INDIANAPOLIS — We're taking another look Tuesday night at IMPD's ongoing efforts to get more men and women to join the department.
Tuesday’s turnout wasn’t the best, but IMPD still found this to be a step in the right direction in their mission to recruit more officers.
Low recruitment isn't an issue exclusive to IMPD, it's a battle for many departments across the country.
Right now, there are 1,461 sworn officers, according to IMPD.
Rick Snyder, president of the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) put up billboards in April to highlight the officer shortage. At that time Snyder told WRTV the department was down 350 officers.
RELATED COVERAGE | New billboard highlights officer shortage
Tuesday, Snyder told WRTV’s Amber Grigley, that since the billboard went up the department lost additional officers, now putting them down about 378 officers.
IMPD told Amber that they know there are folks out there who want to be officers, they just need to take that first step.
"Yeah so a lot of people, it's in their heart to serve. You think about nurses, teachers, professionals, people that serve the community one way or another. Policing is just another way to serve your community.," Sgt. Randy Diaz, a Recruiting Sergeant of IMPD said.
"So here again we're back to this primary question which is what are we doing to retain the officers that we have now and incentivize them to stay on IMPD, versus going to another agency or leaving the profession altogether," Snyder said.
Snyder said officers have left for other agencies because of things like better equipment, better working schedules, often competitive or better pay, and a greater sense of support from the community they serve and the leaders they are working for.
The starting salary for IMPD is around $72,000.
Sgt. Diaz said the department is planning to have a recruitment open house in all of the districts.
The next events will be on June 18 for the southeast district and June 26 for the north district from 5 to 7 p.m.
For more information, visit JoinIMPD.indy.gov.
