Pueblo PD seeks to fill community service officer vacancies amidst staffing shortages
The Pueblo Police Department is looking to fill vacancies in its community service officer program, which allows its uniformed personnel to focus on high-priority calls.
The department this week closed an application period, eager to fill two vacant positions in the program. The Chieftain could not confirm how many people applied for the roles before Friday's print deadline.
The CSO additions first came in 2022 as a way to give sworn officers a chance to focus on more serious calls that require a quicker response. There are currently two officers employed as part of the program, though the department would like to bring the total back to four.
The effort to fill the vacancies comes amid other staffing woes for the department. As of last week, Pueblo PD had approximately 60 vacancies.
Incentives to help retain and recruit police officers have generated some interest among current personnel and potential recruits, though some city leaders say they are still searching for answers on how to lower that number.
Pueblo Police Chief Chris Noeller and department spokesperson Frank Ortega said community service officers have helped alleviate some of that departmental strain. Though CSO personnel are not sworn-in and can’t arrest people, they help collect evidence, follow up on cases that don’t have a suspect, and address traffic hazards, among other duties.
CSOs receive around five weeks of training in a police academy setting, learning department procedures and self-defense tactics, before they spend about a month with sworn patrolmen on the streets.
There are no current plans to expand the program beyond four officers.
“We’ve had positive responses from them handling calls for us,” said Frank Ortega, spokesperson for Pueblo PD. “They’re helping us out tremendously.”
CSO team, other areas of Pueblo PD fielding thousands of calls
Since being appointed as Pueblo’s police chief, Noeller said Pueblo PD has diverted approximately 76,000 calls to its clerks, Directed Enforcement and Community Engagement (DICE) and Solutions Outreach Services teams, and the CSOs, among other units.
The department last year received 143,613 calls for service, which have “increased steadily,” Noeller said. Though "Part 1" crimes, the most serious offenses, were at one point down last year compared to 2022, other illegal acts such as auto theft, burglary, theft and larceny have remained “fairly consistent,” he said.
Noeller also mentioned that patrol calls for service have decreased in recent years because of the DICE and CSO initiatives the department started. Though there’s a slight push within the department to encourage people to report crimes online, he believes police officers should be more “proactive” to prevent them.
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“That’s what we get paid to do — find crime before it happens,” Noeller said.
He also said it’s his hope to see more self-initiated activity among his patrol officers. The COVID-19 pandemic affected that undertaking after instances of self-initiated activity had seen steady increases in the years prior, but it went back up in 2023.
“It’s my intention that the increase continues into 2024,” Noeller said.
Changes needed to help address staffing woes, city leaders say
Though the CSOs have helped sworn officers attend to more serious crimes, the department is still operating well below its capacity, leading to increased workloads for some officers and concern about petty crimes and homicides among Puebloans.
But hiring new officers hasn’t been so straightforward either, according to Noeller.
Some new recruits last year left the department before finishing their 16-week police training officer program, which involves riding with an experienced officer who shows them how to perform the job. Of 13 people who were hired, just three completed it, Noeller said.
In 2019, there were 36 hires, 26 of whom finished the program.
At times, a few new recruits don't meet the department’s standards on how to execute the job, but it’s much more common that people just don’t want to work in the field, Noeller said.
The issue is just one of many that help explain the department’s staffing woes, which are not exclusive to Pueblo. One solution that Heather Graham, Pueblo’s new mayor, suggested is to create an ordinance that would improve Pueblo’s ability to hire trained officers from other cities.
The city last year approved one-time bonuses, the introduction of a quartermaster system and changes to the department’s patrol officer salary schedule to help with recruitment and retention. It could adjust its civil service process this year as another way to address the staffing shortage.
“What ought to be happening is us getting even more people to apply, but that’s not what we’re seeing,” Noeller said. “There are some areas where I think we can make some changes that would help us bring people along a little bit easier.”
Chieftain reporter Josué Perez can be reached at JHPerez@gannett.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @josuepwrites. Support local news, subscribe to The Pueblo Chieftain at subscribe.chieftain.com.
This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Pueblo PD recruiting community service officers to help sworn personnel
