(WWJ) -- Like many employers over the last year and a half, the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office is running into a staff shortage.
Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard tells WWJ the department is “in desperate need of police officers” as the pandemic wears on.
The department is looking to hire roughly 80 people across all positions as they look to replace those they’ve lost over the course of the last 17 months.
Bouchard says making up the slack has been tough. Many officers have been required to work 13-hour overtime shifts, especially on midnight shifts.
“We can’t close part of the city to policing or shut down cell blocks from getting overseen and leave the inmates alone, so we’ve had to force people to work double shifts for a year and a half and it’s burning people out. They’re burned out, a lot of them,” Bouchard told WWJ.
It’s not uncommon to have a dozen deputies working overtime on any given night, according to Bouchard.
Bouchard says it has been hard to get applicants due to criticism of police. But people can “be the change they want to see.”
“I mean, if we don’t have people with very diverse backgrounds, it’s more difficult for us to reflect the community we serve and have all the voices internally at the table as we develop new programs to better connect and better serve our community,” Bouchard said.
There are a wide range of positions available, from deputies and corrections officers, to dispatchers and more. There are also available internships.
All openings can be found on the Oakland County Sheriff’s website.
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