Faced with a shortage of officers, police departments are getting creative

Andre Novac joined the Paramus Police Department in May after working in Roseland for several years. The 26-year-old said he can’t remember a time in his life when he didn’t want to be a police officer.

His father is a retired Little Ferry police officer and his father’s cousin is a former police chief in that county.

“Growing up and seeing what it was like. He always came home with a smile, even after a hard day. That’s something I always looked up to,” he said of his father.

Justin Hugerich, 25, who was sworn in along with Novac, also grew up in a family of first responders. His father was a Jersey City fire captain and two of his uncles are retired police officers.

New Paramus police officer Andre Novac is sworn in. After working in Roseland for several years, the 26-year-old moved to Paramus.

“I wanted a hands-on job where I could help people in the community,” he said. “I never imagined working in an office.”

New recruits like Novac and Hugerich face much less competition for positions today. Law enforcement agencies have struggled in recent years to fill positions that would have previously been flooded with applicants.

There is a shortage of new police officers across the country, a problem that many attribute to the effects of the pandemic and the deteriorating public perception of law enforcement following the 2020 murder of George Floyd and other widely publicized cases of police brutality.

“After the summer of 2020, when the protests and calls for cuts to police funding occurred, major cities across the country began to notice these difficulties in hiring,” said Brian Higgins, a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan and former chief of the Bergen County Police Department. “Now we’re seeing the same trend in Northern New Jersey.”

A wave of experienced police officers is retiring

This decline in applicants is due to the fact that many departments are currently experiencing a wave of retirements of experienced officers.

“Years ago, people stayed longer than 25 years. You really don’t see that anymore,” said Paramus Police Chief Rob Guidetti. “The job is so demanding today – the long hours, the high stress, the danger and the public perception – that people leave sooner.”

In the past, Paramus, a large department that ranks in the top third of the state in pay and offers attractive hours and opportunities, received hundreds of applications for a handful of positions. During the last round of hiring, Guidetti had about 65 candidates for five positions, and many of them, like Novac and Hugerich, were transfers from other departments.

“Look at young people – they don’t want to be police officers,” he said. “The private labor market can offer the same or better pay and better working conditions. You don’t have to worry about someone doing something to you.”

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The Paramus Police Department recently purchased spit hoods after an increase in incidents in which officers were spat on, he said.

Police departments adapt to attract candidates

In the private sector, staff shortages can lead to incomplete projects or lower profits. In the police force, however, it directly impacts departments’ ability to fight crime and leads to officer overload, exhaustion and burnout, Guidetti said.

Paramus is again interviewing candidates and hopes to eventually expand the department to 105 officers as the district grows. The department is working to streamline the hiring process to make it less lengthy and complicated. Officers are attending college fairs and community events to recruit potential candidates.

“Everyone faces the same problems I do,” he said. Paramus “has never had a problem retaining officers, we just have the same small pool of candidates as the rest of the police departments.”

Englewood has eliminated application fees for city residents to encourage more people to apply. In December, the city held a recruitment and information event where people could meet Englewood officers and learn about a possible career in police before the entrance exam in January.

The city swore in seven new officers earlier this month. It’s important to bolster the department’s ranks, city officials said, as they anticipate more than a dozen veteran officers could retire in the next year and a half.

“We want to be able to anticipate retirements and continually have a qualified pool of potential applicants,” said City Manager Bob Hoffmann.

In this latest hiring wave, the department did “a lot of outreach,” which helped attract candidates, he said. But many of the people who passed the written exam either failed the physical or didn’t show up for the test.

Teaneck used to receive hundreds of applications for police openings. But when the town recently wanted to hire four police officers to bring the police department up to its planned strength of 97 officers, only nine Teaneck residents applied.

“There has been a significant decline in interest in law enforcement,” said Dean Kazinci, the former township manager who retired earlier this month. “It’s a great job, but I think the perception of law enforcement has changed so that it’s no longer a desirable job. The public doesn’t view police officers the way they used to. The general perception of law enforcement in this country is not positive.”

In 2021, the state relaxed rules for communities like Teaneck that prioritize hiring residents, allowing them to hire applicants through alternate routes who live in other cities.

Kazinci, who began his career as a police officer in Teaneck and served in the police department for 25 years, said the community prefers to hire locals, but in recent years that has become more difficult.

Residents “know the community well, they are involved in the community, they know the diversity of the community, they often volunteer as mentors or coaches and they may have children who attend these schools,” he said.

In November, the Hackensack City Council approved an alternative hiring process for officers to take advantage of relaxed civil service requirements and expand the applicant pool.

“When I was a young cop, there were more people wanting to be cops than there were jobs. Now it’s the other way around,” said Ray Guidetti, the city’s police director and brother of the Paramus police chief. “If you want to be a cop now, now is the best time to do it. You have a lot more opportunities.”

In recent years, applicants have turned down jobs after a lengthy hiring process involving background checks, health tests and drug tests because they found a better-paying job or a job closer to home.

“There’s just not the same appetite to do this kind of work anymore. The number of people who want to do this job has dropped dramatically,” Guidetti said. “Cities like Hackensack have to have a plan for recruiting and market the value of the work to the community. Then you have to be ready to pull the trigger and hire people.”

More:The tarnished reputation of the Palisades Park police department suffers another blow

Higgins said some North Jersey police chiefs he has spoken with are considering relaxing college education requirements for entry-level officers. Police departments have also relaxed rules on facial hair and changed their uniforms to make them more comfortable.

Features that once made the profession attractive, such as a high pension and the prospect of a long, secure career, are no longer the selling points they once were. Pension reform has curtailed the benefits and young people often want the flexibility to change jobs or careers, he said.

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