Air Marshal Service Drains Local Forces
by David A. Fahrenthold and Phuong Ly, Washington Post
Police work can be exciting. Movies, true-crime novels and cop shows from “Starsky & Hutch” to “Law & Order” have glamorized the profession for years -- and the U.S. Park Police will gladly go over it again.
“We have horses. We have motorcycles,” said Sgt. Scott Fear, a Park Police spokesman. “We are directly involved in escorting the president of the United States daily!”
The Park Police gives this spiel to lure and keep recruits, Fear said. And it needs more recruits: Since January, the department has lost more than 30 officers to the Federal Air Marshal Service.
The high salaries, good benefits and seemingly easy, jet-setting work offered by that agency have set off an exodus from local law enforcement agencies. And, like the Park Police, many departments are trying to stop the defections.
Some are increasing pay and benefits. Others are offering veteran officers a chance to jump into prestigious assignments on the SWAT team or K-9 unit. But for now, some police departments can tout only the adventure of their jobs -- the contrast between a police cruiser and seat 11C.
“Do you want to sit in an aircraft seat for 12 hours a day, 16 hours?” Virginia State Police recruiter John Wright asks troopers who are thinking of leaving. “Is that what you call being on the cutting edge of law enforcement?”
Since the air marshal program began recruiting after Sept. 11, nearly every local police department has lost officers. The U.S. Secret Service’s uniformed division has been hit particularly hard: 130 of its 1,200 officers are leaving. The U.S. Capitol Police force has lost 29, and six more officers have air marshal applications pending.
D.C. police officials say that only about six officers have left to become air marshals. But the union puts the number at 30, with several more waiting to see whether they are accepted by the Transportation Security Administration.
In some places, recruiting by the air marshal service has set off a chain reaction. In Bethesda, the tiny National Institutes of Health police department has been poached by the air marshal service as well as agencies trying to replace departing officers, according to the police union. As a result, 13 members of the 50-member department have left, and 15 more are seeking jobs elsewhere, the union says.
Jason Abend, a former Secret Service recruiter who operates the Arlington-based LawEnforcementJobs.com Web site, said there has never been an employer like the retooled air marshal service, which was created in the 1970s but began a massive expansion after Sept. 11.
“It’s just never been seen at that level. That level of pay, that level of benefits nationwide,” Abend said. “If somebody’s considering going federal, they’re not going to stay” at a local police department, he added.
The air marshal program has an official starting salary of $31,500 a year, which is lower than what is offered by many Washington area law enforcement departments. But officers with certain skills or experience sometimes can command much more -- up to $80,000. In addition, air marshals can receive bonuses of 25 percent or more, depending on where they are stationed. Several local departments’ starting salaries hover around $38,000.
That kind of salary, plus a better retirement program, is a powerful incentive to switch jobs.
“It’s the best thing going right now,” said an air marshal recruit who will leave his police job with the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing next month.
The recruit, who asked that his name not be used in case his new job requires anonymity, said those in the air marshal program promised him a schedule of four days on and three days off. That will be a marked improvement, he said, over the long workweeks his current job requires.
Twelve people from his department have left to become air marshals, and a bureau spokesman estimated that up to 15 others in the 184-member force may soon follow.
The first priority for many departments that have lost officers has been to try to raise salaries. But departments can be locked into union contracts, which set pay scales according to length of service. Some federal departments, including the Capitol Police and Federal Protective Service, say they will need to ask Congress for budgetary help, so pay increases will not come quickly. Others are considering offering bonuses, tuition aid or other financial benefits.
The D.C. police force has responded to the “cop crunch” by launching a recruiting offensive, increasing the amount it spent on recruiting from about $45,000 last year to $287,000 this year. It has turned out slick brochures promising officers “exciting new tools and new technology.”
That promotional tack seems to have worked: Applications are up 50 percent this year, according to Inspector Jeffrey Moore, who heads the recruiting division.
For both recruits and veterans, some police agencies think that one of their best selling points is the excitement of an officer’s life.
Park Police Chief Teresa C. Chambers said she sometimes sits down with officers who are leaving for the air marshal service and asks them whether they know what they are getting into.
“If you’ve done any traveling, that’s not the exciting part of any job,” Chambers said. “It will take a very special young man or woman who will stay focused and excited about doing that for the long term.”
The Park Police, instead, like to talk up the various assignments their officers might draw, from flying over the nation’s capital in a helicopter or patrolling the Mall on horseback to guarding the Statue of Liberty.
“When you start marketing that, you can stir patriotism in 21-year-olds to 34-year-olds in a way that other agencies can’t,” Chambers said.
The Federal Protective Service, which guards government buildings, makes the pitch that its work has become much more important because of the threat of terrorism. It also is working to expand the limited police powers of its officers so that they can make arrests even off federal property.
“We are no longer a passive, patrol-and-respond kind” of force, said F. Joseph Moravec, commissioner of the Public Buildings Service, which oversees the protective service.
Terrance W. Gainer, formerly the District’s executive assistant police chief and now chief of the Capitol Police, said he, too, hopes to expand the powers of his officers. He also wants to give officers more freedom to change assignments, such as moving from guard positions at Capitol entrances to the K-9 or bomb squads.
Officer Michael DeCarlo, who heads the Capitol Police union, said the force needs to offer more challenging duties.
“What do we do to make staying in the Capitol Police more exciting than leaving?” he asked. “If . . . all you’re doing is sitting at a door checking a metal detector, [then] sitting on a plane by yourself watching movies is pretty much the same thing.”