Struggling to Find Recruits, US Police Department’s New Pitch Could Bring the Exact Candidates It Needs

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Amid police recruit shortages throughout the country in the wake of George Floyd and 2020’s “Summer of Love” riots, one small Minnesota town has offered a unique incentive plan in an attempt to attract officers.

The city of Ely is a small forest town about 140 miles north of Minneapolis that has approved a plan thought of by Assistant Police Chief Mike Lorenz to attract recruits and retain their current employees. The Northern Minnesota city is known as an outdoor paradise with access to lakes and wilderness, so according to the Star Tribune, Lorenz thought, “Why not tap into the area’s greatest asset and offer new hires a free canoe?”

Ely’s City Council decided to back the plan proposed by the Police Chief Chad Houde, allocating $30,000 toward providing new hires and current employees of the department each with a Kevlar canoe, two life jackets, and two paddles, Fox News reported.

The incentive program breaks down to approximately $3,800 per officer, and the Ely Police Department, when fully staffed, consists of seven officers total.

The $30,000 being allocated toward the canoe program is part of the state of Minnesota’s $300 million public assistance bill that was passed earlier this year designed to address the staffing crisis throughout the state.

While police department shortages are a growing trend throughout the country, it is perhaps Minneapolis and the state of Minnesota more broadly that has experienced the greatest fallout from the left’s perpetuation of the “anti-police” sentiment.

According to a September article from Police Magazine, “Over the past three years, [Minneapolis Police Department] experienced the most significant exodus of uniformed personnel in its history and, last month, dipped to the lowest level in at least four decades.”

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