if you vote out the clowns causing it. Good luck with your recruiting efforts!
Remember to vote out “ALL” of the incumbent city council in March 2022. But, we know Yvonne and Hightower are in safe districts so they will get re-elected even if they are dead in March.
And don’t forget about the felonious sherriff. You have the fox guarding chickens
90 officers short is such a travesty. There is an elephant in the council chambers, but it seems most can not see it. How do you ignore the fact that officers are leaving at a rate greater than GPD has been able to recruit replacements for quite some time. How can simple raises and autos that officers can take home not be a blaring problem for the recruitment of officers. An officer who does not take a car home comes to the GPD offices, clocks in, then has to transfer his equipment into his police vehicle. (Officers do not like to leave their valuable equipment for others to use, and who knows if they will get the same car tomorrow) GPD loses at a minimum 30 minutes of productivity for each officer each day. Multiply that by the number of officers on the street and it is astounding. But the officer who takes his car home gets in the car, clocks in, and is already at work.
Yet, homicide is down…. Hmm
It is only “down” compared to last year, which was a record breaking year for homicides in GSO. Compared to every other year in history, we are still on track for all time highs. I think we tend to average about 30 homicides a year, except for last year’s 62 and the previous year which was in the 40s (and also record breaking at the time). We are already at 23 for this year with 5 months still to go. So, no homicides aren’t really down compared to historical trends. They are only down compared to the anomalies of the last two years.
Looks like eventually that fancy marquee over the PD building “100 Police Plaza” is getting closer to true.
It is easier to recruit civilians to police each other than to be competitive in our police hiring and retention practices. All of this is pushing us One Step Forward towards rampant crime. Maybe we can punish more businesses to make up fr it.
Greensboro needs a few tattoo parlors and brothels and gambling joints downtown. Get rid of the police department and turn downtown into a gun caring old west way of life. Let people come downtown at their own risk and party all night long. We are heading that way anyway soo lets speed it up and get there faster. LETS PARTY!!! If you agree say “AMEN”.
Just go to Spring Garden St after 10pm on a weekend and you already have it. It’s truly the wild west down there.
The majority of the young people going into the job market have no interest in getting into law enforcement. They can’t be blamed given the way officers have been treated in the past year or so. Who wants a job where you are so mistreated with such little pay; mistreated by the public and liberal politicians. I wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot pole. These liberal politicians are now getting what they bargained for but the public is suffering the consequences.
It will get worse, and worse, and worse, and worse.
We should endeavor to protect ourselves.
It will take ten years for this city to shake its terrible reputation-and that only after new members of the council take care of our police as should be done.
Moving is always an option.
Snowflake mayor = Snowflake city
Who on earth thought that a group of women could manage a city. We have no one else to blame but ourselves for what is happening in Greensboro.
It’s not an issue of “women” on the council, it’s an issue of the specific women chosen on the council. There are many women who could make far better decisions for the police department, for the budget, for the small businesses, for the taxpayers of Greensboro but they need to be encouraged to run and people need to vote for them based on reason and logic.
Agreed, but they won’t run and wouldn’t stand a chance.
Long term results of appeasement for some bad behavior, and punishment for some doing the job over the last 13 years. Does Bledsoes Cops in Black and White ring any bells?
Oh, some of us have long memories and know that there are layers of problems that run very deep in regards to the police department in Greensboro and the City Administration. There’s not just one problem, there are many. The issues of today were not surprising.
Keep in mind, in democrat bizarro world this is not the result of policy failures, this is according to plan. The more chaos they facilitate being created the more control they can impose. Lived in this place since 1967 and it’s a shame to see what those lunatics have done. It may come back around though if the “vaccine” works as Bill Gates intended.
gcgaines@triad.rr.com
It just amazes me that this city council can come up with the money ( and I mean alot of money) to fund all of their lame brained projects that are so near and dear to their hearts but they can’t seem to find the money to adequately fund the police department. Everyone of them need to be voted out. They’re all a joke.
IF the City Council wants to fix the police problem, they can do so easily. The fact that they haven’t done it is obvious. What they tell us is nowhere near what is actually happening; which sounds like defund the police, BAMN.
The only solution is the ballot box. See how that works out.
I’m happy to say the nearly 600 officers in the Greensboro Police Officers Association have endorsed my campaign and four former GPD Chiefs are backing me.
Tammi Thurm is no friend to the GPD or to the safety in our community.
Let’s put a council in place that will support our heroes.
Don’t forget in their districts there are a lot of drivebys
Will apparently they could care less.
Even Hickory has a better pay structure than Greensboro, including take-home cars. See this link:
https://www.hickorync.gov/police-recruitment
Wake up Greensboro!!!!!