US police forces resigning in record numbers
“In the wake of the anti-police movement and Floyd protests, cops – unwanted and unappreciated by their political leaders — officers are running for the exits.”
Resignations in police forces across the United States have spiked by up to 24 per cent over the last year following anti-police riots led by Black Lives Matter.
According to a study obtained by Fox News on Thursday, voluntary resignations among police officers saw a severe increase across 10 departments in major U.S. cities.
The report by the Law Enforcement Legal Defends Funds (LELDF) analyzed active police memberships and activity for a period between June 1, 2020 to April 30, 2021 and compared it to numbers from the previous year. The report studied numbers before and after the death of George Floyd, which sparked nationwide protests and riots demanding the abolition of the police and law enforcement agencies.
In that period, researchers found an 18 per cent increase in overall voluntary departures, including a 24 per cent rise in overall voluntary resignations, and a 14 increase in overall voluntary retirements.
“In the wake of the anti-police movement and Floyd protests, cops – unwanted and unappreciated by their political leaders — officers are running for the exits. Resignations and retirements at the largest police agencies in the United States are skyrocketing while recruitment is tanking,” said LELDF President Jason Johnson.
The study found that the main motivating factor for the police resignations was the Defund the Police movement, which was championed by Black Lives Matter and other progressive and Democrat-aligned organizations across the country.
“I wouldn’t take [a job as a police chief],” said former NYPD Commissioner and current LAPD Chief Bill Bratton to the publication. “The ability to succeed in this climate … the progressive district attorneys’ policies just aren’t going to work.”
The study analyzed data from 10 major metropolitan areas including Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Austin, Las Vegas, Chicago, San Jose, Los Angeles County, D.C., San Francisco, and Miami-Dade County.
In the city of San Jose, one in nine cops left the force, followed by and one in 10 officers in Cleveland, and one in 12 police officers in Las Vegas. In Cleveland, the city’s police department saw a 130 per cent increase in retirements, while Austin saw a 63 per cent increase in resignations. Only San Francisco saw a decrease in numbers in both categories. Pittsburgh saw a decrease in resignations, the study reported.
“This is something that we’ve been warning about for years,” D.C. Police Chief Robert Contee said to Fox News at a press conference. “We don’t really have the ability to hire officers right now. We have a defined amount of resources to deal with a very large city that continues to grow.”
Interim Austin Police Chief Joseph Chacon said it was necessary to call the situation “a crisis because it is a crisis.” In addition to the departures, the city saw a 96 per cent increase in murders. Austin is currently struggling to fill 300 sworn officer vacancies, the study reports.
“When [police] get there, they then likely have to wait for back-up,” said Kevin Lawrence, executive director of the Texas Municipal Police Association. “They don’t have the resources they need to actually address whatever the situation is.”
Despite the pressure faced by police departments across the United States, President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice announced plans to launch new efforts involving court-appointed monitors to oversee police departments and force their compliance to standards set by the Biden administration.
In September, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that more is needed to monitor the police than current consent decrees, monitorships, and internal investigations. With the establishment of 19 new actions, the DOJ intends to improve the “efficiency and efficacy” of consent decrees and monitorships to hold law enforcement officers to a new standard.
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