Todd Spitzer: Demoralizing the police hurts all of us

Despite calls to target police funding, politicians across America have been reversing course and voting for increases in police spending, with an extra $200 million added to the New York Police Department and a 3% hike to the LAPD’s budget.

With police departments getting their money back, you’d think the calls to “Defund the Police” have failed.

You’re wrong.

While the crime fighting money is rolling in, there aren’t enough officers left to fight crime.

Police departments haven’t been defunded; they’ve been demoralized to a point where good cops are leaving and people who should never wear the badge are being given a pass just to put warm bodies into police uniforms.

Retirements were up 45% and resignations climbed by 18% in the year from April 2020 to April 2021 compared to the previous year, the Police Executive Research Forum reported in a survey of nearly 200 police agencies. At the same time, many cities are dealing with a rise in shootings and murders.

Surrounding jurisdictions to Oakland and Los Angeles refuse to respond to mutual aid calls for fear of being targeted by anti-police district attorneys.

Defunding the police isn’t about money — it’s about disheartening the men and women who have sworn to protect and serve their communities to a point where it isn’t worth it anymore. And it’s working.

In Burlington, Vermont — where Sen. Bernie Sanders was once the mayor — the city went from slashing its police budget to paying current officers thousands in bonuses to stay on the job and trying to recruit new officers with $15,000 signing bonuses.

The city of Redding, California, increased bonuses from $5,000 to $40,000 in a desperate attempt to lure experienced law enforcement officers to their force.

In San Francisco, Supervisor Matt Dorsey urged officials to match signing bonus of other northern California cities to stave off a “catastrophic” shortage of police officers. SFPD staffing has plummeted to 1,537 police officers — an unprecedented low point in decades and a far cry from the recommended staffing level of 2,182 officers. Nearly 500 current SFPD officers are eligible for retirement.

In Tehama County, the Sheriff’s Department announced in November they didn’t have enough deputies to staff daytime patrols and warned residents they would be on their own until the night shift came on.

Here in Orange County, police departments are offering hiring bonuses of $10,000 and even finders’ fees of $1,000 to officers who successfully refer a recruit to hire on. And those who can’t offer bonuses are hemorrhaging experienced officers.

Policing had to evolve — and the proof was on everyone’s living room television. And it has.

While the last few decades have come with positive steps forward, the job of the American police officer has morphed into wearing many, many hats and the weight of the badge has become an increasingly heavy burden to bear. And for many, many experienced officers it’s one they are no longer willing to shoulder.

Officers are frustrated with having to handle too much — without the expertise or the training to do it all — and often without sufficient oversight. There simply isn’t enough time to develop experienced supervisors with retirements and resignations cannibalizing the ranks — and inexperienced officers being forced into new roles earlier and earlier in their careers.

Every call you go on could escalate into violence. The families who called you to help protect them then lambast you because you shot and killed their loved one — to protect them from their loved one. Every call could be your last — yet we expect our officers to operate like robots. To perform without emotion and without anxiety and without fear. And to make the right call not 99% of the time but 100% of the time. It is an impossible standard for human beings to meet — yet it is the standard that we have assigned to our police officers. And as hard as they try, it is one they will never be able to meet.

All of society’s problems including mental health issues and an opioid epidemic that has killed more than 700,000 Americans — have been thrust into the laps of the American police officer – and when things go wrong – the police are largely blamed for it all.

There is a very small percentage of our society who want to be police officers and — more importantly — there is an even smaller percentage of those people who we as a society want to be police officers.

But when fewer and fewer recruits want to step up, the standards are lowered to fill minimum staffing levels – and that’s where we are. The Memphis Police Department lowered its hiring standards to keep cops on the job, including requesting waivers for applicants with criminal records and overlooking education requirements.

Five former Memphis police officers are now facing murder charges in the horrific beating death of Tyre Nichols. These were not cops. These were murderers in police uniforms.

We cannot have it both ways.

We cannot spit on the good men and women who wear the badge because they wear the badge, and then expect for them to stay in a career to be demoralized to a point where they no longer want to do the job of protecting and serving. And we cannot expect our communities to be safe if we’re lowering our standards for police officers.

Policing is not perfect – nor can it be expected to be. But it can be better. And it must be made to be better.

But policing will not get better if there aren’t any more qualified police officers willing to pin on that badge because we continue to demoralize the police.

Todd Spitzer is district attorney of Orange County.