Low pay not the whole story behind state trooper shortage

There’s a shortage of state troopers. It’s so dire, there won’t be enough highway patrol on the roads if the state doesn’t figure out how to recruit more and keep the few it has.

It turns out, the problems come down to a lot more than pay.

If you only talk to guys like brand new trooper Carlos Mata, from Eastern Washington, you would never know there’s a problem.

“It’s just a calling, something you can’t explain,” he said, standing with his wife right after a graduation ceremony at the Capitol rotunda in Olympia last month.

“I have to be a trooper, I’m going to be trooper, and I am a trooper right now.”

Mata says it’s different and better than being a city police officer.

“You can get the drunks off the road. That’s one of the things I like best,” he said. “You can make a difference keeping our roadways safe … and it gives me an opportunity to be proactive instead of reactive.”

But Mata appears to be an outlier.

The state patrol is a paramilitary organization, with a uniform including gloves and a wide brimmed hat. It’s more traditional and recruiting millennials is proving difficult.

But that’s one issue. Pay is a much bigger obstacle.
City police forces are plucking troopers away right and left, sometimes only weeks after they join.

State patrol spokesperson Kyle Moore says it’s a huge problem.

“These young troopers are targeted by recruiters and offered up to $2,000 more to come over to their agency,” he said. “We’re losing our troopers.”

State troopers are paid less than any other law enforcement agency in the state. In ten years, there will only be half as many troopers, if the current trend continues.

But what about job satisfaction? A new report from the Joint Transportation Committee lays it out very clearly: the pay issue is dramatic, but addressing that alone will not solve the problems.

&#8226 Sixty percent of the troopers and former troopers interviewed said they would not encourage others to join the state patrol.

&#8226 Only about 20 percent said they feel like they’re getting the tools they need to do their job.

&#8226 Only 10 percent says, yes, their opinion is taken into account by the agency.

The committee’s report comes with a long list of recommendations. It does say pay needs to be increased &#8212 that would come from the Legislature. But there are steps that can be taken within the state patrol where people at the bottom don’t feel respected by the leadership at the top.

“Simply put, it’s a lack of competence,” said Jeff Merrill, president of the trooper’s union.

“[Troopers] don’t feel the agency looks out for them, takes care of them. It’s politics before people and that’s a problem.”

But is there any way to fix that, to somehow change the culture so that people feel respected?

“That’s the million dollar question,” Merrill said. “One, can you do it and maintain the current leadership or, two, is it going to require a regime change and you’re going to have to bring some outside people and make some key personnel changes within the agency.”

Merrill says it’s up to the governor to make a decision to replace upper management, but perhaps that’s what needs to happen.

Mata, the new graduate, says he knows the state patrol is losing troopers for more competitive pay, but he’s not going anywhere.

“I’m excited to see what the future brings, and I’m excited to see everybody succeed, and I’ll be around for awhile,” he said. “I’ll stick around.”

Maybe he will, but his peers will not &#8212 at least not all of them.