TRAVIS COUNTY, Texas — Staffing woes have hit the city of Austin hard, especially for those protecting it.
Last month, the Austin Police Association (APA) said it was at a breaking point, struggling to fill about 350 officer positions.
But they're not the only local agency feeling strained.
KVUE reached out to around 32 different law enforcement agencies across the area. Of the 13 that responded, each reiterated essentially the same result: In the last four to five years, the number of people applying to become officers has dwindled.
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Travis County Sheriff Sally Hernandez said people’s interests have changed over her 40-year career.
“When I started my career, we stood in line and hoped for an opening. Now we're just getting one or two applications,” Hernandez said.
According to Hernandez, in February 2023, hiring became so difficult that the sheriff's office had a 35% vacancy rate in its jail staff for more than half the year, totaling 253 positions unfilled.
“We started trying to plug in holes by bringing in law enforcement to come work in corrections," Hernandez said. "Then we brought in even more. We brought in the sergeants in law enforcement, and then we brought in our lieutenants."
Hernandez said that staff in special divisions like traffic would have to help out with patrols in addition to their regular duties.
Georgetown Police Chief Cory Tchida said his department has also had its share of staffing woes due to low hiring numbers.
“You have detectives that are carrying larger caseloads than we would like,” Tchida said. “You have units that are missing people because you can't move people off of patrol until they're backfilled.”
Tchida said that the department is almost fully staffed now, but about 13 of those on the force aren't certified yet and must first graduate through the police academy.
“We're looking at 13 months before they're fully operational,” Tchida said.
Officers, like Traffic Unit Sgt. Jason Chaudoin, said 18-hour shifts and less time off could still be a reality.
“Having to work all the holidays and special events, and it can definitely wear you down fast,” Chaudoin said.
So, why have hiring numbers been trending down? Tchida believes it may be due to the way law enforcement is perceived.
“After the death of George Floyd in 2020, there are folks that – for lack of a better term – have concern about who they think law enforcement is or how we operate,” he said.
Tchida said people who might have been interested in the job may be discouraged because of the public perception.
Hernandez said she thinks it might be because of the nature of the job.
“I think it’s harder for law enforcement because it’s a 24/7 operation. It’s not something that you can do at home. You’re out serving the community, and so, I think it’s sometimes not as appealing,” Hernandez said.
Other agencies like the Llano County Sheriff’s Office, the Blanco County Sheriff’s Office, the San Marcos Police Department and West Lake Police Department said some of their struggles with attracting staff have to do with neighboring agencies offering the same or higher salaries, the cost of living in areas being too high or everyone drawing from the same applicant pool.
But in order to keep protecting the public, they all said things had to change, which pushed them to employing tactics like doing more recruiting online.
Tchida said his department used to try recruiting at in-person events, but the results weren’t always good.
“Say you get like 150 applications – and then on this day that you have people come test, you’d get 20 [applicants show up],” Tchida said. “So, we advertise on social media sites, job sites. A vast majority of it is on online platforms because that is where people are looking for jobs.”
Hernandez said her office has trended in that direction, too.
“[We] started using Indeed. With the help of the commissioners court, got a marketing company to help us advertise,” Hernandez said.
Little by little, Hernandez said the sheriff's office has seen hiring numbers increase, going from a 35% vacancy rate in jailing staff in 2023 to 27% now.
“We’re much more efficient, even though we still have vacancies. We’re much more efficient because we changed our focus, and we started working to maximize the staffing that we have,” she said.
Hernandez and Tchida both said that there's still plenty of work to be done.
“I think going into the future, we're going to have to look really hard at what are those barriers, real or perceived, and how do we break those down? How do we get people to understand that this job truly is about helping people?" Tchida said.
“We're going to continue to work and continue to recruit and bring people into the Travis County Sheriff's Office,” Hernandez said.