As a retired law enforcement veteran, I was appalled by the police shooting of Sonya Massey, allegedly by former Sangamon County Sheriff’s Deputy Sean Grayson, who is now attempting to get released pending his trial for the killing. One lesson to take from the shooting has to do with improving police hiring.
First, there is no doubt that this was not a “justifiable” shooting. Nobody can watch the video and claim that. Massey was shot inside a private residence, where police had been called for help. Massey had called 911, believing there was a burglary in progress and fearing somebody may have been trying to get into her home.
This shooting was also 100% preventable. The sheriff of Sangamon County, Jack Campbell, says that the department follows all the standard hiring procedures. I doubt that. If they did, they certainly missed substantial red flags that would require a further deep dive into the applicant’s background. (Campbell has announced that he will retire at the end of August.)
Police departments face immense difficulty recruiting new hires and retaining current officers. In response to the challenge, they have lowered entry standards into the profession, on everything from background investigations and hiring protocols to attendance at basic police recruit training to standards for in-service training. This is, I believe, a clear example of the consequences of the “Defund the Police” movement.
Background investigations must be thorough and require detectives with expertise. For example, when you have a former military officer, you must file paperwork with the Army to get the records, and detectives must have the expertise to read these military records. This requires more than a detective sitting at a desk running names through a computer. The detective must get out of the office, interview the candidate, the candidate’s family and neighbors, verify their education, and speak to all former and current employers. Sometimes, a thorough background check will require assistance from outside agencies.
When candidates apply from outside the state, police recruiters have to rely on the local police agencies where the individual lives or, at times, employ outside background investigation companies that can help them obtain clear and concise information from out-of-state candidates.
Under pressure to put ‘bodies on the street’
But as police chiefs and sheriffs are pressured to “fill a slot on a schedule,” lowering recruitment standards has become routine. Since 2020, police agencies nationwide have lowered educational requirements, physical fitness requirements, and police academy admissions standards. They have allowed officers to have beards and tattoos, and offered substantial signing bonuses.
I am not saying that all these recruiting techniques are bad, but they are all a direct result of the difficulty of recruiting candidates and the pressure police agencies are under to put bodies on the street.
Meanwhile, because of the recruitment difficulties, law enforcement is facing push-back from police unions on forced overtime and from city managers and mayors to reduce overtime. Officers are less likely to be able to take vacation or comp time and have holidays off because police agencies are constantly operating 24/7 on bare minimum budgets.
This is how candidates are hired who do not meet the standards we seek in law enforcement. No citizen wants unqualified police officers patrolling their streets, no matter your neighborhood. And good cops hate bad cops.
With lower standards, you are going to get candidates who do not even meet minimal qualifications yet are hired and authorized to carry a handgun. So everything, including lives, is on the line when police are hired without severe vetting.
I will end by saying this: it has been noted that Grayson worked in six departments in four years. While this is unusual, it is not uncommon for officers to want to better themselves by taking the first job offered to them and then working their way up through other departments to the one they wanted to work for in the first place. What is shocking about Grayson’s background is that there were red flags every single step of the way, including in his military service, at every police agency he worked for, and in his personal life with multiple DUIs.
I am all for giving individuals a second chance, but Grayson’s background investigation screamed, “Stop!” As one of his previous supervisors reportedly told him, “I don’t understand how you’re still employed here.”
Ask any reasonable police officer — Grayson should have never been hired.
Tom Weitzel retired from the Riverside Police Department in May 2021 after 37 years in law enforcement, including 13 years as Riverside’s chief of police.
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