COURT HOUSE – Police departments around the county are struggling to find special law enforcement officers that they rely on annually to bolster their forces during the busy summer months.
“It is significantly down. In the past, we have employed seven Class IIs. We currently have four trained and working and one in the police academy. We are looking to hire two additional Class IIs to put us at seven,” Middle Township Police Lt. Tracey Super said.
Wildwood Police Chief Robert Regalbuto agreed the selection pool has been much smaller, and, in prior years, he had hundreds of applicants he could choose from. This year, he said, he is mostly weeding out candidates with a criminal history or who can’t pass the psych and physical tests.
In other words, if a candidate meets the requisite requirements, they’re in, since numbers are so low, there is no room to be selective if departments want to stay at full staff.
Cape May County Police Academy offers two courses for Class II recruits, with one course offering running three days a week, for seven hours per day, December through April, and a more accelerated course offering running six days a week, for 11 hours per day, from May through June. Both cost recruits $850.
Class II officers join regular patrols and have most of the same responsibilities as regular patrol officers. They are different from Class I officers, who also supplement towns for the summer, but only complete an 80-hour course, for $500, and do not carry firearms.
The county’s website listed the winter course as full, but local officials report they are falling short of finding enough recruits to send to the spring session to adequately fill their forces.
Regalbuto pointed to higher pay offered by other towns, a decision that rests with the municipalities, as something further handicapping Wildwood in this year’s pool. Applicants must first have a conditional offer from a department before they can be accepted into the academy’s programs.
A survey of some publicly advertised job ads give a sense for the desperation. Stone Harbor Borough Council recently upped their pay 40%, from $15 to $21 per hour, for Class II, prior to this season.
In other towns, officials agree being selective is not an option.
“We have 19 candidates that must pass a psych test and a physical fitness evaluation, so we will most likely fall a little short of sending 20 recruits to the spring SLEO (special law enforcement officer) Class II academy,” Capt. Anthony Garreffi, officer in charge of Sea Ise City’s department said. “We have four in the winter Class II academy.”
Regalbuto said he understands why officers might be more inclined to work in Stone Harbor than Wildwood for more pay. He pointed to the potential to move up within the Wildwood Police Department, one of the county’s best paying, as incentive, but agreed that the job in Stone Harbor is easier, where violent crime is almost unheard of, but jaywalking runs rampant.
He said the experience that can come from working in Wildwood, as opposed to a different barrier island market, is valuable in many other ways. It can prepare officers the same way all other local resort towns do, but also get them better ready to work in big cities, with a better understanding of what being a police officer is really like, dealing with more serious circumstances and larger crowds.
Police departments are trying to figure out how to handle staffing. It’s always busy in the summer, but this change may signal it’s time for new strategies and fresh ideas. That’s something Garreffi said he is working on.
“We have to do better at promoting and recruitment for our police department. We started going to local colleges recruiting over the last few months and will continue expanding to other schools. We also have plans to change our application process for next year’s hiring pool,” he said.
Sea Isle also said they will try to supplement with lesser trained Class Is.
“We intend to hire a larger number of Class I officers, which is usually about five. Thirty-five Class I and Class II officers is an ideal number for Sea Isle, so we should be close to that number this year,” Garreffi said.
When asked why young people’s interest in becoming police is decreasing, Regalbuto pointed to the way police are portrayed in the media and new state laws that increase their chances of exposure to criminal charges when handling juveniles.
Super and Garreffi said they don’t know why there are seemingly fewer people interested in being cops now.
“I do not have an answer for this question,” said Super.
“I’m not sure why our applicant numbers are down from past years,” Garreffi said.
To contact Shay Roddy, email sroddy@cmcherald.com.
