SPD focuses on recruitment

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The Seward Police Department is hoping a bump in pay and focused recruitment efforts will help fill a long-time officer vacancy and attract more applicants to the law enforcement profession.

The city’s budget for the coming year includes a $111,000 increase in police department salaries – something administrators say is necessary to keep up with surrounding departments and a dwindling labor market.

“We’ve asked for dollar-for-dollar increases in the budget for police officers, anywhere from $2 to $3 an hour on top of the COLA (cost of living adjustment),” City Administrator Greg Butcher said when presenting the proposed budget to the city council in August. “We have to be competitive.”

Butcher noted that York offers a $15,000 sign-on bonus, and Lincoln now has the highest-paid officers in the state.

Geographically, Seward is situated right in the middle, making it easy for officers to accept positions in those communities instead.

The Seward County Sheriff’s Office recently raised its wages an additional $6 per hour, as well.

“When you’ve got somebody in your own town offering that for similar work, we’re really going to struggle. We’ve essentially gotten into an arms race for a very, very reduced labor market,” Butcher said. “There is nowhere we are being hit harder, based on the political/social climate, COVID-19, you name it. We’ve hit the perfect storm.”

SPD has had one open officer position for several months and recently learned another officer is vacating their position, leaving just 10 officers on staff.

Police Chief Brian Peters said years ago, the department would receive 80 or so applications for one officer spot.

Now, they’re lucky if anyone applies.
“Ten years ago we had an abundance of applicants, and now the negativity toward the profession – not necessarily here in Seward – but the national media has certainly shown enough (to deter) someone who’s young and looking for a career to get into,” Peters said.

SPD has undergone multiple rounds of collecting applications, but it can’t seem to find the right fit.

On the first round, the department received four applications, but none of the candidates worked out.

The second time around, it received just one application and made an offer to the candidate, who turned down the position because of a personal situation back home in another state.

Peters said departments statewide are experiencing the same problem.

“Everybody is trying to reach that small group of interested people,” he said.

Last July, the legislature passed a bill that makes it easier for officers who are certified in another state to get their Nebraska certification. Instead of starting training from scratch, they now have to pass a written test and a physical test before certification is issued.

Peters said SPD is focusing on recruiting new officers at the college age level. He teaches a criminal justice course at Concordia University, which has evolved over the last seven years.

“On the first day, I always ask, ‘How many of you are interested in a career in law enforcement?’ and the majority would raise their hand. I asked again last semester and this semester, and three people raised their hands,” Peters said.

He said he hopes focused recruitment efforts across the state will help.

“I hope that this is just cyclical and that over time it will swing back the other way that more people are interested in the career,” Peters said.

The department is working to find other ways to reach young people and those who are certified elsewhere to bring them to Seward.

“We have to be able to still be selective and maintain our standards. It’s requiring a lot of thinking outside the box and trying new things,” Peters said.

Currently, SPD offers a $6,000 bonus for new hires who are already certified and won’t have to attend the training academy.

Under the new budget, all city employees will receive a 5% cost of living increase in pay. Officers will get an additional $2 per hour on top of that, Peters said, and sergeants will get an additional $1 per hour.

“We’re trying to stay in line not only with those agencies in our array, but with the agencies next to us who are pulling from the same pool,” Peters said. “I appreciate all the work the city administrator and mayor put forth in recognizing the situation and helping us any way they can to try to continue to attract quality applicants that will be a good fit here with us at the department as well as with the city as a whole.”