Arizona is facing a critical shortage of state troopers, impacting public safety and law enforcement across the state. The Department of Public Safety (DPS) has struggled for years to recruit and retain officers, leading to a situation where most of Arizona’s counties are left without coverage during the night.
The Current State of Trooper Staffing
With staffing over 500 down, Arizona DPS can only patrol two out of the state’s 15 counties after midnight, Maricopa and Pima. This leaves vast stretches of highways, including significant portions of I-40, I-10, and almost all of I-17, without any coverage during night hours. The absence of a trooper presence raises serious concerns about public safety and response times to emergencies.
Historical Context of the Staffing Crisis
Over the past three decades, Arizona has experienced significant growth, adding 1,300 miles of new roads and highways. Yet the number of troopers has not kept pace with this expansion creating increased response times and placing the public at risk. Governor Hobbs is demanding action and has called for a comprehensive approach to address the lack of personnel and improve recruitment and retention efforts.
Recruitment Challenges
Officials have cited low pay as the main reason for the staffing crisis. The starting salary of $65,000 a year places Arizona at 17th among states regarding law enforcement salaries and there is a push to increase the salary to $77,000 per year.
Dr. Travis Yates is the author of “The Courageous Police Leader” and has spoken extensively on the recruiting challenges facing law enforcement. Yates says that there isn’t a recruiting crisis but rather a “crisis in leadership” that is causing the issues across the country.
“Frankly, we are insulting ourselves by blaming a shortage of cops on a ‘crisis’ or a lack of pay or whatever else the latest excuse is,” Yates said.
Yates tells us that if there was some overarching crisis in recruiting, then every agency would be suffering but that isn’t the case.
“I can show you agencies that pay their officers half of what DPS pays and they are fully staffed. I can also show you agencies in Arizona making far less than DPS that are fully staffed,” Yates tells us.
Calling it the most important aspect of leadership today, Yates said that it’s time for leaders to find and implement solutions rather than continuing with the excuses.
Agencies Are Getting Help
Doug Larsen spent two decades with Utah DPS and like Yates, he tells us that recruiting is a solvable issue and he should know. Larsen started SAFEGUARD Recruiting after he retired from law enforcement in part, because he saw that the profession was failing and there seemed to be a refusal to think outside the box in regard to recruiting.
The only company dedicated to law enforcement recruiting, Larsen has been on a personal mission to give solutions to the profession when most believe the issue can’t be solved.
Larsen and his team has run over 400 recruiting campaigns for clients ranging from small rural agencies to the Philadelphia Police Department and the success has been enormous.
Since partnering with SAFEGUARD Recruiting, Philadelphia surpassed their 2024 recruiting goal and Larsen said his company has even made a few clients mad because they received too many applications to process.
The Time Is Now
Yates tells us that agencies need to address the issue earlier rather than later because at a point in the staffing reduction, it will take years to staff fully due to the time to hire and train in the profession.
Larsen agrees, saying that his company has pioneered a methodology that can send thousands to an agency the size of Arizona DPS but the internal processes would easily break down with that volume.
“As long as an agency has the staffing for the applications along with proper background checks and academy space, we are comfortable with up to 200 hires a year so as it stands with Arizona DPS, we would place them on a three year plan and we would hit the mark,” according to Larsen.
But Larsen does give one caveat to that plan.
“The agency has to be willing to do things differently because to continue doing what the profession has been doing will only make it a worse crisis,” Larsen concludes.
