WASHINGTON, D.C.—In an interview at the White House during Police Week, Law Enforcement Today owner Kyle Reyes spoke with Ken Walker, President of the International Association of Chiefs of Police. During the brief interview, Walker described strides that the law enforcement community has made in increasing officers’ salaries and benefits but stressed that recruitment and retention are still huge issues.
Walker told Reyes, “People have mentioned it, but recruitment and retention is a huge issue for our profession. We're doing a better job getting the salary and benefits up to where they should have been a long time ago. But we are looking for unusual individuals that believe in what we're doing and our mission, the people that have the servant heart. I think if we could figure out a way to truly let applicants know what it's like to play on I think we would not have a recruiting problem.”
Describing the top concerns of the IACP Walker revealed that they largely center around prosecution and sentencing telling Reyes,
Turning to the potential reception of the elimination of taxes on overtime, a campaign promise from President Donald Trump which figures prominently in the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” under consideration in the House of Representatives, Walker suggested that such an act would serve a dual purpose. The bill, he said, would not have merely an economic impact on officers but a symbolic one as well.
“I think that would be received, not only as an economic incentive, but it's a symbolic gesture that shows that people really do care about us. And I don't believe the majority of the citizens of this great nation dislike them. I've seen it time and again, they respect us, they like us. But the people that get on TV to complain about something that probably never happened. It seemed to get all real attention.”
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Walker told Reyes, “People have mentioned it, but recruitment and retention is a huge issue for our profession. We're doing a better job getting the salary and benefits up to where they should have been a long time ago. But we are looking for unusual individuals that believe in what we're doing and our mission, the people that have the servant heart. I think if we could figure out a way to truly let applicants know what it's like to play on I think we would not have a recruiting problem.”
Describing the top concerns of the IACP Walker revealed that they largely center around prosecution and sentencing telling Reyes,
“I think we're doing a much better job than we've ever done in catching people. The problem is that we're not keeping the people that we catch. We have people that get out of jail quickly. We have people that don't serve their sentences and so it makes the officers almost lose hope that they continue to do their duty. So, when officers begin to lose that hope and then they see that financially, they're struggling to feed their families that obviously creates mental concerns.”
Turning to the potential reception of the elimination of taxes on overtime, a campaign promise from President Donald Trump which figures prominently in the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” under consideration in the House of Representatives, Walker suggested that such an act would serve a dual purpose. The bill, he said, would not have merely an economic impact on officers but a symbolic one as well.
“I think that would be received, not only as an economic incentive, but it's a symbolic gesture that shows that people really do care about us. And I don't believe the majority of the citizens of this great nation dislike them. I've seen it time and again, they respect us, they like us. But the people that get on TV to complain about something that probably never happened. It seemed to get all real attention.”
WATCH:
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