On Thursday, October 13, at the City Council strategy meeting, Interim Police Chief Teresa Biffle made a disturbing report regarding the Greensboro Police Department vacancies.
The City Council didn’t seem fazed by high vacancy rate that, according to Biffle, is going higher, and the councilmembers offered no real solutions.
Biffle stated that 691 sworn officers were authorized for the GPD and that there are currently 108 vacancies. There are also 14 nonsworn positions.
Biffle stated that the situation was only going to worsen, as 12 officers graduated from the previous academy class in field training. There are 15 academy students. Biffle stated that the current class began with 18 officers and will likely lose another few before graduating.
As former Police Chief Brian James explained to the City Council several times, the normal attrition rate for the GPD is about 60 officers a year, which means to remain even, each of the two academy classes held during the year needs to graduate 30 officers.
Biffle stated that 27 additional officers was the maximum the GPD could hope for this year. If the GPD does not get a lot of lateral entries, it will lose 33 officers by the end.
Biffle explained that a patrol section had around 100 officers. So, one way of looking at the current rate of vacancy was that the GPD was down an entire division. In addition, she said that the 1990 federal grant program had made it easier for more police officers to retire in the future.
Biffle claimed that in order to make up the loss of patrol officers, she had to recruit detectives from other special services and take them on patrol.
Biffle suggested that some specialized units could be destroyed completely. She said, “We truly need sworn resources to respond to 911 calls.”
Marikay Abuzuaiter (City Councilmember) suggested that the GPD reach out to graduates of Police Citizens Academy. This yearly program introduces Greensboro residents and officers to the Police Department.
Tammi Thurm, a City Councilmember, noted that Greensboro offered only a one-time bonus for officers who have a college degree. She said, “That’s a huge incentive for people not to come to Greensboro if they have a college degree and want to be in law enforcement.”