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During the pandemic, nearly 75% of law-enforcement agencies altered recruitment and hiring practices, including canceling or adjusting polygraphs and physical-fitness assessments, according to a separate PERF survey of more than 140 agencies. In some cases, the changes succeeded in drawing applications. The Naperville police department in Illinois, which eliminated its $45 application fee in order to appeal to low-income recruits, saw applications double at the peak of protests over Floyd's death. More than 850 hopefuls applied to join the force throughout the summer, according to Naperville police chief Robert Marshall. Of the 455 applicants who moved on to take a written exam, 34 were Black men and women, more than double the number in the previous round of recruits in 2018.
PERF对140多家机构进行的另一项调查显示，在大流行期间，近75%的执法机构改变了招聘和雇佣方式，其中包括取消或调整测谎仪和身体健康评估。在某些情况下，这些改变成功地吸引了申请者。伊利诺斯州内珀维尔警察局取消了45美元的申请费以吸引低收入的新警员。在针对弗洛伊德之死的抗议活动达到高潮时申请人数比之前多了两倍。内珀维尔警察局局长罗伯特·马歇尔表示，整个夏季有850多名申请者申请加入警队。在参加笔试的455名申请者中，有34名是黑人男女，该数字是2018年上一轮招聘人数的两倍多。
Jason Arres, the department's deputy chief, believes the applicants felt a "call to action," similar to what prompted him to leave his corporate career to become a police officer six days after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. "It's still a very noble profession," Arres says.
司法部副局长贾森·阿雷斯认为，申请者感受到的是一种“行动的召唤”，这和促使他在2001年9月11日恐怖袭击事件发生6天后离开公司去当警察的原因类似。“这仍是一个非常高尚的职业，”阿雷斯说。
But unlike Naperville's, the overwhelming majority of agencies are struggling as more cops, hired during departmental expansions in the 1980s and '90s, reach retirement age. Traditional sources of new recruits, including the military and family members of current officers, are no longer filling the gap. And today's applicants, police chiefs say, are less inclined to work holidays, weekends and nights, or commit to a job that's getting harder and more dangerous.
但与内珀维尔不同的是，随着上世纪八九十年代部门扩张期间越来越多的雇佣警察达到退休年龄，绝大多数机构都在苦苦挣扎。传统的新兵来源，包括现役军官的军队和家庭成员，已不再填补空缺。警察局长说，如今的申请者不太愿意在节假日、周末和晚上工作，也不太愿意从事越来越困难、越来越危险的工作。
"They want to live normally," says Benjamin Bliven, the police chief in Wausau, Wis. "We're human beings."
“他们想过正常的生活，”威斯康辛州沃索的警察局长本杰明·布利文说。“我们是人类。”
Police work is hard. Officers spend a great deal of their day dealing with social problems, including homelessness, mental illness and substance abuse. In tense encounters, their every move is recorded by body cameras or bystanders' phones. In 2020, more than 260 law-enforcement officers died in the line of duty, a 96% increase over 2019 and the most since 1974, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. More than half those deaths were caused by COVID-19. In 2019, the FBI says, 89 officers were killed on duty, including 48 who were gunned down or run over while making arrests, responding to disturbance calls or conducting investigations and traffic stops.
警察的工作很辛苦。警察每天都要花大量的时间处理包括无家可归、精神疾病和滥用药物等社会问题。在激烈的冲突中，他们的一举一动都会被随身摄像机或旁观者的手机记录下来。根据国家执法人员纪念基金的数据，2020年有260多名执法人员因公殉职，比2019年增加了96%，为1974年以来最多，其中有一半以上的死亡是由新冠造成的。联邦调查局表示，2019年有89名警官在执勤时被杀，其中有48人在逮捕、响应骚扰电话或进行调查和交通拦截时被枪杀或辗压。
译文由可可原创，仅供学习交流使用，未经许可请勿转载。
