Karl Fleury, the Chief of Police at the UW-River Falls Campus Police Department, notified the campus community of a staffing shortage at the department on Feb. 10. His email stated that these shortages would “impact [the UWRFPD’s] ability to staff all of the shifts needed to cover a 24-hour, 365-day operation.” He also said, “We understand that this news may be concerning, and we want to assure you that the safety and wellbeing of our students and employees remains our top priority…. I assure you that UWRF will not go without police services or protection.”
The Student Voice interviewed Fleury on April 8, two months after the announcement. Fleury said that, despite the difficulties, the UWRFPD had been able to maintain the 24/7/365 coverage that the email mentioned. Part of this is because the UWRFPD works with other departments on campus; Kleury mentioned Residence Life, the University Center, and the Division of Technology Services as examples.
The UWRFPD also works with departments off campus: the City of River Falls Police Department and the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department. So far, these departments have responded to “a few” calls on campus when UWRFPD officers haven’t been available, Fleury said.
Most of these calls have been minor; Fleury mentioned building alarms and fire alarms. “They’ve only had to generate a couple of reports for us in that time frame (the last two months).” The River Falls police department has also driven through the campus as part of their patrol route. The support is mutual; the UWRF police department has responded to calls in the city of River Falls as well. “It comes down to building those partnerships,” Fleury said. “Those relationships, that’s what’s helped us.”
One downside with this, he said, is that officers from other departments may not be as familiar with the specific issues or requirements that a campus police department often has to address.
There are a variety of reasons for the shortage of officers at the UWRFPD.
Fleury said in the email and the interview that this “crisis in staffing” is not only an issue at UWRF or Wisconsin universities. “It’s across the entire United States,” he said.
At UWRF, the main challenge has been the budget. “There were a number of years that employees went without raises,” Fleury said. “That impacted wages overall for all university employees.” That is including the officers. Because of this, some prospective officers have likely turned to other police departments in the area, and positions that paid more. “It’s very hard to compete because are wages are below the competitive market,” Fleury said. “We kept on getting further and further behind.”
Other departments have advantages over a smaller campus department as well. They have more ways to raise funds, such as tax support. In addition, “[The UWRFPD] doesn’t have the same things that a larger department would have to offer; for example, boat patrol and snowmobile patrols,” Fleury said.
On the national level, there are less candidates to recruit from, as fewer Americans are choosing careers in law enforcement. At the same time, many veteran officers–“baby boomers,” Fleury said–are reaching retirement. This has created a vacuum that will be difficult for departments to fill. “A lot of agencies are down [on officers] and trying to recruit out of a smaller candidate pool,” Fleury said.
A 2024 survey of 1,158 police departments by the International Association of Chiefs of Police found that 70% of them reported that recruitment has become more difficult since 2019. This issue is more pronounced in the Midwest, where 81% of departments reported difficulties.
The UWRFPD is working on several initiatives to address its own shortages.
First, they will expand their recruitment efforts. Currently, the department is only able to recruit candidates who have completed training at a police academy or have been working for another department. This restricted their efforts, Fleury said. Now, they’re considering a new approach. “We’ve looked into [recruiting] candidates that meet the qualifications but haven’t been to a police academy,” Fleury said. Then, the UWRFPD would be able to sponsor their training at an academy.
Fleury also mentioned that internships are in the works.
Interns would likely go on patrols with UWRFPD officers or assist UWRF’s Parking Department. They would also work with the UWRFPD on various campus projects or take on projects of their own.
“We [may] develop that into a community service officer role, where we hire students to be community service officers,” Fleury said. “That may entail locking up buildings, doing building checks, going through the buildings to make sure things are secure, those types of things.” He also said that the internship program is still in the works, and, as such, many of the details are subject to change.
The purpose of the internship, Fleury said, will be to “get to know that individual and see if they would be a good fit for our department.” The UWRFPD has also looked at creating an internship program with the police academy. This would allow students to receive college credit, and the UWRFPD would pay them wages as well. Fleury mentioned 12 credits, but this could also change.
The UWRFPD is also trying to increase its wages to be more competitive. “When you have 70 to 80 departments across Wisconsin all competing for [recruits], a lot of times it comes down to… wages,” Fleury said. He hopes that these efforts will create new recruitment opportunities for his department.
“There’s a lot to be said for university policing [and for] building connections with our campus community,” Fleury said. “Those are things that you can’t put a price tag on.” As he said in his Feb. 10 email, “I know with the support of the campus community we will get through this.”