Officer Recruiting Push Brings Wis. Police Force Close to Full Staff

EAU CLAIRE, WI—The Eau Claire Police Department are recognizing recent efforts that have helped to move their department closer to a full staff.

Ben Hundt, ECPD public information officer, said three new recruits are expected to be sworn in next week.

“When we swear those three officers in, we will have 101 officers, which in my 20 years of being a police officer with the Eau Claire Police Department, is the most officers we’ve ever had,” he said.

More than 20 officers have been hired in Eau Claire since 2024 as departments across the country face officer staffing gap challenges. Only three positions remain unfilled at this time.

“There were nationwide issues with recruiting new officers and attracting quality candidates in the post-COVID era,” Hundt said. “But I think we’ve turned a corner where more people are seeing law enforcement as a positive path to take.

“It’s been a collaborative effort of many employees that have been on the forefront of recruiting, but then many more employees have been willing to open up about their experience with the department and show some of that positivity. That’s been very helpful to help recruit new officers is to get word of mouth from our current officers and, and show the positive experience that they’ve had here.”

Several initiatives were identified as work the ECPD has done to attract new recruits. These include: expanding their social media presence, hosting new community events to connect with potential recruits, attending career fairs, launching the FIVE-EAU Podcast to reach a broader audience and enhancing the accessibility of their website.

Public safety becomes a concern when analyzing the impact of staffing shortfalls. These challenges are certainly something a neighborhood like Eau Claire has faced, but Hundt said these impacts can happen nationwide as well.

“There’s a direct impact to the overall safety of a community when officers are stretched thin,” he said. “There are fewer officers to respond to calls and response time increases at least slightly with fewer officers. There’s less opportunity to do proactive policing. And then also the community partnerships: If you’re responding from call to call with little time in between, there’s fewer opportunities to have positive engagements with the community.”

Police Chief Matt Rokus said these efforts have a direct impact on safety and quality of life in Eau Claire.

“With more officers working, we have a greater capacity to promptly respond to calls for service and engage in proactive policing efforts,” Rokus said. “Our successes in recruiting quality candidates and retaining experienced officers have produced positive and measurable results.”

Eau Claire also is expected to grow in coming years. Hundt said they would always love to see more officers, as it allows them to be more proactive in the community. But their department growing to the extent it has while finding quality candidates is reflective of the community’s support. Another focus on top of recruitment is retention, finding a balance between call and response and community engagement.

Regarding some of the efforts that have been made so far, Hundt said those efforts are likely to continue.

“While we’re very happy with the successes we’ve had, I don’t think it’s something we can let off on,” he said. “Maintaining a positive police force in Eau Claire is going to require us to stay engaged and to keep making those community connections, and we’re excited to get to do that.”

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