Hallelujah! The New Officers are Here!

At the first Council meeting in January, we had the pleasure of swearing in two new police officers, Quinten Strand (left) and Simeon Morell (right). While these two are worthy of excitement due to their qualifications alone, our excitement was partially due to the difficulty we had in finding candidates. We started our search in February 2016 and reposted the position twice before successfully hiring last month.

Platteville is not alone in struggling to find qualified law enforcement candidates. Our experience is representative of a nationwide trend. The number of students enrolling in law enforcement education programs is down significantly. If you talk to professionals in the field, the reasons are numerous…. the job is stressful, the hours are challenging and the pay and benefits aren’t as good as they used to be compared to other jobs. You’ve got the constant worry about safety. And let’s face it, the public isn’t as respectful of law enforcement as they were two decades ago.

So what does that mean for us? To start, we have to make sure that we are competitive from a pay standpoint. It is hard enough to recruit without swimming upstream. We also need to highlight the advantages of working in a community like Platteville. For many potential candidates, we could be an attractive landing spot. We offer a rural lifestyle, but have more training and enforcement opportunities than a typical small town. Many officers want to stay active and one mixed-blessing of our college town is that we are busy – especially on the weekends.

We also have to encourage our young people to consider law enforcement as a career and to nurture those new to the profession. Our department is active on both fronts, through the Police Explorer Post and our Community Service Officers (known as CSO’s).

The Explorer Post welcomes individuals from age 14 to 20 who have an interest in law enforcement and who wish to learn more about careers in policing and the special skills and tactics that are utilized by police agencies. The Post meets weekly, typically on either Sunday evenings or Thursdays depending on what day is most convenient for the majority of the members. Our Post competes annually in the state Police Explorer Post Competition in the Fox Valley area and has even sent representatives to national competitions. Post members also assist with City and University special events by providing traffic and crowd control at Dairy Days, the UW-P Homecoming Parade, Run with the Cops and during Halloween trick or treating.

Most of our CSO’s are UW-P students who are getting their first job in law enforcement. CSOs assist our department with animal control, parking enforcement, traffic control and other activities that don’t require a sworn police officer.

What can you do? If you know someone interested in a law enforcement career, encourage them to get in touch with our department. Our officers can talk about the next steps to learn more based on the individual’s age and background. Another great gift is to demonstrate respect for the role of law enforcement and to teach your kids to do the same. Respect doesn’t necessarily mean blind agreement, but it does mean following instructions, using PG language, and resolving disagreements through the appropriate channels.