Connecticut named best state to be a cop. Will that help Norwich hire police officers?

NORWICH --- Norwich Police Sgt. Nicolas Rankin said policing is an opportunity to “come make a difference where you live, (or) come live where you want to make a difference.”

The Norwich Police Department is hoping to leverage the results of a recent study to encourage more people to join the force, where there are currently nine out of 88 full-time officer positions open, along with six grant-funded positions.

A Wallethub study published May 9 claims that Connecticut is the best state to work as a police officer, being highest ranked in Law Enforcement Training, seventh in Job Hazard and Protections, and 18th in Opportunity and Competition.

This said, Connecticut’s high score was 59.91 out of 99.99 possible points in the study.

The study was comprised of data from federal sources, including the U.S. Census Bureau, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, along with other research and activist sources, including the Institute for American Police Reform, the Urban Institute, and the Officer Down Memorial Page.

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This comes at a time when police departments nationwide are down 7% in their numbers from full staffing, and when the Norwich Police Department was fully staffed only two weeks in the past decade due to a regular rotation of people joining and retiring.

“It’s tough to be at full staff since we tend to hire in waves,” Norwich Police Chief Patrick Daley said. “Officers tend to do 20, 22 years before they retire, so we lost three or four of them then.”

State Senator Cathy Osten argued that Norwich is the best city in Connecticut for police officers.

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“We want people to know that this is the place to work,” said Osten, who had worked 21 years as a state corrections officer and is co-chair of the state’s Public Safety and Security Committee.

Beyond competitive pay and benefits, Rankin emphasized the level of training in Norwich and all of Connecticut. Rankin recalled a time he went to New Orleans for training, and saw many departments from around the country and the world. Connecticut officers would already be very familiar in some of the topics, he said, where it was new information to officers from other states.

“Occasionally, I wouldn’t speak badly about them and everybody puts in a good effort, they might struggle with some of those skills,” Rankin said.

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