In February, Blackfoot Police Chief Gordon Croft told the City Council that his agency was the only police department in Southeast Idaho to be fully staffed.

Since then, the department has lost just one of its 27 deputies, but because it has an active recruitment plan, it was able to quickly bring in a new officer that fits with their culture of excellence.

This officer is just about finished with his field training and will soon attend the Peace Officer Standards and Training, or POST, Academy.

Technically, therefore, they are currently about 99.8 percent fully staffed, but they will be truly 100 percent staffed by the time Croft reports again to the City Council in February.

In the law enforcement world, that is impressive. Furthermore, it appears this is a sustainable status and not a lucky happenstance.

What’s the secret? From what I can see, there are three factors contributing to make the Blackfoot Police Department a desirable place to serve.

One factor was the approach Mayor Marc Carroll took with the city’s ailing budget when he took office in January 2018. The next month he imposed a budget freeze because the auditors were warning that there would be real problems if they didn’t get the budget under control. Fortunately, Mayor Carroll has a background in banking, and he had 35 years of experience running an INL department that had a similar annual budget to the Blackfoot’s.

If you know the budget season, February is the very beginning of planning the next year’s budget. By freezing the process then, he signaled that things were going to be done differently, forcing all the departments to examine their budgets. The basics weren’t questioned, of course, but beyond that there were many discussions of what was wanted and what was needed. This pause in the status quo also led to implementing more efficient ways of running the city. The results? The next auditor’s report said the city was fiscally sound.

Being now on solid footing financially, in 2021 the city found a way to substantially increase the police officers’ salaries and benefits. While people across the nation were starting to talk of defunding police departments, Blackfoot raised their police officers’ salaries to be on par with the larger cities of Idaho Falls, Pocatello and Chubbuck. And, they shortened the time to reach maximum salary rates from 18 years to nine years. Both of these new salary polices have been a major factor in being able to retain quality officers.

Our society has the mistaken expectation that those that have a passion to serve others, like law enforcement officers and teachers, don’t need to be paid as much as other professionals. The satisfaction of serving is supposed to make up the difference.

But, salaries are more than a paycheck. For better or worse, they are also a signal of appreciation. When Carroll and the City Council voted to greatly increase the police officers’ salaries, they were also sending a message of how much they value their service.

Meanwhile, Croft was leading the way within the department by asking his department’s leadership to make a retention plan. This request yielded a rigorous and careful hiring procedure that focused on finding police officers that will fit both the culture of Blackfoot and of the police department. Captain Wesley Wheatly was instrumental in formulating the plan and seeing it implemented, with the assistance of lieutenants in the patrol and detective divisions.

The department now has a proactive hiring process. Once a year, whether they need a position filled or not, they have an application period of 30-60 days. When Wheatly receives an application he runs a simple background check to be sure there aren’t any warrants or other obvious red flags. If they pass that check, they are invited to a long day of testing and interviews. Starting at 7 a.m. they take a 2.5-hour basic written police test, overseen by the patrol lieutenant. If they pass that test, they are invited to participate in a physical readiness test. And, if they pass that, they are interviewed by the patrol lieutenant. Do you get the feeling that they are also being tested on their endurance ability?

The top three applicants then get to be interviewed by Croft and Wheatly. If they deem them to be a good fit for the department, then the detective lieutenant does a deep background check. A clean slate of past actions means they will either get an offer to join the Blackfoot police force or they are placed on the list to be called should there be an opening.

How many police departments have a waiting list? Too many are scrambling to find able bodies while they strain to man all their shifts. This month, the city of Inkom gave up and disbanded its police force and have since contracted with the Bannock County Sheriff’s Office to patrol their streets for at least five hours every day.

Such careful hiring has led to a team that works well together. And this is the third secret of retention: those who enjoy who they work with and who are comfortable with their leaders, usually stay. Also, it’s a true maxim that quality officers are generally at home with quality standards and procedures. Accordingly, Croft has focused on maintaining a high level of excellence in the department, beginning with expecting accountability and transparency within the department. He also conducts regular reviews of complaints, police reports and use of force reports, conducting training for any misconduct he might find.

After Croft’s report in February, the City Council passed a proclamation recognizing the department’s excellence and declaring their support of Blackfoot’s law enforcement leaders, officers and their families. They also declared that Blackfoot is a pro-law enforcement community. Judging by their actions, this was a declaration of true support and not merely words.