Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
How long did you have to stand in line? Actually,
I had a great customer service experience last time I
got my driver's license renewed, so I'm not complaining. Seven
twenty two is their time here in Houston's Morning News.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Now.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
I think probably recruiting people to work at the driver's
license office is maybe a little bit easier than trying
to recruit more law enforcement. We've had a shortage there
for quite some time. Joining us to talk about Greg Freeman,
retired HPD Captain, Welcome to the show, sir. Let's talk
about the difficulty of in just attracting people to law
enforcement these days. This has been going on ever since
(00:34):
the George Floyd incident and maybe a little bit before that.
It's it's become very, very difficult. But if you've got
fifteen hundred plus positions that are open with the Texas
Department of Public Safety, that tells us it's not just
a Houston issue. It's a state wide issue.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Yeah, Jimmy, good morning, Thank you for having me. It's
a national issue. And we've seen this trending ever since
the post George Floyd rise of twenty twenty. Enforcement across
the board, we saw math exodus of senior veteran officers
that were leaving the department, and it was hard recruiting,
and it was for a couple of years, but the
(01:10):
pendulumin is starting to swing back the other way. You
have a lot of variables that are out there. The
military is trying to recruit, the police departments are trying
recruit in the private sector, and you have a very
select pool of applicants that are qualified right now to join.
And what we see happening also is that you have
departments that are changing their hiring standards to try to
meet their quotas for getting these cadets in.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Well. Is that a problem though, changing those those quotas
as far as you know what they're what they're requiring.
The physical requirements of the job have always been rather stringent,
at least for cadets that are coming in. Do those
need to be loosened up or is that potentially dangerous
to do that?
Speaker 2 (01:49):
It is a it's a flippery slope, Jimmy, it is.
You know, you want to make sure that you're hiring
the best and the most qualified and the most competent.
And I'd like to say Houston has still maintained a
very good firm Grip on our hiring. They have changed
to requirements and made it a little bit more accessible.
For the educational requirements hiring, you can have employment for
(02:11):
three years out of a four year period and that
can be satisfied as one of the requirements, opposed to
having a forty eight hours. But you have other departments
that are starting to loosen the requirements and it kind
of it opens up a Pandora's box. It really does
when you start hiring applicants that might have criminal records
or drug usage, and so it's always been a challenge
(02:35):
and it will continue to be a challenge trying to
find those applicants that meet the requirements.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Yeah, both smoking a little marijuana is one thing, but
a criminal record, that's quite another problem. You know, how
loosely are some of these departments looking at that particular
requirement not having a criminal.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Record the department I can use Houston as an example,
and I'm hoping I'm getting the information correct, but they'll
look at a person that might have had a Class
B misdemeanor arrest or a Class C and they will
go back five to ten years, so that person could
not have had something prior to a ten year period
or and that, and that's understandable. It could have been
(03:12):
a Class B offense, and or drug usage over a
certain period of time.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Would be would be a Class B offense. Other than
maybe you smoking a joint, what would be a class
B offense?
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Dw I Okay, And it could be a Now, if
it's a crime of moral turpitude, a sex offense or
something to that effect, then no, that's going to exclude
them completely. But you have other offenses that are out there, trespassing,
any type of domestic violence, that's that's going to be
(03:47):
a disqualifier. So there are things out there that will
immediately disqualify a cadet from or an applicant from applying.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Yeah, what if you've just been accused? Is it? Is
it just if you've been convicted of one of these offenses,
or is it if you have been arrested for one
of these offenses?
Speaker 2 (04:05):
No, arrest is different. It's going to be a conviction,
deferred adjudication of probation, anything of that nature where the
case has been disposed of. And there's a lot of
people out there that think that if they get their
record expose that that's going to give them a free
pass and it does not. Okay, And that's a bigness
number in the criminal justice world.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
You know, we talk all the time, Greg about the
importance of paying these people what they're worth. I don't
know that we'll ever pay police officers what they're worth.
I pray some day we will. But you know, money
has always been an issue. Not to say that money
alone is going to be the answer, because certainly, most
people have become police officers. I believe that they considered
a vocational like vocation as much as they considered a
(04:43):
way to make a living. But how much do you
think improvement over starting salaries for police officers could make
a big difference as far as recruiting more people.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Oh, it's a huge factor, Jimmy, And I mean, Houston
likes to stay competitive, but we're still far down on
the total bowl. We're probably six or seventh in this state.
You have agencies like Plane OPD that are starting our
alfcers out at one hundred and eight thousand dollars, whereas
Houston is starting their cadets out at forty eight I believe.
But within the first year or two years, you know,
(05:12):
they're making in the mid fifties but it's a very
decisive factor. But it's a big city and it's all
about taxing and to pay your officers more. We run
about five classes a year and there's about seventy cadets
in each class, So on a good year we might
graduate three hundred and fifty cadets. But we're also averaging
about two hundred to three hundred retirees, so you're really
(05:35):
only getting a net benefit of about fifty to maybe
one hundred officers added onto the street. We have the
same number of officers now that we had twenty years ago.
Let that think end we have about fifty one hundred alsuers.
