MONUMENT — The Monument Police Chief says his department is fully staffed right now. It comes at a time when other local agencies are seeing a staffing shortage and many departments nationwide are facing scrutiny.
Chief Patrick Regan stepped into his role at the Monument Police Department about four months ago. The department is authorized and budgeted to have 27 people on staff. The chief was the 23rd person on staff at the time he was hired. Since May, the department has been able to hire four others to join the department, making it fully staffed.
Chief Regan said he set goals early on after being sworn in as the town’s police chief. His top proprieties were recruiting new officers and retaining the officers already working for the department.
“I have always said that recruiting starts with retention. It doesn't matter how many cops I can hire in a given year if everybody's leaving. So the first thing we really focused on was creating opportunities,” said Chief Regan.
Part of the plan is to allow for more staff and officers to work a schedule that is four days a week and ten-hour days. Chief Regan said he’s also promoting people from within the department, and the department added new positions like a detective and community resource officer.
“I think people see those opportunities, and I think they want to be part of that,” said Chief Regan. “We can provide opportunities to the cops that make them want to stay here.”
He’s also focusing on better mentoring opportunities, communication and training, plus, an open-door policy and encouraging other officers to take time off with the newly-changed schedules.
Chief Regan has worked in law enforcement for 23 years, with his recent role as a police commander in Scottsdale, Arizona. He said he’s also seen many changes over time serving in law enforcement.
“I’ve seen the ebbs and flows. After September 11 2001, we had a ton of people that wanted to be cops,” said Regan. “But during COVID and the civil unrest periods, there were a lot of people that didn't want to be cops, and the sentiment against cops was negative.”
Chief Regan believes the dynamic is shifting once again, especially in Monument.
“The fact that we're fully staffed means that there's people that want to be cops again, and we're getting good quality candidates like we hadn't seen before,” said Chief Regan.
A spokesperson with the Colorado Springs Police Department said they have 741 officers currently staffed. CSPD is authorized to have 818 total officers and they are looking to hire for all of those vacancies.
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