CLEVELAND — Last month, Branden Short of Toledo graduated at the top of his class at the Phoenix Regional Police Academy.
"[If Phoenix Police didn't hire me,] I believe I would still be a police officer in Ohio," Short said.
Short, who had previously never visited Arizona, ended up leaving Ohio to become a police officer in the Southwest after a recruiting event that took place in Cleveland in November 2021.
RELATED: Phoenix police to recruit in Ohio for open officer positions
"I was kind of just applying and waiting, taking tests and waiting," Short explained. "Then I took Phoenix's test and there was no waiting. Whereas like agencies in Ohio, take the test and now you're sitting around for three months and they expect you to answer that phone call when when it rings."
On its website, Phoenix Police touts a recruit's starting salary of $68,661/year, which is more than the top salary a Cleveland police patrol officer could earn ($67,619/year) before a new contract was signed earlier this year.
During that waiting period, Short spotted this Facebook post about the phoenix police department recruiting in Ohio, offering incentives including a $7,500 hiring bonus.
A spokesperson with Phoenix Police told News 5 that in addition to Cleveland and Columbus, they recruited new officers and lateral transfers in Texas and California.
Short was the only recruit successfully hired from the trip to Cleveland; however a spokesperson called their efforts equivalent to a college football coach landing a coveted five star recruit.
During the graduation ceremony, Short earned several awards including the Physical Fitness Award, the Firearms Award, the Overall Recruit Award and an Exemplary Recruit Award.
A 2021 study from the Police Executive Research Forum shows a 45% increase in police retirements nationwide, leaving many departments struggling to fill their open positions.
As president of the Ohio Fraternal Order of Police, Gary Wolske keeps tabs on all the new hiring tactics being done across Northeast Ohio and the country, including signing bonuses, and retention bonuses.
"That’s unheard of and it’s a shame because it’s money that could be better spent for projects within police department to make the community safer and they’re using it to lure officers to their community to get them to work and to man the patrol cars and man the calls they get," Wolske said. "Everybody is just poaching from everybody else."
After graduating from the academy, Short is slated to begin his field training and admits he hopes others see what he did and explore all their options when entering this industry starving for talent.
"I wouldn't ever change the decision I made," he told News 5.
A spokesperson with Phoenix Police told News 5 there are no immediate plans to return to Ohio for recruiting. To learn more about Phoenix Police's immediate openings, click here.
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