We were discussing this in a meeting this week. We are so low on applicants and recruits it’s just ridiculous. We need to be ever so cautious of who we allow into our ranks, especially now when departments are so vulnerable.
Wait 2-3 years to see the backlash from lowered standards for hiring and passing up quality people to ‘check a box’.
We are maintaining our standards, which are pretty tough- we hire around 7% of the applicants- and we are constantly short; right now the Patrol Division is about 200 people short, which translates to a bigger work load since all the shifts run short all the time (makes for some nice OT though)....But it's maddening, being understaffed permanently .....
The upside, as you mentioned, is that we don't see the sort of problems that some other agencies in our area have with people getting in all sorts of trouble (and some of those folks were people we turned down).....
Lower standards in the name of staffing up or "diversity" or anything else is NOT the answer, and agencies like Baltimore will figure that out someday, but that realization will come with a cost.