Here’s how Manitowoc-area police departments are adapting to recruit officers in a world changed by COVID-19 and George Floyd.

TWO RIVERS - In recent months, the Two Rivers Police Department has sworn in a new police chief, assistant chief and hired five new officers.

The department — like Manitowoc and most other municipalities around Wisconsin and the U.S. — faces challenges in filling open positions during a time of increasing turnover. A mix of low unemployment rates, the pandemic and changes in what young people look for in a career has made it difficult for law enforcement agencies to hire workers for what was once a desirable job.

According to the Wisconsin Department of Justice, the state had fewer than 13,400 law enforcement officers in 2022, down slightly from 13,500 in 2021 and down significantly from a record high of 14,400 in 2008.

Nationwide, the number of police officers dropped by 4% from March 2020 to August 2022, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Currently, there are 74 unfilled police officer jobs in Wisconsin, according to Indeed.com.

This comes at a time when unemployment rates are at record lows. Wisconsin’s rate was 3.2% in December. The U.S. Census Bureau says the low number could be indicative of fewer people wanting to work as a result of getting COVID-19, an aging population reaching retirement, smaller working generations and people choosing to work less for lifestyle reasons.

“Right now, there are so many job openings around the state and country,” Two Rivers Police Chief Benjamin Meinnert told the Herald Times Reporter. “Not just in policing, but in all industries. Everyone is looking for workers to fill the workforce. It’s just hard to find people.”

Younger people want flexible work schedules, such as working four-day weeks or remotely. That isn’t possible for police officers, who need to cover the community 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Police pay hasn’t always kept pace with other jobs, although some departments are offering sign-up bonuses or retention bonuses at the end of the year — not just for law enforcement officers with seniority, but for those who have maybe gone through more training or taken on new tasks.

According to a salary survey by salaryexpert.com, the average police officer gross salary in Wisconsin is $71,040, or about $34 an hour. That's about 1% lower than the average police officer salary in the U.S. The average entry-level position in Wisconsin pays about $46,000 to $51,000, according to the survey.

Police departments also have faced challenges in recent years from media depictions or public perception. After the George Floyd killing in Minneapolis in May 2020 and the Black Lives Matter movement, protests or calls to “defund” police departments have created added stress for officers in general.

A survey of 184 police departments by the Police Executive Research Forum found that resignations were 43% higher in 2021 than 2019 and retirement was 24% higher in that three-year span.

Many officers and those in police administration throughout the country left for other jobs or retired during or immediately after the COVID-19 pandemic, Meinnert noted.

For example, he replaced former Two Rivers Police Chief Brian Kohlmeier, who retired after 34 years in law enforcement. He was 53 years old and said he wanted to spend more time with family.

The new chief has been with Two Rivers for eight years and served as Kohlmeier’s assistant. He’s served a total of 23 years in law enforcement in several departments, transferring from Sheboygan Falls to Two Rivers to move up the career ladder.

Melissa Weisner, a 21-year member of the Two Rivers force, was sworn in as the department’s first female assistant chief last week.

Two Rivers is now a relatively green force. With a total 16 patrol officer positions, nearly a third are new to the Two Rivers job. This is a record of new recruits, surpassing a time in the late 1990s when four new officers started at once.

It isn’t ideal, Meinnert acknowledged. The department needs to staff 24/7, and it’s challenging to train new hires when a third of the force must be off at any one time.

“When COVID happened, like a lot of communities, we were concerned about the future and held back on hiring,” he said. “We had one retirement at the end of 2020, which we expected. We had an unexpected retirement, one resignation, one who left for another department and one who went into a different career. That was a challenge.”

Like many other departments, Two Rivers turned to police academies at Lakeshore Technical College and Northeast Wisconsin Technical College to recruit students before they graduated.

The department found four qualified candidates who were in school in October and November 2021 and hired two on the spot. Those recruits worked part time, finishing much of their field training before graduating in May 2022. Two were hired when they graduated. The fifth was hired from another department.

“What we are doing is unprecedented,” the chief said. “We have to start thinking outside of the box, going to schools to find officers. Some departments do sign-up bonuses for a lateral transfer. I’m not a huge fan of that, you’re just stealing from another agency. But departments are in a bind.”

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Manitowoc Police Chief Nick Reimer said his department also is trying new ways to find qualified officers. His department has started recruiting new officers while they are still students at LTC's police academy, something Manitowoc didn't need to do in the past, he said.

Manitowoc has four people in training and two open spots Reimer is looking to fill.

The Manitowoc County Sheriff's Office is in a fortunate spot to be fully staffed on the law enforcement side of the department, Sheriff Daniel Hartwig told the Herald Times Reporter. The force had a large number of retirements in its 50-person law enforcement agency back in 2017-2018 and re-filled positions in that division before COVID-19 hit.

He also oversees the corrections and jail, where he is down about 14 of 43 people. One of the biggest challenges for his department, until recently, was that it offered the lowest starting pay in Wisconsin.

He made a plea to the Manitowoc County Board and received more funding, raising starting pay for deputies (for those who work in dangerous work conditions) from $20.40 per hour to $25.08 per hour. Before that, pay had increased just 12 cents in 12 years.

"There was no way we could compete with the private sector," Hartwig said. "Luckily, county officials understood that and worked with us."

He expects another four to seven retirements coming down the pike in the next year or so.

"It's a numbers game that we aren't winning," Hartwig acknowledges.

Meinnert said he’ll no longer hold positions open.

“You used to wait, thinking you could hire in summer when school was done,” he said. “You could cushion your budget a bit by delaying until graduates were looking for jobs in summer. Not anymore. Now, they are being hired year-round. Some departments are sponsoring people to go the academy. We have to be very proactive.”

He doesn’t expect that to change anytime soon.

“When I got into policing, we’d go into an auditorium and take a test, if you got 90% or better, your score went to all the agencies and you’d hope for a call,” he said. “During the hiring process, up to 500 people might apply for a job. Now, we’re lucky if we get 20.”

Hartwig is an adjunct instructor at both Lakeshore Technical College and Fox Valley Technical College. Police departments from around the state now will sponsor people with no law enforcement experience to go through school.

New officers must complete about four to five months of training in the state Police Academy. With other instruction and field work, it takes around 10 months for a new officer to become a full-trained potential officer. That's a long wait for departments with open positions.

Hartwig said LTC had fewer than 10 graduates from its Police Academy in December. FVTC hosts three academies a year, and 24 of 30 cadets in the current academy are sponsored by and have jobs lined up at police departments.

While no one wants to be in competition with other law enforcement agencies, Hartwig said working at the colleges might give the lakeshore area a leg up.

"As an instructor at the colleges, I like to toot our own horn about how great it is to work in Manitowoc," Hartwig said. "I'm very thankful we live in a community that respects us and has a good relationship with law enforcment."

Contact reporter Patti Zarling at pzarling@gannett.com or call 920-606-2586. Follow her on Twitter @PGPattiZarling.

This article originally appeared on Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter: Manitowoc police and Two Rivers police reimagine officer recruitment