The Arizona Department of Public Safety is in the midst of a staffing crisis that threatens the state’s safety, and the problem is getting worse.
In 2022, Arizona DPS had a 22% attrition rate, and last year, it had increased to 27%. The staffing is so dire that, once the sun goes down, troopers aren’t patrolling in 13 of the state’s 15 counties.
As we have repeatedly pointed out, staffing shortages in law enforcement should not be happening. In fact, we see it as a leadership issue that has nothing to do with a so-called recruiting crisis and everything to do with the decisions being made by leaders within the organization.
Here is why Arizona DPS Is Failing
Lack of Honesty
We aren’t just seeing it in Arizona; leaders across law enforcement continue to downplay the staffing shortage, and the Arizona Department of Public Safety Colonel Jeffrey Glover is no exception. In a recent interview, he said the department is headed in the right direction with hiring, but they still need hundreds of troopers.
Their attrition has increased every year since 2020, so it’s difficult to see the “right” direction. We understand the need to display confidence to the public, but when your agency is approaching a 30% staffing reduction, that confidence appears to be incompetence. Maybe he’s referring to a recent academy class of 54 graduates, but we doubt it will even match the normal attrition rate for an agency that size.
In 2025 alone, 216 troopers left the agency.
It’s Not About Pay
Arizona DPS is doing what many other agencies have done to help with recruiting. They are discussing pay increases, and the Governor’s 2026 plan is to provide them with a 5% raise. It’s true that other agencies in Arizona make more money than DPS, but if DPS were the highest-paid agency in the state, it would do very little to achieve full staffing. Industry research shows that salary and benefits matter, but they are not the main reason someone takes or leaves a job.
If higher pay is a leader’s solution to recruiting, it will never be solved, and frankly, it’s a lazy and tired talking point.
Recruiting and Processes
Agencies can easily staff up if they actually recruit, but before they do that, they must acknowledge that what they call recruiting is nothing more than a waste of effort.
Whether it’s billboards, recruiting videos, job fairs, or fancy branding, law enforcement needs to come to terms with the fact that effort does not equal success in recruiting.
The private industry doesn’t recruit that way, and they definitely don’t hire a “marketing” company and expect “recruiting” to improve.
Recruiting involves identifying and sourcing candidates for law enforcement positions. This is exactly what law enforcement does when they are looking for a chief, but for some reason, we’ve been convinced that we can market and brand our way to full staffing.
The Philadelphia Police Department bought the lie and spent 3 million dollars on marketing. Thankfully, Captain John Walker is a leader who doesn’t run with the masses, and he realized his agency needed to focus on actual recruiting.
Walker’s recruiting numbers actually got worse with marketing, but once he leaned into actual recruiting, he came just a few hires short of the department’s 21st-century hiring record.
Doug Larsen, the COO of SAFEGUARD Recruiting, took the call from Captain Walker and has helped the Philadelphia Police Department transition from crippling attrition to a trajectory that will have them fully staffed. Larsen said that the most difficult decision agencies must make is to realize that what they think recruiting is simply won’t work.
According to Larsen, “once leaders can understand that recruiting is a high-level skill, that once implemented, works every time, the success happens immediately.”
Larsen completely rejects the notion that any agency should be understaffed.
“What we do works for our partner agencies…every time,” Larsen told us.
Indeed, it certainly seems that way. Hires in Philadelphia are up 287%, and the Cleveland Division of Police applications are up 356%, just to name a few examples that Larsen cited.
All Is Not Lost
Arizona deserves a Department of Public Safety that not only makes recruiting and staffing a priority but also leaders who make the decisions needed to provide that staffing.
There is a tremendous amount of noise and distraction about law enforcement recruiting, and almost all of it won’t work. The last thing a marketing company wants is for an agency to stop paying for the marketing. As long as the “crisis” continues, the money keeps flowing.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
Agencies like the Arizona DPS should recruit and stop talking about it.
