Rutland City Police Department has 13 vacant police officer positions. The city said the number of vacancies ballooned due to retirement, people moving to other law enforcement agencies, or getting out of the field altogether. Filling the roles has not been easy.“It’s just becoming very difficult to find people who want to be a police officer,” Mayor David Allaire said. Even when there is a prospective candidate it is challenging to actually get them onto the force. The process can take up to a year to hire someone.“We’ll exclude individuals because they haven’t passed the PT or there is concern on the initial psychological exam,” Rutland City Police Department Chief Brian Kilcullen said. “If they move on, it’s a more in-depth interview, and we might exclude more at that point.”For the city, it has been an exercise of creative problem-solving — the mayor cutting funding for seven police officer positions from next year’s budget, adding incentives for some, leading to a new three-year contract with the police union.“There is a substantial pay increase for people that are incoming and for our existing folks, we want to retain our officers that we have over there,” Allaire said.In an attempt to alleviate officer responsibilities, Allaire said he is creating a civilian position aimed at reducing the number of calls police officers take, allowing them to respond to higher priority calls.“Our officers are handling certainly more calls than they otherwise would,” Kilcullen, said. “So even though our overall call volume is down, our officers that are actually working are handling quite a few more calls than when we were fully staffed.”Understaffing is not new to the city. It has been discussed in budgets for almost a decade. According to the mayor, it’s been six to eight years since the department has been fully staffed.The issue is not just in Rutland. Departments across the state are in a hiring crunch.“Hartford is short two or three officers, Springfield is down seven officers and Norwich is currently down 1 full time officer,” said Chief Jennifer Frank, president of Vermont Association of Chiefs of Police. “We start to look at that, most agencies in Vermont have 10 or fewer officers, and when you’re down 1 or 2 that can create some significant staffing concerns.”No department we spoke with has reported seeing an increase in crime due to staffing shortages. But making difficult decisions on how to respond to calls could be on the horizon.“We try to be proactive in nature, getting out there, trying to be involved in our community, and stopping issues before they become a bigger problem,” Frank said. “Or before they become a systemic issue. Unfortunately, when you have a reduction, we start to see we become more reactive in nature, we responding to calls instead of getting out there ahead of them.”
Rutland City Police Department has 13 vacant police officer positions.
The city said the number of vacancies ballooned due to retirement, people moving to other law enforcement agencies, or getting out of the field altogether. Filling the roles has not been easy.
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“It’s just becoming very difficult to find people who want to be a police officer,” Mayor David Allaire said.
Even when there is a prospective candidate it is challenging to actually get them onto the force.
The process can take up to a year to hire someone.
“We’ll exclude individuals because they haven’t passed the PT or there is concern on the initial psychological exam,” Rutland City Police Department Chief Brian Kilcullen said. “If they move on, it’s a more in-depth interview, and we might exclude more at that point.”
For the city, it has been an exercise of creative problem-solving — the mayor cutting funding for seven police officer positions from next year’s budget, adding incentives for some, leading to a new three-year contract with the police union.
“There is a substantial pay increase for people that are incoming and for our existing folks, we want to retain our officers that we have over there,” Allaire said.
In an attempt to alleviate officer responsibilities, Allaire said he is creating a civilian position aimed at reducing the number of calls police officers take, allowing them to respond to higher priority calls.
“Our officers are handling certainly more calls than they otherwise would,” Kilcullen, said. “So even though our overall call volume is down, our officers that are actually working are handling quite a few more calls than when we were fully staffed.”
Understaffing is not new to the city. It has been discussed in budgets for almost a decade. According to the mayor, it’s been six to eight years since the department has been fully staffed.
The issue is not just in Rutland. Departments across the state are in a hiring crunch.
“Hartford is short two or three officers, Springfield is down seven officers and Norwich is currently down 1 full time officer,” said Chief Jennifer Frank, president of Vermont Association of Chiefs of Police. “We start to look at that, most agencies in Vermont have 10 or fewer officers, and when you’re down 1 or 2 that can create some significant staffing concerns.”
No department we spoke with has reported seeing an increase in crime due to staffing shortages. But making difficult decisions on how to respond to calls could be on the horizon.
“We try to be proactive in nature, getting out there, trying to be involved in our community, and stopping issues before they become a bigger problem,” Frank said. “Or before they become a systemic issue. Unfortunately, when you have a reduction, we start to see we become more reactive in nature, we responding to calls instead of getting out there ahead of them.”
