A change in state law has opened up the door for a new pool of applicants to fill the Rochester Police Department’s staffing shortage: retired cops and military.
The tweak in policy will raise the eligible age for a person to take the written exam—the first step to becoming a police officer—from 35 to 43. The policy is slated to go into effect Sept. 1. The department is currently short about 100 officers from its budgeted 720 positions, as retirements have outpaced recruitment and the eligible pool of applicants has shrunk.
Today, the average applicant is in their early 20s, said Sgt. Justin Collins, RPD’s head of recruitment. And most of the current recruiting is done through college campuses.
“I think you're going to get that type of person that just has always wanted to do this, thought it was too late, and then they have this opening, and they say, ‘Hey, I'm going to give this a shot,’” Colins said.
There is a range of different communities the department is looking to for recruits, he said, like the city’s immigrant community.
But the age change provides added incentive to a couple of groups, in particular: retired police officers from other states and retired career military professionals. Under the age change, those two groups would have the ability to retire with a pension from their previous career, join the department, and potentially retire in another 20 years, still in their mid-60s, with a second full pension.
Ex-military have even more wiggle room in age to sign up. Under state law, former military personnel can apply for a waiver for up to seven years. That means an ex-military applicant can be as old as 50 when they take their written exam to become an officer.
“If I had $1 for every time myself or some of my staff was out recruiting or at events, and we were talking to someone ... and they're like, ‘Oh yeah, I'm 36 or I'm 39, darn I can't do it, I really wanted to do it,’” Collins said.
Collins attributed the shortage of police in departments like Rochester to a confluence of issues. Among them are the rise of more work-from-home opportunities and flexible jobs, as well as more critical sentiments toward policing as a career stemming from the protests after the murder of George Floyd in 2020.
“The hit that law enforcement had to take, some of it justifiably so, I think law enforcement is kind of in a reimagining phase,” Collins said.
Collins estimated the department receives 800 to 900 police officer applications per year. Most of those are weeded out through the written, physical, and psychological exams. In 2023, WXXI News reported that 400 applicants were invited to take the physical fitness test. Just 12% passed.
The issue with staffing police departments is not a Rochester-specific issue. A 2024 report from the International Association of Chiefs of Police described a “continuing crisis” in which the average department surveyed was down about 10% of its budgeted personnel. About 65% of responding departments reported cutting or pulling back on services or operations because of short staffing.
While Rochester Chief David Smith described the tweak in policy as a “game-changer,” some of his colleagues are skeptical.
Greece Police Chief Michael Wood, who has been in policing for 38 years, said “the juries out” on whether an older pool of applicants exists.
“I really don't know the legislative intent, how they came up with that number,” Wood said. “I can't say that I'm aware of a lot of people in their early 40s who want to come on this job. It's hard to tell.”
When asked about the intent of the age change and how it was decided, a spokesperson for the state Department of Criminal Justice Services forwarded questions to New York State Police. Its spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In Brighton, Police Chief David Catholdi offered a similar sentiment to Wood. He has been in policing for 30 years, and while he does not see a massive pool of potential candidates, he does think there are people out there.
“I look back, could I have done it at 43? Would I have been interested in doing it at 43? Probably not, if I was already in a career,” Catholdi said. “However, I think there are candidates out there.”
Collins, Wood and Catholdi all agreed on one point: older applicants might be better equipped for the job mentally. They said an older person might be more mature, and more equipped for delicate situations.
“There are a lot of immature 21-year-olds, and we give our police officers an awful lot of responsibility,” Catholdi said. “For God's sake, they can take a person's life.”
