Local law enforcement struggling to hire officers

ROCKINGHAM — Two of the three law enforcement agencies in Richmond County are struggling to hire officers.

The Hamlet Police Department is currently about eight officers short of full staff. The Richmond County Sherriff’s Office is short 10 deputies and three jailers. The Rockingham Police Department is currently fully staffed.

“It’s been an ongoing issue for the last several years,” said HPD Chief Dennis Brown said. “We have shifted administrative staff back to patrol and that has relieved some of the pressure on our officers.”

HPD has been ramping up their recruiting efforts to overcome the shortage.

“Our local community colleges currently have BLET (Basic Law Enforcement Training) programs in place,” Brown said. “We’re encouraging our staff to go out and solicit other folks who might be interested in going to the BLET to show some interest. So far, we’ve been pretty successful.”

Brown pointed to the climate around law enforcement as at least one reason it’s been difficult to retain officers and hire new staff.

“It’s a national trend in law enforcement currently that folks are not choosing to work in law enforcement in the numbers that they once had,” Brown said. “I do know that we are working diligently to make Hamlet a place where our staff want to be.”

The Sheriff’s Office is working to make their offering to potential employees competitive in the region.

“The Sheriff has been working with the County Manager and the County Commissioner’s on the updated pay plan for Deputies with hopes that this will encourage recruitment and retention for the existing staff,” RCSO Chief Deputy Mark Gulledge said in a text.

Sheriff James Clemmons told to the Board of Commissioners and county administrators at their budget work session last week that starting compensation pay has become an Achilles heel for his department. He cited Hoke County as a sheriff’s office that is beating Richmond County out for new hires in the region, with a starting salary of $40,000.

Clemmons said it’s hard to recruit when the starting salary is so low.

“We’re working with what we have,” Clemmons said.

County Manager Bryan Land confirmed that the Sheriff’s Office staff will receive a boost from a 2.5% cost of living adjustment (COLA) in the new budget, as well as new funds from a proposed compensation plan.

“There really isn’t a set amount per deputy, it is based on certification level, years of service, and other variables,” Land said in an email, referring to the compensation plan.

Clemmons made clear to the commissioners that pay isn’t the only issue when it comes to recruitment for law enforcement.

“We would all be naïve if we would not understand the fact that there are not many young men and women today that want to get involved with law enforcement,” Clemmons said. “With all the things that are happening in society and all the black lives that law enforcement has taken within the last three to five years, it’s even harder to recruit those young folks to get them to even think about coming into this profession.”

Clemmons stated that as a department, they’re proactive and always strengthening their relationship with the community. Still, he said that officers have come to him and said “I don’t want to be that officer who makes that mistake.”

“The more we’re out of our cars and in the community and talking to our people, hopefully the better our relationship will be,” Clemons said.

While RPD is fully staffed, Chief Billy Kelly agreed that hiring new officers is difficult.

“It’s hard to find people now to work law enforcement,” Kelly said to the Rockingham City Council last week during a budget work session. “It’s even harder to find good people to work.”

Rockingham City Manager Monty Crump said during the work session that the city has had officers leave for $15,000 to $20,000 pay raises elsewhere, only to return back to Rockingham citing a good work environment.