'Policing is being challenged in ways I haven't seen, ever.'
'We are in uncharted territory right now,' PERF's Executive Director Chuck Wexler says. A June survey of nearly 200 departments by the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), a nonprofit think tank, shows a startling 45% increase in the retirement rate and a nearly 20% increase in resignations in 2020-21 compared to the previous year. In many places, police morale has plunged and retirements and resignations have soared. The crisis comes as many cities continue to grapple with the fallout from the pandemic and sharp increases in shootings and murders. The historic calls for police accountability, reform and attempts at racial reckoning have left police departments nationwide struggling to keep the officers they have and attract new ones to the force. Reform pressures have many cops leaving the job.
A demonstrator holds her hands up while she kneels in front of the Police at the Anaheim City Hall on Jin Anaheim, California.
