Amid a shortage of officers, Philadelphia police enrolled its largest group of recruits in years

The Philadelphia Police Department on Monday enrolled its largest class of new officers in more than five years, a notable development for a force that has been operating with a severe officer shortage.

The group of 93 new enrollees in the Police Academy consists of both recruits and officers who transferred to the department from elsewhere. It’s the largest group of cadets since March 2018, and it dwarfs past recruiting classes, like the June 2022 group of 38 recruits, or the class of just 21 in January 2020.

In a statement, the department cast the recruiting class as “a positive turning point.”

“This is a significant moment for our department, and we are hopeful that this class will pave the way for a brighter future,” said John M. Stanford, the department’s first deputy commissioner. He will take over as head of the department later this week when Commissioner Danielle Outlaw departs for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

The Philadelphia Police Department has since 2020 been operating with a significant shortage of officers. Recruiting classes, of which there are typically four or five a year, declined in size through 2019. Then in 2020, pandemic-related restrictions on gathering, coupled with the racial justice movement that challenged law enforcement’s role in society, led to a nationwide shortage of officers.

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The police department didn’t enroll any new recruiting classes between early 2020 and mid-2021. At the same time, the force — like many other industries and city agencies — saw an unprecedented wave of retirements and resignations. Outlaw said staffing was at “critical” levels in 2021 and 2022 as the city was facing the worst gun violence crisis in generations.

The city has tried to stem the problem. The administration last year lifted a rule for police recruits that requires most municipal workers to live in the city for a year before applying for a job. City Council this year agreed to allocate $3 million in new funding for recruiting campaigns, and the department has implemented new digital marketing strategies.

Still, even a year’s worth of strong recruiting — let alone one class — is not likely to make up for the police shortage any time soon. The recruits who enrolled this week won’t hit the streets until next year because the academy takes about nine months to complete.

And the department shortage is large. It has roughly 6,500 employees despite budgeting for 7,400, and more than 800 police officers are enrolled in the Deferred Retirement Option Plan (DROP), meaning they intend to retire within the next four years.