During The Advocate’s annual State of the City town hall, held on March 8, both city and county officials gave listeners an update on current issues and expectations for the coming year. Among those in attendance were Corvallis Police Chief Nick Hurley and Benton County Sheriff Jef Van Arsdall, who both spoke on staffing shortages both departments are currently facing.
“I know I’m not alone in this, but law enforcement has been hit with staffing,” said Hurley. “Trying to recruit and retain good quality men and women who want to serve the Corvallis community as a law enforcement officer is becoming significantly more challenging. What this leads to is burnout and exhaustion from our staff.”
“While we are a very safe community, we are not immune to some of the criminal acts of violence we are seeing nationally and what we see on the news from our neighbors north and south of us,” said Hurley.
Both speakers touched on recruitment efforts to bolster their departments.
“We are struggling, really struggling, to find good, qualified folks similar to the police department,” said Arsdall. “As we get on the other side of this pandemic I will be able to have a citizens academy where we can expose folks with what we do and then move into the next phase.”
By: Jennifer Williams
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