Madisonville Police Department facing officer shortage, working to recruit

MADISONVILLE, Texas (KBTX) – The Madisonville Police Department is operating with only half of its force. The department is recruiting six officers to fill the open positions in 2024.

With only six officers on staff currently, they‘re operating on half of its normal numbers. Captain Richard Morris says this shortage isn’t unique to his department. It’s also a trend they see every few years.

“We’re just in that phase right now. We got people that are retiring that are going out of law enforcement, and others that are not staying in law enforcement for other reasons and various reasons,” said Morris.

Morris says this is part of a cycle that happens in smaller law enforcement agencies.

“You get people in, you train them, they spend a few years, then they move on to other agencies,” said Morris.

To attract more recruits, Police Chief Herbert Gilbert, said they’ve raised yearly salaries for patrol officers anywhere from $5,000 to $8,000, depending on their experience.

Madisonville PD hiring flyer by KBTX on Scribd

So far, they’ve received some applications but they’re hoping more will apply.

While they wait, the department has had to be creative when filling the gaps with fewer officers.

Captain Morris says the lack of officers has put a strain on their department. Officers are working overtime and some have even worked 13 to 14 days straight

“We have to do what’s necessary to keep the department running, so we have to ask them to work extra hours and we do our best to give them time off when we can,” said Morris.

To help with burnout, they hired two reserves and an officer from the school district to work part-time shifts.

“We met with the city and got approval to do the part-time pay for them [the reserves] and then we contacted the reserves and said ‘Hey we are able to pay you guys on a part-time basis to come in. Just let me know what your free hours are and I’ll plug you into the schedule when you’re available outside of your normal job. So they’ll come into work and that’ll give me a break, or give another one of the patrol officers a break, and they’ll handle the calls for service and stuff while they’re here,” said Morris.

The two reserves have been helping for about a week and a half now. But, that’s not a long-term solution and the chief is hoping to bring on more officers with experience soon.

“We are offering a patrol sergeant position where the patrol sergeant that comes to us has to have at least three years of patrol experience, not as a sergeant but as a patrol experience,” said Gilbert.

The department says as soon as they fill their full-time positions, they’ll no longer need any part-time help.