In the old days, many Americans dreamt of becoming law enforcers, especially joining the police.
However, it looks like this is no longer the case because the U.S. is facing serious police shortages in many towns and cities.
US Faces Police Shortages-Here's Why
According to Forbes, over 520 cities and towns in the U.S. disbanded their police departments between 1972 and 2017.
Meanwhile, at least 12 small towns dissolved their police forces in the past two years. The police shortages are caused by the exodus from law enforcement.
Washington-based think tank Police Executive Research Forum revealed that police officer resignations were up by 47% in 2022.
Comparing it to 2019, with police resignations being up by 19%, 2022's police officer attrition rate is definitely higher.
The American think tank, which surveyed almost 200 police departments, said that officer shortages worsened after the peak of the global COVID-19 pandemic and George Floyd's death; A Black American who died because of police brutality.
Aside from resigning police veterans, another reason why the U.S. experiences law enforcement shortages is the unwillingness of younger Americans to join the police.
Chuck Wexler, the Police Executive Forum's executive director, said that younger U.S. residents are no longer interested in going through months of training to become a police officer.
"Fewer people are applying to be police officers, and more officers are retiring or resigning at a tremendous rate," explained Wexler.
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Small Towns Disband Police Departments
The Associated Press provided some of the small towns in the U.S. that disbanded their police forces.
One of these is the Morris town in Minnesota, which dissolved its police department in 2022. Officials explained that they did this because their officers already resigned.
In Illinois, two Washburn officials also disbanded their police forces. After doing this in 2021, they allowed the county to take over law enforcement duties.
Surprisingly, a study conducted by Rice University revealed that crime rates in these small towns were unchanged despite the absence of police departments.
If you want to learn more about the existing police officer shortages in the U.S., you can click this link.
