At the City Council strategy session, on Thursday Oct. 13, Interim Police Chief Teresa Biffle presented a troubling report about the Greensboro Police Department’s vacancies.
The City Council didn’t seem fazed by high vacancy rate that, according to Biffle, is going higher, and the councilmembers offered no real solutions.
Biffle stated that 691 sworn officers were authorized for the GPD and that there are currently 108 vacancies. There are also 14 nonsworn positions.
Biffle stated that the situation was only going to worsen, as 12 officers graduated from the previous academy class in field training. There are 15 academy students. She stated that the current academy class started with 18 officers, and they are likely to lose two more before graduation.
As former Police Chief Brian James explained to the City Council several times, the normal attrition rate for the GPD is about 60 officers a year, which means to remain even, each of the two academy classes held during the year needs to graduate 30 officers.
Biffle said that the GPD had a maximum of 27 officers this year. The math shows that unless the GPD gains a large number of lateral entry, the GPD will lose an additional 33 officers by year’s end.
Biffle stated that a patrol unit had approximately 100 officers. Therefore, one way to view the current vacancy rate is that the GPD has down an entire patrol unit. In addition, she said that the 1990 federal grant program had made it easier for more police officers to retire in the future.
Biffle stated that she had to take detectives and special services out of their regular jobs to compensate for the shortage of patrol officers and send them out on patrol.
Biffle suggested that some units could be destroyed completely. She said, “We truly need sworn resources to respond to 911 calls.”
Marikay Abuzuaiter (City Councilmember) suggested that the GPD reach out to graduates of Police Citizens Academy. This yearly program introduces Greensboro residents and officers to the Police Department.
Tammi Thurm (City Councilmember) noted that Greensboro offers a one-time bonus, while other cities have higher salaries for officers with college degrees. She said, “That’s a huge incentive for people not to come to Greensboro if they have a college degree and want to be in law enforcement.”