Police officer hiring numbers are finally showing improvement, Decatur Police Chief Torry Mack told the Personnel Board last week.

Mack said the 130-member department is only down 15 officers, and he sees more improvement coming. Three lateral hires — officers moving to Decatur from other departments — start in the next month and a half. This would lower the number to 12 openings if there are no departures during that time.

They hired a class of new officers in January who are now going through the police academy, "so hopefully we'll be close," he said.

"You know it fluctuates, and I can't sit here and tell you from a scale of 1 to 100, it's 100," Mack said. "But I feel good, I truly do."

DPD has struggled with officer shortages since late 2021. Mack is the third police chief to deal with the department's staffing shortages, with the department seeing vacancies at times of more than 30 officers.

The last time the department was near 10 vacancies was June 2022, six months into former Chief Todd Pinion's tenure.

Mack said the department had 90 sworn officers when he became police chief in June 2025, and he's up to 115 now. Mack replaced Pinion during the controversy that followed the shooting death of Steve Perkins by a Decatur police officer.

"We're growing rapidly," Mack said. "I was told we've never seen this amount of growth before.

"People want to be a part of the change, and I'm not boasting ... but Decatur PD — I told you guys we're going to make it the standard — and that's exactly what we're doing."

Previously, DPD was allocated 140 officer positions. However, he gave up 10 unfilled positions for the fiscal 2026 budget year, so police officers from new hires up to sergeants could receive a 5% step raise that cost the city about $1.8 million.

"Hopefully, if we continue to get our numbers down, we can get those 10 (unfilled positions) back," Mack said.

Deputy Chief Eric Stisher said that one of the keys to their success in filling the openings is they changed the hiring process.

Stisher, who followed Mack from the Birmingham Police Department in June 2025, said that prior to their tenure, DPD would hold a hiring session and do one physical training test.

"If six people showed up for that one PT test, that's all you had for that hiring process," Stisher said. "If background tests kick four out, now we're down to two."

He said one problem they found was that, if a potential recruit works his or her regular job and their boss refuses to allow them to take off to take the PT test on that one day, "then they never become a Decatur police officer."

Stisher said now they're offering multiple PT tests on different days, so there are more opportunities for the new recruits.

He said he makes sure there are department representatives in attendance to grade the PT tests, and he and Mack are trying to participate more often in the grading and interview process.

"During the interviews, we've had a lot of comments (from recruits) that they appreciate the command staff being out there. We've had recruits say this is not the case in other departments," Stisher said.

Stisher said another key is they make sure recruits know what to expect on the PT test, the state physical fitness standard required for police certification.

A recruit has to run the DPD obstacle course in 90 seconds. This course includes pushing a car 15 feet, climbing over a 6-foot fence, crossing a balance beam and carrying a 165-pound dummy 15 feet.

After a short rest, they have to do 22 pushups in one minute, 25 sit-ups in one minute and complete a 1 1/2 -mile run in 15 minutes, 28 seconds or less.

Personnel Board Chairman Harold Gilmore asked Mack how department morale is right now.

"We're never going to have 100% buy-in, but the needle is moving, the morale is high because of the opportunity we are affording them," Mack said. "We have what we call a career development program. It shies away from, 'That's my friend, you come get this position.' It's not that. It's for everybody, so it keeps the honest people honest."

For example, Mack said a lieutenant has been working out of position and doing the duties of a captain by running a special operations team. The chief asked for, and the Personnel Board approved, a step raise for the lieutenant. But Mack said the lieutenant can't become a captain until he passes his captain's test.

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