Phoenix PD sees wave of applications as it works to fill hundreds of vacancies
The Brief
The Phoenix Police Department has struggled in the last few years to fill hundreds of open officer positions.
Now, it's seeing hundreds of applications a month, starting in 2025, and it's giving the department some hope that the roles will be filled, albeit slowly.
Because of the staffing shortage, some officers have been removed from special assignments to fill roles that are more out in the field.
PHOENIX - The Phoenix Police force says it's seeing a wave of hundreds of new applications, and it comes as the department continues its struggle to fill more than 600 vacancies.
What we know
The next class of recruits is the largest the Phoenix Department has seen in years. It could be in part due to new marketing strategies, as well as a shift in how young people view men and women in law enforcement.
The Phoenix Police Department says new marketing strategies are attracting new recruits, and dozens preparing to graduate will slowly put a dent in the department's officer shortage.
What they're saying
"Historically, we've had approximately 200–250 applicants per month apply to the police department," Phoenix Police Commander William Jou said. "Just in January alone, that number reached over 500, and then in February, we reached over 400 applicants."
Reaching Gen Z and Gen A requires social media.
So, Phoenix PD recruiters took to Instagram. They're opting to text new applicants rather than call, and they're promoting the department's competitive pay.
"The shortage has been a long time in the making," Jou said. "It's not something that happened overnight."
Big picture view
Over the past 5–6 years, Phoenix, like many departments around the country, has struggled to recruit and retain officers.
The dip in hiring can be tied directly to 2020, when high-profile deadly use-of-force incidents, like George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, shifted the public perception of police.
Trevor Roberts, 23, said the wave of anti-police sentiments had no impact on his decision to become an officer.
Instead, it fueled his sense of duty, and he isn't alone.
A 2024 Gallup poll measuring Americans' confidence in law enforcement increased eight percentage points over the past year to 51%. It marked the largest year-over-year change in public perceptions.
"I have very strong ties to my Christian faith, and I've wanted to protect people and help people when I can and do that in a community that I know and love," Roberts said.
What's next
It will take a while to hire and retain 600 police officers.
As the department works to hire more people, they're covering the shortfall by removing officers from special assignments and are hiring civilians to cover non-police roles.
They're also using technology to be their eyes and ears when patrols are in short supply.
What you can do
Click here to learn more about Phoenix PD's recruitment efforts.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Newsweek
an hour ago
- Newsweek
Woman Learns What Really Happened To Rescue Dog, Been 'Haunted Ever Since'
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. The backstory of a two-year-old pit bull mix who is still waiting for a home is breaking hearts online. RescueMeATL, a nonprofit dedicated to saving shelter dogs from euthanasia, shared a video about Karamja, a dog who entered the shelter system three months ago on March 2nd, when Animal Control was called to a DeKalb County apartment complex in Georgia. While in the apartment complex, Karamja was being chased away by residents who were throwing rocks at her. While she had no severe or visible injuries, she was dangerously underweight and emotionally shut down. Her story gained momentum after RescueMeATL member Jennifer Galloway penned an Instagram plea, sharing the heartbreaking details of Karamja's past, which has amassed more than 82,000 views since being posted earlier this week. The caption read: "POV: You found out what broke her and you've been haunted ever since." She added: "Her eyes told me she was broken, before I found out what broke her." Shelter staff later confirmed Karamja had recently given birth—but no puppies were ever found. Pictures of two-year-old Karamja who is waiting for a home after a traumatic start in life. Pictures of two-year-old Karamja who is waiting for a home after a traumatic start in life. @rescueme_atl/Instagram The caption went into further detail about her heartbreaking condition, saying: "But that's not the worst part. The reason why she was wandering all around lost—she had just given birth. Her puppies nowhere to be found. Robbed from her "Her home. Robbed from her. Her body. Robbed from her. You could count every rib." RescueMeATL's Erica Perets told Newsweek: "She entered the shelter system: terrified, underweight, and abandoned. Karamja is a painful example of backyard breeding's devastating cycle. "In many cases, dogs are discarded after their