We’ve been forced to make a lot of changes in our hiring practices.

“Filling vacancies – specifically in corrections, and to a lesser extent in patrol – in today’s workforce has forced us to make a lot of changes in our hiring practices. To start with, we have to move a lot quicker, which causes anxiety in HR at times: the whole ‘haste makes waste’ adage. But for some Millennials, there’s an expectation for immediate gratification: instant replies, constant communication. It’s labor intensive for my command staff.

“We’re also finding that fewer and fewer applicants make it through the entire application process. Before, we used to get a mass number of applicants for an opening, and it would take about eight applicants to get one good candidate. Now, only 2-3 at a time are dribbling in.

“We spend a lot of money just trying to recruit people. We’re competing against employers who don’t have the rigorous vetting process we do, and against the current reputation of law enforcement in general, as well as the nontraditional work hours and demands of the job.

“Attending local job fairs and placing job announcements in the paper used to be all it took in terms of advertising, but now we have to hit every job fair – even those a couple hundred miles away. We even installed an electric message board at the end of our driveway to advertise vacancies.

“There are people who still respect what we do, and there a lot of people doing good work still. But the role of our command staff has changed to some degree; they’ve had to become cheerleaders for their staff.”

Thirty-two years on the job, and I wouldn’t change a thing.

“The reality of the job is that there are a lot of calls and ways you assist people that have an impact on their lives. The job is whatever you make of it.

“I have 32 years on the job. It’s gone by fast, and I wouldn’t change a thing. You see danger, trauma – what people would consider a lot of negatives. But you see a lot of positives, too.

“I’ve had several people whom I’ve arrested for various issues, or given tickets to, who have later shaken my hand and thanked me because at the time it happened, they were misguided, and if I hadn’t done that, God knows where they would be. That’s the real reward of the job.”

The job isn’t about one officer or one agency – together, we make an impact.

“As an officer, you are a member of a profession that together works as an aggregate. We all make an impact, it’s not just one officer or one agency: It’s everybody working together.

“We have to hold ourselves accountable while trying to hold the people we serve accountable. We have to work to keep the profession honorable.”

–Sheriff Kevin Joyce, Cumberland County, Maine, Sheriff’s Department