Longview police have no openings, but the fire department says fewer people are applying

Two Longview departments down the street from each other are seeing opposite sides of the national struggle to hire first responders, KLTV reported.

Police: fully staffed

The Longview Police Department has zero vacancies. “I’ve been here long enough to where we had 30 vacancies. For a department of 177 people, that’s a big chunk of people you’re missing,” department spokesperson LaDarian Brown said. With every spot filled, he said, the department can staff its specialized units.

Brown said recruiting was never the problem. Keeping officers from leaving for other departments was. He credited the city’s own police academy, which started in 2020, and work on the department’s culture.

Fire: a smaller applicant pool

Longview Fire Chief Greg Grimes said recruiting has improved since COVID-19 but interest is down compared with what he has seen over his 30-year career. “If you’re a firefighter/paramedic fully certified right now, you could choose whatever department you wanted to go work for,” he said. He remembered testing with his brother for the Plano Fire Department when more than a thousand people applied for two jobs.

Grimes said pay and schedules can keep people away, and some firefighters find their second job pays better. To help, Longview Fire recently moved to a schedule of 48 hours on and 96 hours off, so firefighters make the commute only once a week, Grimes said.

Thinking about applying?

Both departments cover tuition for recruits who enroll in the police academy or firefighter-paramedic school, KLTV reported.