At the City Council strategy session, on Thursday Oct. 13, Interim Police Chief Teresa Biffle presented a troubling report about the Greensboro Police Department’s vacancies.
The City Council didn’t seem fazed by high vacancy rate that, according to Biffle, is going higher, and the councilmembers offered no real solutions.
Biffle stated that 691 sworn officers were authorized for the GPD and currently has 108 vacancies. There are also 14 nonsworn positions.
Biffle claimed that things were only going to get worse. Twelve officers have graduated from the last academy field training class and fifteen are currently enrolled at the academy. Biffle stated that the current class began with 18 officers and will likely lose another few before graduating.
As former Police Chief Brian James explained to the City Council several times, the normal attrition rate for the GPD is about 60 officers a year, which means to remain even, each of the two academy classes held during the year needs to graduate 30 officers.
Biffle stated that 27 additional officers was the maximum the GPD could hope for this year. If the GPD does not get a lot of lateral entries, it will lose 33 officers by the end.
Biffle stated that a patrol unit had approximately 100 officers. Therefore, one way to view the current vacancy rate is that the GPD has down an entire patrol unit. In addition, she said that the 1990 federal grant program had made it easier for more police officers to retire in the future.
Biffle stated that she had to take detectives and special services out of their regular jobs to compensate for the shortage of patrol officers and send them out on patrol.
Biffle stated that it is possible for some units to be completely destroyed. She said, “We truly need sworn resources to respond to 911 calls.”
Marikay Abuzuaiter (City Councilmember) suggested that the GPD reach out to graduates of Police Citizens Academy. This yearly program introduces Greensboro residents and officers to the Police Department.
Tammi Thurm, a City Councilmember, noted that Greensboro offered only a one-time bonus for officers who have a college degree. She said, “That’s a huge incentive for people not to come to Greensboro if they have a college degree and want to be in law enforcement.”