Tough job, fewer applicants: Michigan struggles to hire police, survey finds

• A new study finds nearly three-quarters of Michigan law enforcement agencies struggle to recruit qualified officers
• Some departments offer signing bonuses up to $5,000 to attract already-trained officers
• Proposed solutions include raising pay and benefits, as communities find it difficult to compete with private sector wages.

Police agencies throughout Michigan are struggling to hire qualified officers, a new study finds, exacerbating an officer shortage that has hit forces nationwide.

A University of Michigan study released Tuesday found that 72% report difficult hiring and another 48% said they had problems keeping officers of the 1,800 Michigan cities, townships and counties surveyed.

In 2015, just 22% of Michigan communities expressed trouble finding officers, according to the study. 

“It’s really across the board that this recruitment problem is out there,” said Debra Horner, a senior program manager for the Center for Local, State and Urban Policy at U-M.

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Departments in the Upper Peninsula face some of the biggest challenges, with 90% of departments saying it’s hard to find people to patrol and protect their communities.

“Every day is recruitment day,” said Ryan Grim, chief of the Marquette police, whose department continually has openings. 

Marquette offers $5,000 bonuses to hire trained officers, many of whom are working part-time nearby. 

“We’re just fighting over the same people,” Grim said.

Although the U-M survey did not ask why departments felt they struggled, Horner said the proposed solutions hinted at the problems. No. 1 was raising pay and benefits, she said.

In the past, public employees like police officers could expect a nice pension as a reward for tough work. Now, benefits at private companies can be better, Horner said.

“You just can’t compete with the private sector pay,” she said.

Officer pay in Michigan is about $65,000, according to national recruiting websites. 

In Marquette, starting officers can make about $65,000, but most can get another $25,000 plus in overtime annually, working 50 to 55 hours a week, Grim said. 

The number of officers in the state fell about 2% between 2014 and 2023, from nearly 19,300 to just under 18,900, according to the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police.

In 2022, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer approved $30 million in grants to help departments offset the cost to train police academy recruits, many of whom had previously paid their own way. 

Those grants will soon run out, officials said.

In Eaton Rapids, near Lansing, Police Chief Larry Joe Weeks said interviewees seeking to join his 10-person force often ask more questions about police cruisers and uniforms than community service.

“The quality is really not where it was years ago,” Weeks said. 

Staffing issues have troubled law enforcement across the country for years, and many cite an eroding respect for the profession, lower pay, high risk and the abundance of other jobs.

Departments are so tight on staff that officers are working lots of overtime and running from call to call. 

That’s led to fewer available for community service events or even specialized drunk-driving patrols.

The change in attitudes has surprised most chiefs who recall, like Weeks, their own entry into a profession that had hundreds of applicants.

Now, departments everywhere are finding fewer young people are even interested in a law enforcement career.

“Even my own kids don’t want to be police officers,” said Grim, the Marquette chief.