litters are taken—left behind, often in poor condition, after being used for profit." In 2024, approximately 7 million animals entered U.S. shelters and rescues, according to Shelter Animals Count—an increase of nearly 3 percent from 2023. By the end of the year, 103,000 more pets had entered shelters than had exited, contributing to an ongoing capacity crisis in U.S. shelters. Around 748,000 animals experienced non-live outcomes, including euthanasia, death in care, and being lost in care, in 2024. While this represents a 1.6 percent decrease compared to 2023 and a 20 percent drop from 2019, the number remains high. Dogs made up a growing share of these outcomes, with euthanasia rates rising to 9 percent, compared to 7 percent in 2019. Currently at DeKalb County Animal Services, Karamja, who weighs just 39 pounds, is still waiting for a home, and RescueMeATL is calling for urgent foster placement or adoption to prevent her from being overlooked. "She's sweet, docile, and loving. Dog friendly," the Instagram captioned said. Newsweek reached out to DeKalb County Animal Services via email for comment. "She was recently taken in by a short-term shelter foster, someone who stepped up just to buy her more time," Perets said. But she added that Karamja still needs a more permanent place to call home: "Karamja urgently needs a long-term foster or an adopter who can give her the stability and love she's never known," she explained. Do you have funny and adorable videos or pictures of your pet you want to share? Send them to life@ with some details about your best friend, and they could appear in our Pet of the Week lineup.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Manufacturing down, food expensive and ICE is deporting moms. Happy now, MAGA?
Let's take a quick look at the MAGA agenda checklist: Lower grocery prices? No. Increased manufacturing? Nope. Increased spending on home construction? Sorry, no. Rising consumer confidence? Big no. Deporting moms and beloved community members? YES! A million times, YES! If you voted for President Donald Trump and hoped something good would happen to you, feel free to say: 'Oops.' If you voted for him out of a thirst to see immigrants who have committed no crimes suffer and live in fear, then feel free to say: 'Yes!' Because that's where we are at the start of June 2025. Trump's promises of a better life for Americans are proving to be empty. And his promise to round up 'millions' of 'criminals' and deport them hasn't materialized, because the claim that there are millions of criminal immigrants in America was a lie in the first place. Instead, the administration has resorted to grabbing immigrants at courthouses where they're appearing for hearings – in other words, following the rules – or snatching up and deporting working moms and high school kids. Opinion: Sen. Joni Ernst helps GOP find its authentic voice – 'We all are going to die.' A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official interviewed by the conservative Washington Examiner said Trump adviser Stephen Miller has been demoralizing the agency with unrealistic deportation demands: 'Stephen Miller wants everybody arrested. 'Why aren't you at Home Depot? Why aren't you at 7-Eleven?' ' So much for going after the 'bad guys.' Meanwhile, an 18-year-old high school junior was recently arrested by ICE agents as he drove with friends to volleyball practice in Milford, Massachusetts. A school administrator told the Boston Globe the teenager was well-known in the community and had attended Milford Public Schools since kindergarten: 'It's just horrendous. These are babies. They're kids. I don't care that they're 18 – he's just a kid.' In the small Pennsylvania town of Honesdale, ICE agents recently raided a pizzeria and detained three employees, rattling the community. Resident Connor Simon told WNEP-TV: 'It's really hard to fathom that the guy making my pizza for 25 years is a gangster and a terrorist, and the person who shows up in an unmarked car wearing a mask and body armor comes to take him away is somehow the good guy.' And the recent ICE arrest in Kennett, Missouri, of a mother – an immigrant from Hong Kong – has led residents to denounce what happened to the longtime resident who works at a diner. 'I voted for Donald Trump, and so did practically everyone here,' Vanessa Cowart told The New York Times. 