CLEVELAND — Our ongoing News 5 Investigation found officers continue to resign or retire from the Cleveland Division of Police at an alarming rate.
News 5 Investigators found 128 officers left the department between Jan. 1, 2023 and Sept. 27, 2023.
These departures continue a trend that started in 2020. Since Jan. 1, 2020, 648 officers have left the Cleveland Division of Police.
As a result, at the end of September, there were only 1,216 officers on the force.
The total is 424 officers short of the 1,640 budgeted by the city in previous years.
"This is a serious problem," Dr. Matt Nordlund said. "I think you could see this as a crisis."
Nordlund teaches industrial-organizational psychology at Cleveland State University, which focuses on human behavior in organizations and the workplace.
"We know that police officers already have very high rates of burnout and I imagine this could contribute to even higher rates in the future," he said. "So you could have this vicious cycle, where you have a limited number of people trying to do more and more things, leading to more and more burnout, and more and more resignations and retirements."
Where are they now?
Of the 115 officers who left between Jan. 1 and Sept. 1, 2023, 56% resigned from the department, 40% retired and three were terminated.
No one tracks where they go, but News 5 found some Cleveland officers left law enforcement altogether.
For example, former Patrolman Dominic Naples, 31, resigned in January 2023 after being sworn in as a police officer during the 144th Cleveland Police Academy Graduation in September 2019.
"I thought I found a place that I could call home," he said.
Things changed after a car crashed into his police cruiser while he was on duty in January 2022. He said he was knocked unconscious.
"I woke up in the hospital. Didn't know who I was. Don't remember any of the calls that happened that day," he said. "It made me kind of start to rethink everything."
Naples decided to leave behind the long hours, including shifts up to 18 hours.
"It can burn out you really, really fast," he said. "And I feel like that's what happened to me."
The Youngstown native now lives in Tampa, Florida. He works flexible hours from home in a job in the health insurance industry.
"I can't really complain. It's kind of like a little paradise down here," he said.
He said a career is less about the work you do. It's more about the life it lets you live.
"I can work from anywhere. I can make a lot more. I can make the salary I made as a police officer in three months," he said.
Why did they leave?
News 5 Investigators also found several Cleveland officers now working for Northeast Ohio police departments in smaller, wealthier suburbs, including Berea, Independence, Sheffield Lake, and Solon.
Former Cleveland Patrolman Aaron Bledsoe took a job with the Solon Police Department during the pandemic.
READ MORE: 1 out of every 4 Cleveland Police officers has left the job during the pandemic
When News interviewed him last year, Bledsoe said switching departments led to a significant increase in his salary.
"One of the big things or big reasons was the difference in salary," he said. "In just six months of being here in Solon, I made $20,000 more a year."
In 2021, Solon's starting salary was $77,410.
The top salary a Cleveland police patrol officer could earn that year was $67,619.
The suburb's slower pace and resources were also appealing to Bledsoe.
"You just feel an overwhelming amount of support here," he said. "We have well-maintained and updated equipment, facilities — and that makes your job a lot easier."
"It's kind of a no-brainer," he said.
What Cleveland says
Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb and Cleveland Police Chief Wayne Drummond declined News 5 Investigators' requests for an on-camera interview about recruitment and retention.
Sgt. Wilfredo Diaz, the department's newly-minted Public Information Officer, also refused to answer questions about recruitment and retention on camera.
In an email, Sgt. Diaz sent the following response about recruitment:
"My apologies as you can imagine it’s been a busy last couple days. I am unable to conduct and interview, but happy to answer the questions you provided: Presently, 128 have departed the Division of Police. We currently have 18 going through the division's police academy. We have 285 applications for the third quarter of this year. Since the implementation of the RISE Initiative, we have seen a remarkable response in applicants, a +50% increase looking to join the Cleveland Division of Police, since the cadet pay increases/incentives were announced following the Summit. The Division remains committed to recruitment and will continue to have academy classes on an ongoing basis."
What should Cleveland do?
Cleveland has also failed to replenish its ranks. The department has hired only 28 cadets so far this year.
As of Sept. 27, 128 officers have left the department, which means Cleveland police have experienced a net loss of 100 officers so far in 2023.
The city took steps to improve recruitment by boosting cadet pay and other financial incentives after negotiations with the city's two main police unions this summer.
Officials said it also hired Little Jacket, a Cleveland-based marketing firm, to rebrand the city's police department.
The administration is currently in talks with the two main police unions about ways to increase officer retention.
Nordlund said the city needs to look with "a broader lens" at where to find effective police officers.
He also said smaller changes the department made to grooming requirements last year may have a big impact on officer recruitment and retention.
The department did away with its longstanding bans on beards, ball caps, and tattoos.
"It makes this career attractive to a wider spectrum of people," he said.
Nordlund recommended the department continue scrutinizing grooming rules and requirements as well as similar policies.
"You can't have hair that's died an unnatural color, like green," he said. "Does that make sense? Is that actually impacting the officer's ability to do their job?"
"We just need to think creatively about attracting a broader range of people to this career," Nordlund added. "I would encourage them (Cleveland) to carefully look at all of the grooming policies and procedures to see if there are any other areas where they might have rules that have always been there and that people are comfortable with, but there’s really no good reason for them being there."
Nordlund also said Cleveland should find ways to improve work-life balance for officers to make policing a more attractive option for young men, women, and people of color.
"The mayor said... there’s a ‘war for talent' and he’s right," he said. "I think real changes that are providing people with autonomy, increased flexibility - that’s a big one - especially for people with young kids."
He said mandated overtime and 12-hour shifts would be steps in the wrong direction.
"What we want to be looking at is providing people more flexible hours," he said. "I that some people see, especially young women, see policing as a career that is going to be very hard to balance with having a family and it doesn’t have to be that way."
