Town Council approves a $10K signing bonus to attract police officers to work in Orono
ORONO, Maine — The Orono Police Department can now offer a $10,000 signing bonus given out on a case-by-case basis to new hires in an effort to attract more applicants for its two vacant positions.
Police Chief Josh Ewing spoke before the Orono Town Council during its monthly meeting on Monday and offered what he called a “current state of affairs” on how the department is faring against a national decline in law enforcement.
Nationally, the number of full-time local police officers decreased by more than 9,000 between 2013 and 2016. In Maine, the number of full-time sworn local officers has slowly increased over time, but some departments across the state are still having trouble retaining their staff and filling open positions.
“We’re no different than the national trends,” Ewing said.
In his 20 years with the Orono department, he’s seen 38 officers leave — which he said he didn’t think was “uncommon for every agency.”
Still, about half of those officers who left Orono went to another law enforcement agency and less than a quarter got out of police work altogether.
Referencing a report by the Police Executive Research Forum, Ewing briefly explained how a shortage of applicants for jobs in the field is contributing to the current workforce crisis.
“The pool has shrunk even more so than when I started,” he said.
When Ewing applied to the Maine Warden Service in 1989, there were 1,800 applicants for the open positions, he said. Recently, the agency only received around 30 applications for six vacancies.
Typically, the department would get between eight and 10 applications for its jobs, but that number has dwindled to just three applications for its two open positions, he said.
Ewing explained how a shift in public perception of law enforcement could also be contributing to the decline in numbers of officers.
“Fewer people want this level of scrutiny and judgment on what they do everyday,” he said.
A change in law enforcement’s role in society could also have something to do with the staffing problem. Ewing said that officers are now expected to be equipped to handle social service calls in addition to their regular police duties.
Responding to crisis situations for people who are mentally ill, those with substance use disorders and the homeless has almost become the department’s primary role, rather than dealing with emergencies or investigations, Ewing said.
“The type of work that we’re doing has changed dramatically.”
Around the state, police departments with similar troubles getting new hires through the door have had to get creative with their recruiting efforts. In 2018, the Bangor Police Department came out with a recruiting video to encourage more people to work for them.
Similarly, other cities and towns have tried to entice officers with more money or other ways of retaining staff. In Westbrook, the department is offering a $14,000 signing bonus to trained officers with at least five years of experience.
In October, Presque Isle First Responders championed for the city to return to the Maine Public Employees Retirement program, which it believed would help retain officers as the police department tried to fill its six vacant positions.