The Parkville Police Department is not only fighting crime, it is fighting to hire and keep good officers. Officer retention is an ongoing issue for all police departments, but it affects small stations like Parkville in a big way.
Parkville Police Chief Kevin Chrisman, has been at the station for two years and has already witnessed eight or nine officers leave and go on to new jobs.
“It’s difficult to keep people for a long time,” Chrisman said. “Maintaining officers is not a new thing, it’s an ongoing process. Men and women come and go in this profession.”
Chrisman explained why smaller stations like Parkville, which have fewer than 25 total employees experience a high turnover rate.
“We are a small agency. There’s a lot of police work to do here, but maybe for some people the excitement and the adrenaline rush is not here,” Chrisman said. “If they become a good cop in a smaller city they start applying for larger agencies where there is more money and more opportunity for advancement.”
There are also many other reasons why police officers don’t stay in the profession, the general nature of the work could be a factor.
“In police work we work 24-7,” Chrisman said. “We work on holidays, and in some situations men and women leave because their spouses, quite frankly, complain about their duty hours. It may cause a problem in their home life.”
Although officer retention is a problem for all police departments, it is a much bigger issue for stations like Parkville who don’t have as many employees.
“In larger police departments if they lose three or four in one day they have enough manpower to cover shifts,” Chrisman said. “They also have units that just do hiring, but in small agencies we do everything.”
It also affects the department financially and could cause the budget to be re-evaluated.
“In small agencies, when you lose one or two people in a close period of time, it does affect your staffing,” Chrisman said.
Remaining officers work extra shifts to pick up the slack. This eventually affects the budget because of overtime expenses.
Chrisman explained how officer retention affects him and the staff on a personal level.
“Just because I’m a police chief doesn’t mean that I don’t have emotions and care about people,” Chrisman said. “You do get attached to people. When you lose a good person it saddens you for a while, but you are also happy for them if they are going to do something that makes them happy.”
Currently Parkville is looking to replace two police officers and a lieutenant who resigned on Monday. Although they have been looking to hire for quite some time it’s not an easy process.
“Right now I’m down three people,” Chrisman said. “There’s a process. You can’t just quickly hire somebody. You have to get all their paper work. They have to go through a testing process, a physical, there’s a polygraph and a psychological test and a urinalysis test.”
Even if a candidate passes orientation they have to pass an 11-to 14-week training period where they are out on the street with an officer.
“Some people don’t make it through that,” Chrisman said. “I’ve already turned down two that we’ve paid some money on because they didn’t do well on some of the processes, and I don’t think they would be a good fit here.”
Chrisman and the Parkville Police Station know this will be an ongoing issue but are keeping positive and trying to create a healthy working environment that will encourage people to stay longer.
“We want to make a pleasant place for people to work,” said Chrisman. “I’m always staying optimistic that when I pick people, I say this is the last group I’m going to hire. Hopefully by them being treated fairly and with compassion they will stay here longer, if not for the long term and retire here.”
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