That's what we had twenty years ago. And our city
has increased by over a million in population that we know.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Of, and by twenty forty, they're saying we may be
the third largest city in the United States. Yep, it's
from Greg.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
We will be, we will, we'll we woked the past
Chicago in the next census.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
All right, Greg Freeman, thank you, sir, appreciate it. Best
of luck to you, sir. Retired HPD Captain Greg Freeman
at seven twenty eight
How long did you have to stand in line? Actually,
I had a great customer service experience last time I
got my driver's license renewed, so I'm not complaining. Seven
twenty two is their time here in Houston's Morning News.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Now.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
I think probably recruiting people to work at the driver's
license office is maybe a little bit easier than trying
to recruit more law enforcement. We've had a shortage there
for quite some time. Joining us to talk about Greg Freeman,
retired HPD Captain, Welcome to the show, sir. Let's talk
about the difficulty of in just attracting people to law
enforcement these days. This has been going on ever since
(00:34):
the George Floyd incident and maybe a little bit before that.
It's it's become very, very difficult. But if you've got
fifteen hundred plus positions that are open with the Texas
Department of Public Safety, that tells us it's not just
a Houston issue. It's a state wide issue.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Yeah, Jimmy, good morning, Thank you for having me. It's
a national issue. And we've seen this trending ever since
the post George Floyd rise of twenty twenty. Enforcement across
the board, we saw math exodus of senior veteran officers
that were leaving the department, and it was hard recruiting,
and it was for a couple of years, but the
(01:10):
pendulumin is starting to swing back the other way. You
have a lot of variables that are out there. The
military is trying to recruit, the police departments are trying
recruit in the private sector, and you have a very
select pool of applicants that are qualified right now to join.
And what we see happening also is that you have
departments that are changing their hiring standards to try to
meet their quotas for getting these cadets in.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Well. Is that a problem though, changing those those quotas
as far as you know what they're what they're requiring.
The physical requirements of the job have always been rather stringent,
at least for cadets that are coming in. Do those
need to be loosened up or is that potentially dangerous
to do that?
Speaker 2 (01:49):
It is a it's a flippery slope, Jimmy, it is.
You know, you want to make sure that you're hiring
the best and the most qualified and the most competent.
And I'd like to say Houston has still maintained a
very good firm Grip on our hiring. They have changed
to requirements and made it a little bit more accessible.
For the educational requirements hiring, you can have employment for
(02:11):
three years out of a four year period and that
can be satisfied as one of the requirements, opposed to
having a forty eight hours. But you have other departments
that are starting to loosen the requirements and it kind
of it opens up a Pandora's box. It really does
when you start hiring applicants that might have criminal records
or drug usage, and so it's always been a challenge
(02:35):
and it will continue to be a challenge trying to
find those applicants that meet the requirements.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Yeah, both smoking a little marijuana is one thing, but
a criminal record, that's quite another problem. You know, how
loosely are some of these departments looking at that particular
requirement not having a criminal.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Record the department I can use Houston as an example,
and I'm hoping I'm getting the information correct, but they'll
look at a person that might have had a Class
B misdemeanor arrest or a Class C and they will
go back five to ten years, so that person could
not have had something prior to a ten year period
or and that, and that's understandable. It could have been
(03:12):
a Class B offense, and or drug usage over a
certain period of time.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Would be would be a Class B offense. Other than
maybe you smoking a joint, what would be a class
B offense?
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Dw I Okay, And it could be a Now, if
it's a crime of moral turpitude, a sex offense or
something to that effect, then no, that's going to exclude
them completely. But you have other offenses that are out there, trespassing,
any type of domestic violence, that's that's going to be
(03:47):
a disqualifier. So there are things out there that will
immediately disqualify a cadet from or an applicant from applying.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Yeah, what if you've just been accused? Is it? Is
it just if you've been convicted of one of these offenses,
or is it if you have been arrested for one
of these offenses?
Speaker 2 (04:05):
No, arrest is different. It's going to be a conviction,
deferred adjudication of probation, anything of that nature where the
case has been disposed of. And there's a lot of
people out there that think that if they get their
record expose that that's going to give them a free
pass and it does not. Okay, And that's a bigness
number in the criminal justice world.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
You know, we talk all the time, Greg about the
importance of paying these people what they're worth. I don't
know that we'll ever pay police officers what they're worth.
I pray some day we will. But you know, money
has always been an issue. Not to say that money
alone is going to be the answer, because certainly, most
people have become police officers. I believe that they considered
a vocational like vocation as much as they considered a
(04:43):
way to make a living. But how much do you
think improvement over starting salaries for police officers could make
a big difference as far as recruiting more people.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Oh, it's a huge factor, Jimmy, And I mean, Houston
likes to stay competitive, but we're still far down on
the total bowl. We're probably six or seventh in this state.
You have agencies like Plane OPD that are starting our
alfcers out at one hundred and eight thousand dollars, whereas
Houston is starting their cadets out at forty eight I believe.
But within the first year or two years, you know,
(05:12):
they're making in the mid fifties but it's a very
decisive factor. But it's a big city and it's all
about taxing and to pay your officers more. We run
about five classes a year and there's about seventy cadets
in each class, So on a good year we might
graduate three hundred and fifty cadets. But we're also averaging
about two hundred to three hundred retirees, so you're really
(05:35):
only getting a net benefit of about fifty to maybe
one hundred officers added onto the street. We have the
same number of officers now that we had twenty years ago.
Let that think end we have about fifty one hundred alsuers.
That's what we had twenty years ago. And our city
has increased by over a million in population that we know.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Of, and by twenty forty, they're saying we may be
the third largest city in the United States. Yep, it's
from Greg.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
We will be, we will, we'll we woked the past
Chicago in the next census.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
All right, Greg Freeman, thank you, sir, appreciate it. Best
of luck to you, sir. Retired HPD Captain Greg Freeman
at seven twenty eight
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!