MORGANTOWN – It’s a struggle of attrition.
If 20 people sign up for police civil service testing, 10 might show up.
Of that 10, five might pass the written and physical tests.
Of that five, two might make it through the subsequent background checks, polygraph test and psychological evaluation and be offered employment with the Morgantown Police Department.
Then it’s off to the West Virginia State Police Academy for 20 weeks. After that, 12 weeks of field training.
The end result is a police department that is treading water in terms of progress on a significant, sustained staffing shortfall.
As of mid-March, the MPD had 55 officers, including two probationary officers sworn in during the March 19 Morgantown City Council meeting. MPD has two more potential officers currently in the academy and another pair slated to go later this year.
The department is also aware of at least two current officers who will be leaving by year’s end.
Currently, more than a quarter of the department’s officer positions – 21 of 76 – are unfilled.
And that’s about where the numbers have been stuck in recent years.
The department has moved to 12-hour shifts in an attempt to lessen the impact of the openings, which remain despite a list of initiatives from the city, including a condensed civil service process, signing bonuses for certified officers, the purchase of the former Defense in Depth shooting range as a training center and enrollment in the national 30×30 initiative to increase female participation in law enforcement.
In a continued effort to get the department’s numbers up, MPD Chief Eric Powell has said he’s interested in exploring a potential change in testing materials used by the city due to the high fail rate.
“We’re just trying to evaluate the system in all its pieces. It’s supposed to be a general aptitude [test] and I don’t know that I’m 100% sold that we’re getting the results that we really want out of this test that we’re giving right now,” he said during a March meeting with the Morgantown Police Review and Advisory Board.
Powell said he’s reached out to Wheeling Police Chief Shawn Schwertfeger about the testing process in place there.
“I know they are very happy with what they’ve got, and their passing percentage is much higher than ours, so they have a bigger pool at the beginning of the process to work through,” Powell said, later adding, “I’ll review everything as it applies to getting more people to pass the test. I want people to pass, obviously. It’s unfortunate if we lose a viable candidate because of a testing process that wasn’t better formatted to suit the department’s and the city’s needs.”
The department is also looking into the Ride with a Recruiter program implemented by the Portland Bureau of Police, in Oregon.
That initiative utilizes a bolstered ride-along program to give potential officers a day-in-the-life look at the job and get input and advice from those in the position.
While the numbers may be a bit more alarming here, the MPD is not alone in this position.
A 2024 survey conducted by the International Association of Chiefs of Police indicated that more than 70% of 1,158 responding agencies said recruitment is more difficult now than as recently as five years ago.
The overwhelming majority of survey responses were from municipalities across the country, which indicated an average staffing deficit of about 10%.
About 75% of responding agencies said they’ve implemented policy and procedural changes to simplify the hiring process and relax restrictions on issues like tattoos and facial hair.
The MPD had 68 of 71 officer positions filled in 2016 according to The Dominion Post archive.
