Bend Police Dept. having harder time filling positions

Police departments across the nation are seeing challenges filling positions within their departments, and it’s the same here in Bend.

Bend police have four unfilled positions and eight people currently training to become police officers.

“Nationally, absolutely there is a police shortage,” police Lt. Clint Burleigh said Tuesday. “I think anybody in the state of Oregon, specifically, you can go to any department in the state of Oregon right now and ask, ‘Are you down positions?’ I don’t know anybody who is fully staffed.”

Officers have taken overtime patrol shifts to help out the department in keeping the city safe.

Burleigh said the department has assigned the school resource officers to patrol downtown during the summer.

“We do have a lot of overtime for special assignments, and then you have your cases that come up. You have overtime to help fill,” Burleigh said. “If you have a tactical situation, where you have to pull our SWAT team, we’ll have overtime shifts. So there is a lot of overtime involved when you’re not fully staffed.”.

Burleigh told NewsChannel 21 there are several reasons why the department is not fully staffed.

The housing market and the cost of living in Bend get some of the blame.

“If you look at the housing market in Central Oregon in general, but in Bend particularly, you start looking at the high cost of living. We’re probably right there with Portland with the cost of living,” Burleigh said.

Central Oregon Association of Realtors President Dave Feagans said it’s a very competitive housing market right now in Bend.

“There is just not enough of supply of new homes or resale homes in market for folks,” he said.

The current median home price in Bend right now is $395,000.

Also, Burleigh said, with the recent officer shootings in Dallas, some people can get discouraged about joining law enforcement.

“You’re having officers here who are protecting rights and they’re being targeted because of their profession,” he said.

Three new officers are currently on street training and should be patrolling the streets within three to four months.