Posted on October 13, 2015

Police: Officer Shortage in County Due to Lack of Quality Applicants

CBS St. Louis, October 12, 2015

The St. Louis County Police Department says a difficult part of hiring about 30 officers needed to be fully staffed is finding quality applicants.

About 900 officers are working in St. Louis County, including municipalities that contract with the department, says recruitment officer Kevin Minor.

He says they are suffering from what they call the “Ferguson effect” and a lack of trust, and many officers have chosen to go to the private sector.

{snip}

And he says it’s not unique to the St. Louis region.

“This ‘Ferguson effect’ is kind of like an atomic bomb,” Minor says. “And it just affected the whole country because no one wants to deal with the scrutiny and the stresses that we’re dealing with now.”

{snip}