Roy Blunt: “there are really few jobs in the country as difficult, as dangerous, and as demanding as the sacrifice of being a law…”

“there are really few jobs in the country as difficult, as dangerous, and as demanding as the sacrifice of being a law enforcement officer. I would suggest the one job that may possibly be harder--and certainly in my view is as hard--is to be the family member of a law enforcement officer, wondering all during that working shift what might be happening to the person you care so much about. You know the challenges to these officers and their families--the challenges they face today are intensified as local departments struggle with the staffing shortages caused by record high departures and difficulty filling the open positions they have got. The Eastern Missouri Police Academy had around half as many recruits join in 2021 as they had in 2020. In my hometown of Springfield, MO, they have 40 vacancies right now they are trying to fill in the department. In January, the Columbia, MO, Police Department had around 20 vacancies in a force that its maximum size would be 187 or so people. According to the St. Louis Post Dispatch in September, officer departures in St. Louis City and St. Louis County spiked in 2021 and were at a pace to be up to 60 percent higher in each of those departments than they had been in the average year. In the police force here, I was with Chief Manger yesterday, and he pointed out that retirements and resignations were 50 percent higher than they have been in recent years in 2021. The new chief of police at the St.…”