Police chiefs warn of staffing shortages across Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania police chiefs emphasized their staffing problems and the hurdles they face in recruiting officers in the latest public safety hearing in Lancaster County.

This was the second hearing of the Senate Majority Policy Committee focused on crime and public safety – the first was dominated by how the criminal justice system dealt with drugs and mental health issues, as the Center Square previously reported.

“We must get the community and the economic equation right,” said Sen. Mario Scavello, R-Monroe/Northampton. “You can’t get a strong economy without strong communities. And our path forward as a Commonwealth must be based on common values and innovative public policy, not politics.”

To that end, the chiefs of police who spoke focused their attention on hiring woes.

“Some of the challenges facing law enforcement ... one of those is the selection and retention of high quality personnel,” said David Steffen, chief of police of the Northern Lancaster County Regional Police Department and president of the Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association. “That is – across the board – one of the challenges that we hear across the Commonwealth as far as establishing a viable pool of recruits for law enforcement selection.”

Different rules for boroughs and municipalities in hiring, Steffen said, also made it harder to recruit.

“Sometimes those rules prevent agencies from being nimble enough to hire qualified candidates in a timely manner,” he said. “The struggle to comply with rules and regulatory processes sometimes overshadows the ability for municipalities to attract and retain qualified applicants.”

Steffen also pointed to media coverage “that portray the police in many times a negative manner,” which missed the “precipitating event” and only showed the use of force, which “doesn’t ever look good.” More public criticism makes a police career less attractive to recruits, he argued.

Police Chief Lisa Layden of West Hempfield Township in Lancaster County echoed Steffen’s concerns over a lack of police recruits.

“I believe we’ve seen the candidate pool shrink probably by 80% or 90%,” Layden said. “When we used to test back in the early 90s, we probably had 450-500 people come out. Now we’re doing the consortium model, as many agencies (as possible) involved, getting maybe 70-90 people to come out for those jobs.”

With senior officers retiring, the staffing problem remains difficult. The state needs to do more to reach out to young people, Steffen said.

“I’m going to put it to you like this: junior high school. You have to have that as a viable career option,” Steffen said.