News Release

June 11, 2001
To: Reporters, Editors, Producers
From: Glenn Small, (410) 516-6094, glenn@jhu.edu
Re: Police to discuss hiring crunch; some police academy classes cancelled for lack of recruits, Hopkins expert says.

Police agencies in Maryland and the Mid-Atlantic region are having a difficult time recruiting and the lack of officer candidates has spurred a "recruiting war," said Sheldon Greenberg, executive director of the Johns Hopkins University Police Executive Leadership Program.

Greenberg said the situation is so intense that some smaller city and county police departments have had to cancel academy classes for lack of new recruits and that one agency sent recruiters to "raid" the shift change of another, in an effort to attract experienced officers. To help address the issue, Hopkins and the Maryland State Police are co-sponsoring a regional conference in Baltimore on Monday, June 11, and Tuesday, June 12, for what Greenberg described as a "frank and open discussion of this situation."

Members of the Maryland State Police, experts from Hopkins and elsewhere, along with the chief of police of Arlington, Va., and the superintendent of the New York State Police will be on hand to talk about how to solve the hiring crisis. Greenberg said the hiring crunch is exacerbated by a shrinking applicant pool, rising police employment standards and attractive retirement packages that cause police departments to lose their most experienced officers.

"The superintendent of the New York State Police will be here, and they're not having a problem hiring candidates, even though they require a college degree," said Greenberg. "So it'll be interesting to hear what he has to say."

For more information or directions to the conference, please call 410-516-0770.