Norfolk police reporting modest headway on the hiring front as staffing shortages persist in Hampton Roads
As hiring difficulties persist for police departments across Hampton Roads, Norfolk is reporting some modest headway.
Delivering an update to City Council on the department’s work in 2022, Interim Police Chief Michael Goldsmith said Norfolk has hired more than 50 new officers over the past 18 months.
Goldsmith presented an outlook draft that reports 237 vacant sworn officer positions in Norfolk out of 757 budgeted for the 2023 fiscal year, though he stressed that some of those numbers are in flux.
“Even though we’re trending better now than we did at the retreat time, we’re still having a significant problem getting people to fill out the application,” he said. “Some of that is back to the environment. Some of that is just trying to convince people that this is still a worthwhile and a good job to take. So we are trying to do our best to compete in this space, but as with anything, in the labor market, we’re all competing for the same folks.”
Goldsmith, who stepped in after the abrupt departure of Chief Larry Boone in April, said the department needed 55 hires within a 12-month period to be “able to improve.”
He said over the past year, department leadership has used multiple avenues to bring in officers — including targeted marking, and referral and sign-on bonuses. In 2023, some initiatives will continue: targeted marketing around the city, more outreach to Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and more targeting military programs.
In addition to local efforts, Goldsmith said out-of-state recruitment has become important. Starting in November, static and digital ads for NPD recruiting ran on transit buses, light rail cars and at bus stations in Philadelphia, Portland and Seattle. The ads cost $46,080 and ran through Jan. 8.
“We’ve really cut down on the hiring process. We’re trying to get people in (and) into the seats no less than 60 days from our first point of contact,” Goldsmith said. “We are literally recruiting all over the country to try to get people into the department — fish from different ponds — to see if we can get people to come see us and incentivize their move here.”
Last summer, the department began reassigning officers from specialty and administrative services units to increase the number of officers on street patrol. Goldsmith reiterated Tuesday that staffing woes are not just a Norfolk problem. Across Hampton Roads and nationwide, departments are spending considerable time, effort and funding toward recruiting.
City Manager Chip Filer said the city and department have had conversations bout filling some roles in the department with non-sworn officers, such as criminal analysts.
“All departments are trying to figure out how to shift some of that,” Filer said. “I think it’s fair to say in all the models we’re looking at, and the reality of the job market looks like, the city of Norfolk will probably never see 775 sworn police officers ... It doesn’t mean we don’t have 700 really smart folks. It just means we have to start thinking about how we’re going to adjust.”
Goldsmith added it is likely city leaders will need to come together and rethink responsibilities of the department. Core duties such as solving crimes, answering calls of service and being in the community are absolutely necessary, he said, but the city should recognize what is realistic for the size of the force they have.
“Over the short term and maybe even the intermediate term, you’re not going to have a department of 700 anymore,” he said. “And you really still have a department that’s built on 700 (officers) doing things that 700 can do.”
As for the department’s budget, Goldsmith said in the near future the department plans to ask for a new program in the programmatic budget catalog devoted strictly to recruiting and retention.
“The idea behind that is to allow us to better measure and better resource what we’ve got going on in those two spaces, because much of what we’re seeing — where we’re failing to meet demand — is based on staffing,” Goldsmith said. “So we’ve got to figure that piece out, and the only way we can do that and measure the data behind it and figure out what we need to do to make ourselves better as we move forward.”
Eliza Noe, eliza.noe@virginiamedia.com
