Police departments around the country are dealing with staffing shortages. National sworn staffing numbers are down 5% compared to 2020 while resignations jumped nearly 50% between 2019 and 2022. As a result, some departments are trying to streamline how they do their jobs and lighten the load on officers.
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00:00 As police departments across the country draw more scrutiny and lose more officers, law
00:05 enforcement leaders are responding by saying the modern officer is tasked with too much.
00:10 Calling 911 is the common response for everything from losing your wallet to homicide.
00:15 That said, some police departments are tackling this problem head on and are giving officers
00:20 the help leaders say they desperately need.
00:24 Police departments around the country are dealing with staffing shortages.
00:27 National sworn staffing numbers are down 5% compared to 2020, while resignations jumped
00:32 nearly 50% between 2019 and 2022.
00:36 As a result, some departments are trying to streamline how they do their jobs and lighten
00:41 the load on officers.
00:42 What we believe that we're going to be able to do is save over 130,000 hours of patrol
00:47 time with mandating these non-emergency incidents.
00:51 The Dallas Police Department has mandated the use of an online reporting system for
00:55 low-level crimes. Rather than calling 911 to report a car wreck or burglary, than waiting
01:01 for an officer to respond at the scene, people must file police reports online.
01:05 The citizen will sometimes have to wait for several hours before an officer can respond.
01:11 And then by waiting for that officer to respond, once they do respond, then the officer is
01:16 now out of service for the other in-progress type of events that are occurring that someone
01:21 is in immediate danger.
01:23 Along with freeing up officers and saving patrol hours, DPD says it is focused on improving
01:28 response times to emergency calls, which has been particularly high over the summer.
01:32 So far in one month, we've seen a 63% increase in the use of the online reporting system.
01:38 In Denver, the STAR program sends mental health clinicians and EMTs to handle non-emergency
01:43 calls instead of armed police. The STAR program responded to more than 4,700 calls and provided
01:49 clinical support to 1,100 people in 2022.
01:52 In cities like Philadelphia, San Francisco and Lansing, Michigan, police are limiting
01:57 traffic stops for minor offenses.
01:59 I don't know how well it's going to go other places. I'm hoping that it goes well in Lansing
02:04 and that we can be a model.
02:05 Along with removing a time-consuming task for officers, some reform advocates say this
02:09 change will help curb unnecessary violence.
02:12 According to the New York Times, between 2016 and 2021, police killed more than 400 motorists
02:18 who were not wielding a gun or a knife or under pursuit for a violent crime, a rate
02:23 of more than one per week.
02:25 Jamal Andrus, Scripps News, Dallas.