Ocean Pines facing police hiring problem

Signing bonuses and higher starting salaries — sounds like the competition for free-agent athletes. In reality, it is what small communities like Ocean Pines and Berlin must offer to attract applicants to their police departments.

More accurately, it is what they must do simply to get noticed in an increasingly competitive law enforcement hiring market.

Even though national surveys suggest the shortage of applicants in law enforcement is easing slightly, small departments still find it incredibly difficult to compete against agencies in larger population centers with massive budgets.

The competitive landscape is clear from the numbers. Right now, PoliceApp, the online hiring portal, lists 12 Maryland departments with openings for entry-level recruits and 15 with openings for certified officers.

The starting pay listed on the site ranges from the low $50,000s at a pair of Carroll County agencies to a high of $73,403 for an entry-level position (with shift differential) at the Worcester County Sheriff’s Office.

This is the steep hill Ocean Pines and Berlin must climb. It is also why the Ocean Pines Association back in July raised its starting pay for recruits who have yet to graduate from the police academy from $63,500 to $72,000.

Local departments don’t have much of a choice. The alternatives are either lowering hiring standards — a dangerous idea — or dissolving local departments and turning public safety duties over to the county.

Even that option assumes taxpayers outside those jurisdictions would be willing to absorb the additional cost.

Ocean Pines is caught in a national law enforcement hiring conundrum. If it intends to maintain a solid department for years to come, it must join the pay scale arms race or do the best it can financially and hope good candidates apply because the pay is good enough and they want to live here.

For communities that want to maintain professional, effective police departments, there is no acceptable alternative.