'But no one voted to deport moms. We were all under the impression we were just getting rid of the gangs, the people who came here in droves.' These actions by the Trump administration benefit only the most sadistic among us. But it's part and parcel of the harm Trump's MAGA policies have already caused. Opinion: There's one thing stopping Trump – laws. Clearly we need to get rid of them. We were promised a booming economy and lower food prices. Here are quick examples of what we're actually getting: Total construction spending has dropped for the third straight month, down 0.4% in April, with residential construction spending 4.7% below where it was a year ago. Reuters reported June 2: 'U.S. manufacturing contracted for a third straight month in May and suppliers took the longest time in nearly three years to deliver inputs amid tariffs, potentially signaling looming shortages of some goods.' A report from the Institute for Supply Management quoted a respondent saying: 'Government spending cuts or delays, as well as tariffs, are raising hell with businesses. No one is willing to take on inventory risk.' Axios reported June 2 that China is surging ahead of America in global favorability ratings: "As of the end of May, China had an 8.8 net favorability rating, compared to -1.5 for the U.S., according to favorability data for last month provided exclusively to Axios by Morning Consult. In January 2024, the U.S. rating was above 20 and China was in negative territory.' Opinion alerts: Get columns from your favorite columnists + expert analysis on top issues, delivered straight to your device through the USA TODAY app. Don't have the app? Download it for free from your app store. The Morning Consult report referenced in the Axios story adds this less-than-encouraging line: 'Russia is the only country where views of the United States have improved substantially among the general population this year.' Way to make America great again ... to Russians. The latest WalletHub Economic Index found consumers felt 27% less confident about their finances in May than they did the same month last year. WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo wrote in the report: 'The 27% decrease in consumer sentiment over the past year is a worrying sign that our economic recovery may be stalling, and it demonstrates that people are not optimistic about their financial future.' Per that report, the likelihood of a person buying a car or a home in the next six months is down more than 30% and confidence in having a job in six months is down more than 15%. But hey, at least Americans don't have to worry about that one working mom from Missouri, the Massachusetts high school volleyball player everybody loves, or the immigrants who follow the law and show up for their asylum or immigration hearings. If performative cruelty is the only thing that matters to you, things are working out great under President Trump. For the rest of us, America is swiftly and painfully going down the tubes. Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @ and on Facebook at You can read diverse opinions from our USA TODAY columnists and other writers on the Opinion front page, on X, formerly Twitter, @usatodayopinion and in our Opinion newsletter. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump promised low food prices. He's deporting kids instead | Opinion
Vox
an hour ago
- Vox
LA protests: Why Trump is suddenly ordering immigration raids
covers politics Vox. She first joined Vox in 2019, and her work has also appeared in Politico, Washington Monthly, and the New Republic. Protesters denounce the ongoing raids and deportations by ICE during a demonstration in Columbia Heights on June 10, 2025, in Washington, mass protests in Los Angeles began as a rejection of President Donald Trump's new blitz of immigration raids. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement descended on locations throughout LA on Friday, including Home Depot and the city's garment district. During the raids, immigration authorities reportedly arrested more than 200 people, though the Trump administration has not yet released official figures. Some of them have already been deported, according to the Washington Post. But why did Trump order the raids in the first place? This is not just a matter of routine immigration enforcement, but a significant escalation of his deportation tactics. For Trump, it means getting closer to his goal number of daily deportations after falling short during his first few months in office. For undocumented immigrants, it means more fear in their communities, driving them further into the shadows and leaving them further vulnerable to labor exploitation. Any benefit to Americans is unclear, especially given how much the US economy relies on undocumented labor, including in industries such as construction and agriculture. 'This approach certainly doesn't make us any safer,' said Debu Gandhi, senior director of immigration policy at the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank. 