Recent Violence Making It Harder To Recruit Police Officers
DENVER (CBS4) - Cops were targeted for assassination in Dallas and Baton Rouge this summer. Eight died. So why would anyone want to become a cop?
"You've got to search yourself, search your heart and your mind and you've got to say this is a higher calling," said Frank Gale, a past president of the Colorado Fraternal Order Of Police.
Denver trains their police officer candidates in 26 weeks.
"You can't give up in the street if someone's trying to kill you," a Denver police recruit is heard saying in a recently released Youtube video.
The video shows recruits training to meet the physical demands of the job.
Some police officers say they are concerned many politicians do not have their backs.
"Elected officials are pandering to some political agenda that they have and that political agenda might be on the left or it might be on the right and at the end of the day, we're left in the middle just trying to do the best that we can," said Gale.
"Is that from the president on down?" Nathan asked.
Absolutely, said Gale, "That's from the president, it's from the governor and local legislatures."
Gale says recruiters are telling him they are having a tough time attracting police officer candidates. Here's why:
"The things that are going on with the villainization of police and this negative backlash, it just doesn't make the job attractive. They can go and make the kind of money that we make doing something else that has got a lot less hassles to it," Gale said.
"And one that doesn't maybe have bullets coming their way?" Nathan asked.
"Yeah, absolutely," Gale agreed.
Gale points out it takes a special person to become a cop.
"If you're the kind of person that says 'I still want to do something that's positive and help the community and help people,' then do the job and just deal with what comes," he said.
Currently, Denver is training 48 people to become a police officer. Since 2014, they've had 27 to 50 people graduate from their academy every six months.
Howard Nathan is a veteran newsman. Decades later, he still enjoys writing a clever sentence, asking the tough question and talking to people in Colorado. Follow him on Twitter @CBS4Howard and read his bio.
