Collins sports a facial tattoo of an obscenity against police. He told The Associated Press that it is directed at the ‘œevil ones,’ such as those who killed Floyd and Breonna Taylor, who was shot to death by officers serving a search warrant in Louisville, Kentucky. The department said it has no policy governing tattoos.
‘œI don’t want people of color to be against cops,’ said Collins, who works as a pizza cook and a FedEx package distributor. ‘œWhat other career would be doper to send that message than to be a Minneapolis police officer?’
Also at the meeting was William Howard, a 29-year-old Black man who said he installs office furniture, writes stories for video games, and has only lived in Minneapolis for a few months. Howard said he has studied meditation and that he thinks it would be a useful skill when de-escalation is required.
‘œI feel like I can bring more heart into the police force. Heart isn’t about power and control, it’s about courage and protecting people and serving people,” Howard said.
But he was on the fence about applying. He has a 1-year-old son and worried about work-life balance and the dangers of the job.
Frey’s proposed funding would cover an officer recruitment marketing campaign, an internship program for high school students, and four classes of police recruits each year, among other measures.
Police spokesman Garrett Parten said the city is aware of the recruitment challenges it faces. Each class can accommodate up to 40 recruits, but only six were in the class that graduated in September. Only 57 people applied in 2022, down from 292 applicants in 2019.
œYou can scream as loud as you want, ‘˜Hire more people!’ but if fewer people are applying, then it’s not going to change the outcome much,’ Parten said. ‘œAcross the country, recruitment has become an issue. There’s just fewer people that are applying for the job.’
Statistics bear that out. Among 184 police agencies surveyed in the U.S. and Canada, the nonprofit Police Executive Research Forum found that resignations jumped by 43% from 2019 through 2021, and retirements jumped 24%. In the face of those departures, overall hiring fell by 4%.
At an informational session for aspiring cadets in March, Matthew Hobbs, a training officer, thanked the attendees for simply being there.
‘œIn Minneapolis, with what we’ve been through for the last couple years, for you to be here and have an interest in law enforcement ‘» I’m impressed with every one of you that’s here,” he said.
Hobbs talked of how he felt the day after Floyd’s killing, when he and other officers were ordered to leave the precinct that protesters quickly took over and burned.
œIt was the worst day of my career. But even after that, I still love my job,” Hobbs said, urging attendees to apply. “It’s an incredible career.’
Howard – the potential recruit with reservations – said later that he applied but did not make it past the oral exam. And Collins, who had talked about being a bridge between people of color and the police, said a last-minute trip forced him to miss a necessary oral exam. He plans to apply again later, he said.
‘œI want to do something that I take pride in and give all my compassion to it,’ Collins said. ‘œI can’t figure out any other career – right now, in 2022, with all this stuff going on – than to be a cop.’
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Trisha Ahmed is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Trisha Ahmed on Twitter.
Article Appeared @https://www.dailyherald.com/article/20221022/news/310229959/