The shrinking pool of police officer candidates available to a city such as Greensburg compelled leaders to tweak the hiring timeline.
“There used to be 120 or 140 people that applied to take the (civil service) test,” said Ken Bacha, a member of the city’s civil service commission. “They filled up the cafeteria of the high school. Now, you get a handful of applicants.”
It’s a trend that has become a concern in the law enforcement community in Pennsylvania and throughout the nation.
According to Gov. Josh Shapiro’s office, Pennsylvania has the second most state and local law enforcement agencies in the nation — nearly 1,000, but it’s facing a shortage of more than 1,200 municipal police officers. The Pennsylvania State Police currently is attracting 1,000 applicants per class, down from nearly 10,000 per class 30 years ago.