Already struggling with a shortage of job applicants, police departments will find it even harder to get top-quality recruits after the crisis triggered by four disgraced ex-officers in Minneapolis, several Connecticut police chiefs predict.
And amid the most searing examination of American law enforcement in decades, patrol sergeants and other front-line supervisors will be more essential than ever for preventing misconduct or worse, according to those chiefs.
“There’s a reason they’re called front-line supervisors: They have the most interaction with our employees; they’re the first line of enforcement of our department’s culture,” Hartford Chief Jason Thody said last week.