By Greg Ellison

(Feb. 6, 2020) Reflecting the recruiting struggles of law enforcement agencies nationwide, Ocean Pines Police Chief Dave Massey has seen other departments employ increasingly aggressive hiring tactics due to stiff competition for candidates on the shore.

“In my career, I’ve seen it become much more competitive,” he said. “We’re getting fewer applicants to be police officers.”

To add to recruiting challenges, retention issues have also plagued the department.

“The officers, when we hire them, have a three-year contract,” he said. “Unfortunately, some police departments are now what I call ‘predatory,’ which means they look at taking officers from other departments … before their contacts are due.”

According to a December 2018 report by the Police Executive Research Forum, a national membership organization of law enforcement executives, the number of people entering the field has diminished, while an increased percentage are exiting the profession, often in scant time.

The report noted in August 2018 the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics found the number of full-time police officers had dropped by 3.2 percent between 2016-2018 from roughly 725,000 to 701,000, which reversed a steady annual uptick dating back to 1997.

The statistics have caused some area agencies to resolve hiring challenges by luring recruits from close to home, with Massey noting all 19 staff members who have left in recent years were hired in either Worcester or Wicomico counties.

“This is unusual, because it never used to happen this way, [but] certain police departments are now instead of hiring a new trainee and sending them to the academy, they’re literally looking to prey on other police departments and take their experienced officers,” he said.

In many instances, hiring agents elicit interest by offering higher compensation or increased benefits, which Massey said is sufficiently enticing for some to forgo prior contractual terms.

“I’m an honorable man and my word is my word,” he said. “Unfortunately, some of the younger officers are tempted to leave before their contract is up.”

While severing employment earlier than agreed does include financial penalties, the measure has done little to deter migrations.

“It’s a sad state of affairs when police chiefs and other law enforcement people won’t even let a person finish their contact,” he said. “I’ve been in law enforcement for many years and never violated a contract from another department.”

Despite a year-round populace sufficient to warrant 24 officers based on national law enforcement standards, Massey has continued to operate with a staff of 16, which makes staff turnover especially problematic.

To address the challenge, during pending fiscal budget 2020/2021 budget discussions, Massey proposed increasing the defined benefit pension to help with recruiting and retention

“What I would like to see is it dramatically slow the turnover we have and help us keep a core of trained and experienced officers,” he said.

Massey highlighted other intangibles to cultivating resources internally.

“When I was police chief in Ocean City basically we hired from within, meaning seasonal officers stayed around and were hired,” he said. “What I found is people that you hire that way are more loyal to the department because they know you gave them a chance.”

Loyalty has bounds, with Massey acknowledging people are more prone to relocate than in past times.

“They don’t look at being hired in an agency for a whole career some of them,” he said. “People have every right, once they satisfy their contract, to go to another agency if they think they’re benefitting themselves.”

For Massey the problem lies with “lazy police administrators” targeting officers employed in neighboring departments.

“When police leaders don’t honor contracts of their fellow agencies, to me it’s unethical,” he said. “I won’t do that, I’m old school.”