The Texas State University Police Department (UPD) plans to employ nine more officers by June in response to a shortage in sworn officers.
According to UPD Chief Matthew Carmichael, the department currently has a shortage of 11 sworn officers. He said the department can employ up to 37.5 sworn officers, including a part-time sex crime investigator.
Sworn officers are officers licensed by the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement and sworn in to a law enforcement agency.
“We’re struggling, not unlike every other agency in the U.S., and the challenge is hiring,” Carmichael said. “Hiring at this time, it’s just difficult to get applicants alone… which is challenging for us because of what you’re seeing nationally.”
Until UPD reaches higher staffing levels, Carmichael temporarily reassigned officers who may normally have other duties, such as detectives, who previously were in charge of investigating cases, to patrols. Carmichael said he believes police patrols are the most important thing a department can do.
“Understanding that as a chief, I moved all of our other assignments like detective or mounted horse unit or therapy dog, and put them all into patrol. So now I have a good amount of staff out in patrol while I’m doing this rebuild,” Carmichael said.
Carmichael said he and his two assistant chiefs are taking on the workload the detectives and lieutenants had before he reassigned them. He also said the change in workload means that investigating cases and responding to non-emergency cases may take longer.
“The three of us, we’re absorbing everything as best we can,” Carmichael said. “It is impacting us as an organization. It means that a few people now are doing the work of many.”
Carmichael said UPD is currently expanding its online reporting tool, which he believes will make filing a police report more accessible for the Texas State community.
According to the International Association of Police Chiefs, difficulties hiring police officers is a national issue, with 78% of law enforcement agencies reporting difficulties hiring. They attribute the difficulties to differences in work culture between generations, shifting public perceptions of law enforcement and challenges in the hiring process.
Howard Williams, associate professor of criminal justice and former San Marcos police chief, agreed, stating generational differences in desired employment and shifts in police perception, particularly following summer 2020, have intensified the issue.
“People don’t want to do the job if they don’t feel like the public is going to support them,” Williams said. “You obviously don’t do [policing] to get rich. Money is not a very good incentive because there’s not that much money in it.”
According to Williams, changes in the media landscape may also contribute to negative perceptions of police. He said with the rise of social media, exaggerated or one-sided content often gains more attention than balanced, vetted reporting. Williams added social media serves as the primary news source for younger generations, including potential police recruits in their 20s.
“You find a lot of things that pop up on social media,” Williams said. “Somebody who’s pissed about something goes on this long diatribe about how wronged they were, and everybody kind of accepts that as being the truth, when, in fact, they probably didn’t tell about two thirds of the story, and they aggrandized their view of it.”
According to Carmichael, the staffing situation is improving. While he does not have data to support this, he believes police recruiting nationwide is improving, citing his recent success in hiring additional officers.
The new UPD recruits come from various backgrounds. According to Carmichael, two of the new recruits are entry-level and graduated from the police academy in June, while the seven other recruits are “lateral officers,” meaning they worked at another law enforcement agency in the past.
“Having said all of that, we have undertaken a real commitment to recruiting and recruiting the right people,” Carmichael said. “So as an example, our interview panels are comprised of students, faculty and staff. If you sat down today in a panel in another venue, that panel might just be comprised of law enforcement with one or two community members. Our model’s reversed.”
While UPD is making moves to end its shortage of sworn officers, it’s also increasing the number of Public Safety Officers (PSOs). PSOs are mostly responsible for checking security cameras and the blue emergency phones, ensuring facilities are locked and unlocked as necessary and parking enforcement, among other duties, including limited patrols.
According to Carmichael, UPD is expanding the number of PSOs by recruiting students.
Gage Whatley, criminal justice junior, was one of the first student PSOs. According to Whatley, his duties currently consist mostly of parking enforcement, traffic direction and assisting the Texas State community with issues such as flat tires or jumping dead car batteries.
Whatley said he enjoys the job and feels like it is allowing him to serve the Texas State community.
“It does give me experience into how a department functions, how the administration deals with the frontline workers, financing and budgeting and things like that,” Whatley said. “It’s really giving me a behind the scenes look before I actually join up with an agency.”