'It is focused on large numbers of people, including lots of folks who are working and don't have a criminal record, as opposed to targeted enforcement, focusing on those who actually pose a public safety threat to the American people.' Undocumented workers will bear the immediate cost, while Trump, who has himself employed undocumented workers at his hotel and golf club properties, seeks little accountability from their employers. The approach suggests a wariness on the administration's part to upend the status quo in which American companies benefit from undocumented labor. But the administration, clearly, also has a political imperative to deliver — or at least give the appearance of delivering — on Trump's promise of mass deportations. Trump is trying to get his deportation numbers up As a candidate, Trump repeatedly promised to deport 'millions and millions' of undocumented immigrants. To do so, he would need to exceed the record deportations set by former President Barack Obama in 2013, when he averaged more than 35,000 per month. But in the first few months of Trump's second term, he was far off from that pace. In February, his first full month in office, ICE deported about 11,000 people; in March, it deported a little more than 12,300. In April, the most recent month for which data is available, deportations increased to 17,200 for the first time, surpassing the number of deportations during the same period last year under the Biden administration. Trump has reportedly expressed frustration that the number of deportations remains low in spite of his efforts to mobilize federal resources from the National Guard to the IRS to identify and arrest undocumented immigrants. And now, Trump has broadened the scope of the immigrants he's targeting for deportation. While the administration initially stated that it was prioritizing the approximately 1.4 million of them who have final orders of removal — essentially the final step in legal proceedings before deportation — it has become clear that the administration is not just targeting them alone. One reason that the number of deportations isn't higher is that Trump's immigration policies appear to have driven down new arrivals at the border. New arrivals have accounted for a significant share of deportations in recent years. Instead, Trump now seems to be turning to selective workplace raids to find and deport undocumented immigrants. He may also soon have a bigger budget to carry them out: The House spending bill, which is now under consideration in the Senate, allocates $185 billion for immigration enforcement, including $27 billion for ICE operations such as raids. That's an increase of about $150 billion over the current funding levels for immigration enforcement. Trump seems to be deliberately targeting workers over their employers Trump hasn't invoked the enforcement tool of immigration raids in an equitable manner. Worksite immigration enforcement under Trump has focused on undocumented workers in blue states like California rather than their employers. 'We haven't seen employers who hire undocumented workers being arrested and charged in red states the same way that we're seeing workers being targeted in blue states across the country in these actions,' Gandhi said. The Logoff The email you need to stay informed about Trump — without letting the news take over your life, from senior editor Patrick Reis. Email (required) Sign Up By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. A more effective means of discouraging the hiring of undocumented workers might be pushing for mandatory employment eligibility verification for all new hires. Noncitizens need authorization to work in the United States, whether that be through a visa, green card, or humanitarian protections. Currently, however, only the federal government and its contractors are required to confirm an employee's work authorization via a program called E-Verify. While there have been proposals in Congress to make E-Verify required for all US employers over the years, they never went anywhere — in part because a robust business lobby opposed it. Instead of pushing for such legislation that would place responsibility on employers, Trump is making undocumented workers pay the price. Though it seems unlikely that he could deport all 8.3 million of them, selective workplace raids may have enough of a chilling effect to deter them from seeking critical social services or labor protections, leaving them more vulnerable than ever. 'Protecting workers and making sure that abuses of workers are addressed is certainly not a priority of this administration,' Gandhi said. Undocumented workers power key sectors of the US economy — and without them, those sectors would face labor shortages. For instance, American farms are already facing a critical labor shortage, and according to the Center for Migration Studies, 45 percent of all US agricultural workers are undocumented. Deporting them would also mean that they would no longer contribute to the economy as consumers supporting the jobs of American workers. That means Americans could also see job losses, and according to an analysis by Robert Shapiro, a senior fellow at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business, national wage and salary income could decrease by $317.2 billion. 'It's going to shrink the economy,' Gandhi said. 'Deporting millions of workers and families could hurt the supply of food. It could hurt the supply of housing Americans need. It could drive up inflation.'
