Bills aimed at helping gain and retain law enforcement in Nebraska

"We are in a crisis."

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – Many officers testifying on Thursday said we are in a crisis, as departments across the state are short-staffed.  Lincoln Police Chief Teresa Ewins said they had over 400 applicants in 2021 and even though that sounds like a lot, they were only able to hire around 30 new officers.  She agrees that they could use the help.

“I mean it is a competitive field right now. We are all trying to get the same recruits. So anything will help us at this point,” Said Lincoln Police Cheif Teresa Ewins.

All five bills have a goal of bringing law enforcement officers to Nebraska, and keeping them here.

“There has been a drop off of police force, quite a bit, with a lot of troubles with police being sued and I think we need to incentivize the hiring of the new police force. So we will give them incentives,” said Senator Robert Clements.

“Law enforcement is having a terrible time recruiting officers. There are officers in other states in other cities are defunding their police and we need to find a way to try and recruit some of them and bring them to Nebraska,” said Jim Maguire President of the Nebraska State Fraternal Order of Police.

Senator Terrel McKinney suggested there should be members of the community on the recruiting committee.

The incentive program would only go to agencies struggling to keep officers and a suggestion was made to keep this only in the rural communities. It would give officers on the force for one year a $1000 incentive and officers on the force for five years a $2000 incentive.  Many wonder if that is enough to keep officers here.

“We would carve out $1 million to recruit law enforcement from other states to come to Nebraska. We have a need and a deficiency in law enforcement all across the state and this is just a marketing tool,” said Senator Brett Lindstrom.

This bill would create the law enforcement marketing act.

“There would be a team put together that would craft a plan to target certain locations that there may be some opportunity without throwing other states under the bus, but you can probably make an assumption there on where we may be able to recruit from, and just letting those folks know that hey Nebraska, we want you here,” said Senator Lindstrom.

While tackling the shortage of officers, Senators hope at the same time this could help to bring more young adults to the state.

“There is definitely a need there with that demographic of that working group of 18 to 35 which tends to be a lot of the law enforcement age,” said Senator Lindstrom.

These bills are complimentary of each other as there is no point to recruit them if we can’t retain them.  As well as if we do recruit them from out of state, working on making the training process easier and quicker for them.