Staffing Ticker

Lexington's Sworn Staffing Ticker

As of January 4^th, there were 511 sworn Lexington Police Officers and 27 Police Trainees. The Trainees will not be sworn in until they complete the Lexington Police academy in approximately 30 weeks. They will then have to complete 15 weeks of Field Training, where they will ride with another officer who will observe them and grade their performance. Only after completing this portion of their training will they be fully able to respond to calls for service on their own.

Of course, it's quite possible that not all of these recruits will complete the training process. Police work is not a calling for everyone and it is common for at least a couple of Trainees to drop out of the process on their own during the first few weeks of the academy. The training is ardous and the instructors often determine that some Trainees aren't fit to serve as police officers. Just because 27 Trainees have started is no guarantee that 27 recruits will finish.

During the time that the Trainees are completing the academy (or not, for some of them) the attrition of currently sworn officers will continue. As long as the new Trainees aren't ready to answer calls, the real staffing level of the police department will continue to drop.

On this page we will be updating the current staffing of the Lexington Police department every month. We will list the current number of sworn officers, the current number of trainees, and the number of officers/ 1,000 citizens as we discussed earlier based on the current Lexington population estimate of 296,545. You can check the figures on this page or look for updates on Facebook or Twitter.

*CRITICAL MILESTONE PASSED: LEXINGTON HAS LESS THAN 500 SWORN OFFICERS AVAILABLE TO SERVE PUBLIC AS THE SUMMER MONTHS BEGIN*

Update June 16, 2012: As the Summer begins, a time in which crime rates normally rise anyway, the Lexington Division of Police has less than 500 sworn police officers available to serve the citizens of Lexington. On Wednesday, June 13, two officers who had sustained injuries in the line of duty were forced to take disability retirements as their medical conditions prevented them from being able to return to duty. Their departure brought the number of currently sworn officers to 499.

There is a recruit class currently being trained, but as we reported before, those officers will not be able to serve on their own until November. Another is planned to begin sometime after the Lexington Fayette Urban County Council approves the budget for fiscal year 2013. Those recruits won't be available for service until the Spring of 2013.

Additional retirements are assured through the rest of 2012. The consequences of the failure of elected officials to adequately plan for the future by hiring recruits in the past will become very apparent over the next few months.

*ANOTHER CRITICAL MILESTONE PASSED*

More Officers Leave Lexington PD During 2012 Than In The Last 5 Years

Update August 3, 2012: It’s only August, but already more Lexington police officers have left the department than left in each of the last five years. So far 28 sworn police officers and police trainees have left the Lexington Division of Police. In addition to retirements, this number includes officers who have resigned or had their employment terminated as well.

Since 2007 no more than 27 officers have left the department in a single year. As we are only just over halfway through the year and due to the fact that the number of planned retirements usually spikes in the fourth quarter of a calendar year, we can expect that this number will most certainly rise past 30 or perhaps even 40 officers before December 31^st.

23 of the 28 departures (82%) so far this year are due to retirements. 4 were due to resignations and 1 police trainee was terminated.

For comparison purposes, here is a chart with the attrition numbers since 2007:

Police Department Attrition (All Causes) 2007- August 2012

 As of August 2012, 56 additional sworn police officers had served at least 20 years and were eligible to retire at any time based upon their years of service. Another 5 will reach that point before December 31.