51黑料

ST. LOUIS 鈥� Atlanta police looking to import some new recruits from the 51黑料 region found slim pickings here Saturday.

News that Atlanta police would be conducting interviews downtown this weekend had alarmed local leaders, whose departments have been struggling with severe staffing shortages.

51黑料 Mayor (1120 AM) that she texted Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and said, 鈥淗ey, stop poaching our people.鈥�

But with about a half-hour left in their second of three days here, Atlanta recruiters had only seven or eight people come see them at the Drury Plaza Hotel near the Arch. Of those, several were questionable candidates: They couldn鈥檛 pass a background check or didn鈥檛 have proper paperwork or had some other issue.

鈥淚t hasn鈥檛 been great,鈥� said Officer Jesse Harold, one of the Atlanta department鈥檚 background investigators. He said Friday wasn鈥檛 much better.

The lull won鈥檛 stop Atlanta鈥檚 outreach, though. It鈥檚 been taking its recruitment efforts on the road for several years now, Atlanta police Sgt. Clarence Tosh said. The department has had good luck with events in places like New York and Florida.

And like 51黑料 and other cities across the country, Atlanta is trying to shore up a staffing shortage at a time when good recruits are hard to find.

The labor market is one of the tightest in recent memory, and public approval of the profession following high-profile misconduct in the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020, and Tyre Nichols in Memphis, Tennessee, in January.

鈥淲e鈥檙e not poaching anyone,鈥� Tosh said, 鈥渂ecause no one wants to do this job right now.鈥