Officer Christian Bruckhart collects used needles from a vacant site in his patrol area in New Haven, Conn.
It's a fall Monday morning in New Haven, Connecticut, and Officer Christian Bruckhart has lost track of how many calls he has had. He thinks it has been six. Maybe seven.
There was the family dispute involving vandalism to a car. He needs to write reports on stolen property and a woman being harassed on Facebook. But first, he has to help search for a missing woman who may be suicidal.
"I'm backed up," he says.
There are supposed to be six officers patrolling this territory; three are on duty today, including one who's already into overtime.
The New Haven Police Department simply doesn't have enough cops. It's a nationwide problem, as agencies that slowed or froze hiring during the recession are now struggling to build their ranks up again in the middle of a hot job market. Officers are retiring faster than they can be replaced.
New Haven is worse off than others. At last count, the department was 100 officers short.
Part of the problem is money — evident in the department's worn-out squad cars, one of which has a rust hole in the floorboard that has been patched with an old license plate. Suburban police departments can offer better pay and are luring away New Haven's midlevel officers.
The result is a department that's both short-staffed and green.
Credit Ryan Caron King / Connecticut Public Radio
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Connecticut Public Radio
On one fall morning, Bruckhart handled about a half-dozen calls ... so many he cannot keep count.
"I think it should scare the community more than anybody," Bruckhart says. "Because you go to some of these evening shifts and, you know, we have brand-new officers out there who are asking each other what to do on some of these calls. There's no veteran leadership."
The severity of the officer shortage varies from department to department, but the national trend is clear: Since 2013, the total number of working sworn officers has fallen by about 23,000. The number of officers per capita is down even more sharply, from 2.42 per 1,000 residents in 1997 to 2.17 officers per 1,000 in 2016.
Recruiters blame the hot job market, as well as greater skepticism about law enforcement as a career choice. That skepticism has grown in the past few years, fed by viral videos of controversial incidents of use of force by police. Where hundreds of people used to apply for a job opening, now it's often only a handful.
Credit Ryan Caron King / Connecticut Public Radio
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Connecticut Public Radio
Bruckhart works in the New Haven Police Department's Fair Haven substation. Like many law enforcement agencies across the country, the department doesn't have enough officers. New Haven is 100 officers short.
"It's become more like recruiting for a football team," says Undersheriff Jeff Mori, of Oregon's Washington County. His agency is short about 55 people and relies heavily on mandatory overtime to cover all the necessary shifts. He says seeking out enough new recruits is a full-time preoccupation, and it has pushed the agency to change some of its requirements.
"We now allow facial hair," Mori says. "We allow tattoos; we allow earrings." The sheriff's office will even hire people who admit to past use of marijuana, since the drug is now legal in Oregon; though they're not allowed to use it once they've been hired, because it's still illegal under federal law.
Mori says potential recruits today have different expectations.
Credit Martin Kaste / NPR
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NPR
Undersheriff Jeff Mori's agency in Oregon's Washington County has started allowing officers to have facial hair and tattoos. The agency is understaffed by about 55 people.
"I don't know if they want to be cops as much as the previous generation," he says, adding that those who are interested are looking for a kinder, gentler version of the job.
"They want to do something that's bigger than themselves," Mori says. "They view themselves as community-builders, as opposed to the warrior or even the guardian."
Martin Kaste is a correspondent on NPR's National Desk. He covers law enforcement and privacy. He has been focused on police and use of force since before the 2014 protests in Ferguson, and that coverage led to the creation of NPR's Criminal Justice Collaborative.
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