In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, former senior U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) official John Fabbricatore shared his view on why police departments across the country are in a workforce crisis and why the lack of support from government officials is contributing to officers leaving "in droves."
Fabbricatore, who served 30 years in law enforcement, said that police departments are facing a lack recruitment and retention in recent years. He added, "What I'm seeing right now is the impact of law hiring. It is very, very difficult to get new officers on board. We have had a lot of law enforcement officers leaving, which increases the workload for the existing officers, which puts a strain on the community."
The former ICE official said that the lack of retention has contributed to morale problems and mental health challenges that many in the community deal with. Fabbricatore said, "When officers are working extended hours, they are forced to go to do overtime, forced to work on, on their days off and that just leads to more problems. So, it really leads to a big retention problem in the law enforcement community."
He also discussed the negative impact of movements like "Abolish ICE" and "defund the police" have, adding, "Being with ICE, we saw officers leaving in droves. They were leaving because of how ICE [officers] were treated in the whole Abolish ICE movement."
Fabbricatore said, "And there are a lot of left-leaning DA's who are just dropping charges and dropping cases. And officers are working their butts off to move these cases forward, only to have them dropped. Who really wants to now work in law enforcement these days?" The veteran law enforcement officer said that social media also plays a large role.
He said, "The media looks at a situation and they're looking at it in a certain way and reporting it in a certain way, but they're not looking at it with the training that the officer has received. I think the media needs to become a little bit better at looking at the overall situation. In most situations, the officer is trying to make the best of the situation. They're going into this situation with very little information originally, and they're trying to make the best that they can out of this situation where the media comes in days or hours later and they look at it way differently because they have more information than the officer had when that officer arrived at the scene."
Fabbricatore reiterated the need to support law enforcement and the need to enforce the laws of this country. He said, "We have to get back to being an honorable law enforcement-minded country. The way to do that is to enforce laws as they are written and not have DA's come in and dropping charges and letting criminals back onto the streets."
He added, "It's hard enough to be a law enforcement officer, but when you go into a situation when you're not sure that your command is going to back you up or that the media is going to back you up, it becomes very difficult." Results from a survey earlier in the year showed that police hiring ticked upward in 2023 for the first time in five years.
According to the 214 law enforcement agencies that responded to a survey by the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), more sworn officers were hired in 2023 than in any one of the previous four years and fewer officers overall resigned or retired. However, those gains came mainly in small and medium-sized departments. Big cities were still below staffing levels they maintained prior to the 2020 "defund the police" riots.
Fabbricatore, who served 30 years in law enforcement, said that police departments are facing a lack recruitment and retention in recent years. He added, "What I'm seeing right now is the impact of law hiring. It is very, very difficult to get new officers on board. We have had a lot of law enforcement officers leaving, which increases the workload for the existing officers, which puts a strain on the community."
The former ICE official said that the lack of retention has contributed to morale problems and mental health challenges that many in the community deal with. Fabbricatore said, "When officers are working extended hours, they are forced to go to do overtime, forced to work on, on their days off and that just leads to more problems. So, it really leads to a big retention problem in the law enforcement community."
He also discussed the negative impact of movements like "Abolish ICE" and "defund the police" have, adding, "Being with ICE, we saw officers leaving in droves. They were leaving because of how ICE [officers] were treated in the whole Abolish ICE movement."
Fabbricatore said, "And there are a lot of left-leaning DA's who are just dropping charges and dropping cases. And officers are working their butts off to move these cases forward, only to have them dropped. Who really wants to now work in law enforcement these days?" The veteran law enforcement officer said that social media also plays a large role.
He said, "The media looks at a situation and they're looking at it in a certain way and reporting it in a certain way, but they're not looking at it with the training that the officer has received. I think the media needs to become a little bit better at looking at the overall situation. In most situations, the officer is trying to make the best of the situation. They're going into this situation with very little information originally, and they're trying to make the best that they can out of this situation where the media comes in days or hours later and they look at it way differently because they have more information than the officer had when that officer arrived at the scene."
Fabbricatore reiterated the need to support law enforcement and the need to enforce the laws of this country. He said, "We have to get back to being an honorable law enforcement-minded country. The way to do that is to enforce laws as they are written and not have DA's come in and dropping charges and letting criminals back onto the streets."
He added, "It's hard enough to be a law enforcement officer, but when you go into a situation when you're not sure that your command is going to back you up or that the media is going to back you up, it becomes very difficult." Results from a survey earlier in the year showed that police hiring ticked upward in 2023 for the first time in five years.
According to the 214 law enforcement agencies that responded to a survey by the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), more sworn officers were hired in 2023 than in any one of the previous four years and fewer officers overall resigned or retired. However, those gains came mainly in small and medium-sized departments. Big cities were still below staffing levels they maintained prior to the 2020 "defund the police" riots.
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