Officer Retention: Hiring & Retiring Healthy Officers | Dolan Consulting Group

Captain Brian Nanavaty (Ret. IMPD) joins Attorney Matt Dolan to discuss challenges in hiring and retiring healthy law enforcement officers.

[@evlionixon773]

Mr Dolan I had the pleasure of attending some of your training years ago in FL and in NC . At the conference you spoke on all the issues we are currently facing now. When I attended the training in FL it was with the Training Lt. At the time. Our department was dealing with the Toxic Officer, proper training and development/Promotion.. You would have thought he would have came back and shared the information with the Chief or Captain to change the course/direction of the department unfortunately he didn't.. I personally gave your information to my supervisor in effect to contact you and get help to address these issues and come up with a plan unfortunately they did not.. Eventually a law suit was filled and the Agency/ Government ended up paying almost $1 Millon dollars out... Some leadership change but still no real change... Just because some older officers have some health conditions does not mean that they still can't do the job or be placed in other areas of the department and still be an asset... I feel we put alot of focus on people looking the part being in shape looking like Hollywood physically being in shape but mentally not being there... I can only speak for wear I work. But the younger officers may be in shape but you can't count on them they will call out sick on you in a minute and leave you and the shift hanging.. Meanwhile you can almost always count on the older officers Rain Sleet Snow or Shine they will show up.. I've seen officers who have mental and behavioral issues get promoted because they look the part while other veteran officers get passed on time and time again... And yes pay, training and proper career advancement is a major issue... My base salary in the DMV area is currently $57,000 in 2004 down South I was earning around $38-$40,000... With everything that's taking place in America today as it relates to Law Enforcement it's going to be extremely hard to Recruit/Retain People when you got to deal with the every day stressors outside the organization and within the organization... Some Times we run off good people and some times we keep people that we should never keep... I have worked in this career Field the Majority of my adult life.. so I am speaking on what I have lived experienced and scene . I pray we get it together soon.

[@Cmoth040]

I'm going on 29 years in LEO this year. I can tell you that from what I'm seeing, expecting people to stay in patrol operations, as they are currently, for longer than 10 years is unrealistic. The job has gotten more complex since I started in the 90s. We've allowed a lot of local governments to get lazy, shifting social services and human services type calls to law enforcement instead of funding better social and human services. We used to refuse to even respond to civil issues or any issue that wasn't a potential violation of criminal law. Now, we respond to everything. The population growth and economic changes over the past couple of decades has now exposed the instability in a larger number of people than before. We can't train a person to deal with all of this adequately. Either Public Safety / Services has to change or we're going to have to accept a rotation of personnel at higher intervals. My thought is to have social services and mental health services as entry points to law enforcement. Want to be a cop? Great, but first we're going to see how you handle your people skills helping people through the system for a few years. We train them along the way to eventually move to patrol operations, but we expose them to their "usual clientele" under less authoritarian circumstances. We get to see them perform. We get to measure their dedication to people, not just the badge and the trappings of office.

[@starbright6579]

I'm going to become a police officer. I am 36 years old and I remember when I was 5 years old back in 1991 my teacher asked me what would you like to be when you grow up and I told her I want to be a police officer. Now when I told her that I was young, I didn't know what I was saying, and I was saying anything, but around the age of 19 years old I notice I was checking out a lot of police books from my local libraries I was reading them and enjoying them. So I said to myself did I really wanted to be this when I told my teacher? No I did not but I seemed to enjoy the books. I don't know if anybody believe there's a God or believe in reincarnation or if God is trying to tell me I was a police in the last world or if he's just telling me to become a cop in today's world that's present. I am planning on becoming a cop and I promise I will be the best cop I can be. I probably might end up starting at the age of 38 or 39 but I will stay to the end because I love the job. My oldest sister who's 48 years old keep telling me to become a nurse instead, but I told her if I'm going to be on a job for 12 hours because police officers work overtime even on holidays because as they say crime never gets a break or takes a vacation. If I'm going to be working 12 hours even on holidays I will make sure it's something I love because I want work no job for 12 hours unless it's a police officer position. I told my sister I got to do what I love, and that's being a cop.

[@starbright6579]

To be honest a lot of people are stuck at jobs they do not like. I myself for instance is a teacher when I know I want to be a police officer instead, but I know I have to get my driver's license first to become a cop, so that's why I'm just being a teacher for now, but the minute I get my driver's license and have some driving history I will go to school to get my associates degree in Criminal Justice and join the police academy to become an cop. It's a lot of people who are doing jobs they don't like and that's why they leave them because it was never something they really wanted. If they really love it they will stay or at least join another police department. I think people even myself we need to pick a job we love, we need to stop picking jobs we do not love or like. I told my sister that I want to be a police officer and she said. "Why want you just be a nurse instead?" But why would I be a nurse when I don't even like the medical field? That will be another job I will be at that I don't like. I want to be a police officer and I have been telling her that since 1991 when I was five years old. I would enjoy working 12 hours doing police work, keeping people safe, locking up people who do wrong, and writing reports. But I would not like being a nurse being in a hospital for 12 hours that I would hate. I seen a young girl working at McDonald's and the look on her face showed that she didn't like her job, we have to pick a job we love. It's a lot of people who want to be a police officer out here in this world but us future wannabe cops have to leave the jobs we don't want and go to a police station. Everyday I go to my job and teaching my students when I know I don't like the job that's why it time for me to go and be a cop.