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But nearly a year into the uprising against police brutality and systemic racism, when a traffic stop can still so quickly turn deadly for Black Americans, like Daunte Wright, it's harder than ever for police departments to recruit and retain officers, particularly those of color. Nationwide, fewer people are applying for the job, and more experienced cops are retiring or quitting in droves, threatening public safety as major cities witness crime spikes.
但是，反對警察暴行和系統性種族主義的抗議活動已經進行了將近一年，但對美國黑人來說，一次路檢仍可迅速致其死亡，比如唐特·賴特，警察局招募和留住警員比以往任何時候都要困難，尤其是有色人種。全國范圍內申請這一職位的人越來越少，越來越多有經驗的警察紛紛退休或辭職，隨著大城市犯罪率的飆升，公共安全也受到了威脅。
"People are just resigning because they've had enough," says West Lafayette police chief Troy Harris in Indiana. "There's a cloud over law enforcement."
“他們辭職是因為已經受夠了，”印第安納州西拉法葉警察局長特洛伊·哈里斯說。“執法上空籠罩著一片烏云。”
Harris' department, which serves some 86,000 people, saw a 75% drop in applications from July to December 2020 and had six officers retire or walk off the 50-member force last year. Of the 37 applicants that year, only one was Black, according to the chief. "If we can't keep up, it'll be a burden and a significant problem," says Harris, who worries he'll have to reassign community-outreach officers to fill patrol shifts.
哈里斯警局共有約86000名員工，2020年7月到12月期間申請人數下降了75%，去年有6名警官退休或離職。局長表示，那一年的37名申請者中只有一個是黑人。“如果我們跟不上，這會是個負擔，會是個大問題，”哈里斯說，他擔心自己將不得不重新分配社區外展官員填補巡邏輪班。
In Aurora, Colo., where 23-year-old Elijah McClain died after police held the unarmed Black man in a choke hold, at least 87 people resigned, retired or were fired from the police department in 2020, compared with 54 the year before, according to the agency. Twenty more employees left the force in the first 40 days of 2021 alone—nearing the number for all of 2015—just as the city is experiencing a significant increase in major violent crimes, including assaults and robberies.
在科羅拉多州奧羅拉，23歲的黑人伊利亞·麥克萊恩因手無寸鐵被警察掐住而死亡。根據該機構的數據，相比于2019的54人，2020年有至少87人從警察局辭職、退休或被解雇。僅在2021年的頭40天就有20多名員工離職(接近2015年全年的離職人數）。與此同時，該市的襲擊和搶劫等重大暴力犯罪事件有顯著增加。
"There's no pretty picture down the road," says Los Angeles County sheriff Alex Villanueva. The sheriff says that homicides and assaults are "going through the roof" but that his agency is "probably the most understaffed" in the nation, with less than one deputy for every 1,000 residents. "It's pretty grim," Villanueva says.
“未來不會有什么美好的景象，”洛杉磯縣治安官亞歷克斯·維蘭紐瓦表示。他說，兇殺和襲擊案件正在“飆升”，但他的機構“可能是全國人手最不足的”，每1000名居民中只有不到一名副手。“情況相當嚴峻，”維蘭紐瓦說。
From 2013 to 2016, the number of full-time sworn officers in the U.S. dropped from roughly 725,000 to 701,000, according to the BJS. About 63% of police leaders surveyed by the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) in 2019 reported a decrease in the number of people applying for police-officer positions over the past five years. In that time frame, 41% said their officer shortage has worsened. Job applications have plummeted about 50% in Seattle and 70% in Jefferson County, Colorado, the PERF survey found.
根據BJS的數據，從2013年到2016年，美國全職宣誓就職的警官人數從大約72.5萬人下降到70.1萬人。根據警察執行研究論壇(PERF)2019年的調查，約63%的警察領導報告稱過去5年申請警察職位的人數有所減少。這段時間內有41%的人說他們的警官短缺情況更嚴重了。PERF的調查發現，西雅圖和科羅拉多州杰斐遜縣的求職申請數量分別下降了50%和70%。
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