While the City of Anderson and Anderson County work to raise salaries for law enforcement in their respective fiscal budgets for 2016-2017, the problem of hiring and retaining officers is a growing trend across the state and nation.
About half of the South Carolina police academy graduates end up leaving law enforcement altogether within a year, according to the S.C. Criminal Justice Academy.
It’s a troubling trend the academy and some police departments are struggling to address. With fewer resources to work with, law enforcement agencies are being stretched thin trying to provide the public safety residents expect.
“We’re getting more to come in the door. … They’re just not staying in law enforcement,” said Maj. Florence McCants, the criminal justice academy’s administrative operations manager. “When the rubber hits the road, for various reasons, they’re just not staying in.”
Officer shortages aren’t just a South Carolina problem.
An April 2016 report by the U.S. Department of Justice shows the number of sworn police officers nationwide grew incrementally until 2012, when the total plummeted from 768,287 to 750,340.