PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Police departments across the U.S. are reporting an increase in officer numbers for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic and the 2020 killing of George Floyd, which a study shows led to a historic exodus of officers.

According to 214 law enforcement agencies that responded to a survey conducted by the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), more sworn officers were hired in 2023 than in any of the previous 4 years, and fewer officers resigned or retired overall.

Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police officers sparked nationwide protests against police brutality and increased scrutiny of law enforcement.

As more officers left, many departments needed to reallocate strained resources, taking them away from investigative work or coping with quality-of-life issues equivalent to abandoned vehicles or noise violations, to deal with the rise in crime, and in some cases, shortages meant slower work. police officers claim that response times are reduced or limited to responding only to emergencies.

“I just think the last four years have been particularly difficult for American policing,” said Chuck Wexler, executive director of PERF, a nonprofit police think tank based in Washington. “And our study shows that we are finally starting to turn into a corner.”

However, in line with Wexler, individual departments are recovering at different rates, noting that many still struggle to draw and retain officers.

Overall, the career “isn’t completely eliminated yet,” he said.

The Associated Press left phone and email messages with several unions and police departments asking about hiring increases.

The study shows that while there have been more sworn officers in small and medium-sized departments than in January 2020, staffing levels in large departments are still greater than 5% below their employment levels then, even with year-over-year increases in 2022– 2023.

The study also found that smaller departments with fewer than 50 officers proceed to face higher attrition and retirement rates.

Wexler said the survey only asked about numbers, so it’s hard to say whether these officers are leaving for larger departments or leaving the career altogether. He also found that smaller departments, which make up 80% of agencies nationwide, were underrepresented in the responses PERF received.

Many larger departments have raised officer pay or began offering incentives equivalent to signing bonuses for knowledgeable officers who’re willing to transfer, something smaller departments cannot really compete with. At least a dozen smaller departments have disbanded, leaving the municipalities they once served counting on state or county police for help.

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However, even some of the highest-paid large departments still struggle to draw latest employees.

“I don’t think it’s all about money. “I think it’s about how people view their work and feel like they’re going to be supported,” Wexler said. “You have departments on the West Coast that are paying six-figure sums but still see significant hiring challenges.”

In addition to salaries and bonuses, many agencies are re-examining their application requirements and recruitment processes.

Wexler believes some of these changes make sense, equivalent to allowing visible tattoos, reconsidering the importance of past financial problems and faster background checks for applicants. However, he warned that PERF doesn’t support lowering training or candidate standards.

Maria “Maki” Haberfeld, chair of the Department of Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, says departments have focused an excessive amount of on officer numbers. He worries that some are lowering educational requirements and other standards to increase the number of officers, relatively than trying to search out the best people to police their communities.

“Policing is a real profession that requires more skill and more education than people can understand,” she said. “It’s not about tattoos or running a mile in quarter-hour. “It’s really more about emotional intelligence, maturity and split-second decision-making without the use of lethal force.”

Haberfeld also cautioned that any personnel gains made through incentives could easily be erased, especially since officers, including some in combat gear, were seen breaking up protests against the war between Israel and Hamas at universities across the country.

“In policing, it takes decades to move forward and a split second for public attitudes to deteriorate,” she said.

The PERF study showed an overall decline in layoffs of greater than 20%, from a high of almost 6,500 in 2022 to fewer than 5,100 in 2023. However, they’re still higher than levels at the starting of the pandemic in 2020, when several greater than 4,000 officers resigned in all corresponding departments.

As with employment growth, the rate of decline in retirements tended to depend upon department size. In 2023, fewer people retired in large departments than in 2019, barely more retired in medium-sized departments, and increased salaries in small departments. The study found a sharp decline in resignations in large agencies with 250 or more employees and in mid-sized agencies with 50 to 249 officers.

In addition to increases in pay and advantages, improved retention could be partly attributed to a change in the way some public officials view their public safety departments, Wexler says.

“It was only a few years ago that we moved from public discourse about defunding the police to public officials realizing that their employees were leaving,” he said. “I don’t think there’s any doubt that there’s been a radical change among political leadership.”