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Cities struggle to recruit and retain officers amid increasing crime Demonstrators and officers at the police headquarters in downtown Kansas City, Mo. Associated Press/Photo by Charlie Riedel (file)
The majority of employees at the Brookline, Mass., police department have considered leaving in recent weeks, some after decades of service, according to an anonymous survey conducted between Feb. 22 and March 6. It found 86 percent of respondents described morale as “poor.”
“My family members were proud to work for the town,” one respondent said. “Now, all of us can’t wait to retire/leave.”
Many cited internal issues, like a lack of leadership, poor pay, and increasing workloads. Another common complaint was lack of support from the community and its leaders. “Why would any officer want to stay here when the citizens march against us in the streets for something that happened in the country so far away?” another respondent said.
Seattle chocolate shop fires employee who denied service to police officers Emma Colton
A Seattle chocolate shop has fired an employee who denied service to police officers.
“We work to advance diversity and inclusion at our business, and for our team members to follow their passions and to be engaged in the critical issues we face as a city, and a nation,” Chocolati owner Christian Wong wrote in a statement last week. “However, our team members cannot decide which customers to serve based on their own personal political beliefs. This simply is not an acceptable practice at our business.” It was in the best interests of both parties to part ways with the team member, he added.
An anti-police climate prompted more than 200 of the city’s law enforcement officers to quit last year. Reaction from Seattle Fraternal Order of Police President Marco Monteblanco.
Seattle Police Department (SPD) officers are leaving the job at a record pace with at least 249 people leaving over the past year alone as statistics show manpower has been declining in recent years, according to union and city officials.
SPD boasted a police force of 1,276 uniformed members at the end of February 2020, but staffing levels dropped by 249 people to 1,027 by the end of February 2021, according to the most recent department statistics available to Fox News.