CHARLOTTE — Police in Charlotte and across the country are facing two big issues right now with staffing: an increase in retirements, and difficulties with recruiting.
While pay increases are helping, there’s another tactic helping the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.
An internship program is bringing in fresh faces to the Queen City, and CMPD officers told Channel 9′s Hunter Sáenz they hope it will create a pipeline of talent.
The newest class of interns is the largest one so far. There are 40 people learning the ropes of a potential career behind a badge.
[ SEE MORE: CMPD chief, Meck County DA go to Raleigh to support proposed bond change ]
Sáenz sat down with seven of the interns to hear their stories and learn why they chose to pursue policing.
“I come from a public service family. My dad was in the military. He’s now a firefighter and my mom’s a nurse. So I kind of got, you know, all the aspects,” said Luke Smith. “So I just want to, you know, do the other side and become a cop.”
“I’ve actually had a dream to be a police officer since I was around five or six, because I’ve always been into true crime,” said Rheaa Anand.
They come from all over the country. Some of them know what they want to do after college Others hope this program will help them decide.
“I really just wanted to figure out what goes into it, and so far, my eyes have been open to a lot of different things,” said Lauren McCraney.
They all have their reasons for wanting to protect and serve.
For Taylor Carter, it’s personal. She remembers officers being called to her home multiple times as a child, and the impact they always had.
“Every single time an officer came, he would always pull me away. I was like really young ... and he would make me feel so comfortable and talk me through everything. And he would tell me funny stories to make me laugh when I wasn’t feeling too good,” Carter said. “The feeling that he gave me, I want to be able to give other people.”
Interns are paid during the program, which takes them through physical training. Every week, they shadow officers who are on the job.
[ ALSO READ: CMPD gets money to upgrade system used to track police misconduct ]
“It was just an idea to try to get some college-aged kids experience with the department and hope that, you know, they will eventually want to be police officers,” said CMPD Officer Tim Purdy, who leads the program.
CMPD could use the help. Right now, they have nearly 1,700 sworn officers, but that’s still short by about 250 officers.
But despite the public scrutiny of the job, this future generation of policing wants to be the change.
“I want to be someone that people can trust, because I know things have happened. And there’s a lot of distrust in the community and for great reason. But I think it’s important that we move on from these mistakes and learn from them and educate ourselves, educate our fellow officers, and improve the department as a whole so that we can improve the community,” Anand said.
“If not me, then who else?”
(WATCH: The Carolinas Get Real: A conversation with Black officers)
This browser does not support the video element.