Phoenix police union: Hiring numbers not translating to more officers

PHOENIX — The head of a union that represents members of the Phoenix Police Department said that despite the impressive new recruit numbers, the department is not coming out ahead.

Ken Crane is president of the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association, or PLEA. He said in 2017 — according to his group’s records and department data — 239 officers pinned on Phoenix police badges.

“In that same time span, 137 left. That’s a net gain of 102 police officers,” he said.

“Divide[d] by twelve months, it’s a net gain of just over eight officers a month.”

The department, Crane said, often said it has a class of 100 recruits in the Arizona Law Enforcement Academy at any given time.

On the other hand, “that’s split between four different classes,” he said.

“Let’s say, on average, you got 25 Phoenix recruits in each of those classes. We’re going to have a 30 percent attrition rate — on average — out of all those (four) classes.”

The department’s total hiring goal, as stated in May of last year, is at least 3,000 new officers by this June.

Commander Brian Lee, who heads the department’s Employment Services Bureau, told KTAR News 92.3 FM in 2017 that the department was “actively recruiting from across all demographic segments of the community.

“We firmly believe it’s important to make sure that the folks we hire, as new officers, are truly representative of the communities they’re ultimately going to serve,” Lee said at the time.

Crane said that is a good intention. However, the practicalities get in the way.

“If you want to get 500 (new officers), you’d better plan on getting a thousand through the (front) pipeline,” he said. “We have a five-stage multi-step hiring process, there’s attrition every step of the way.”

From 2008 to 2014, the department endured a hiring freeze. Thanks to that, the number of sworn officers dipped to fewer than 2,500 in 2015.

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