Renton police are having a hard time filling positions and finding spots at the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission (known as “the academy”) for new hires, leaving the force currently well short of their budgeted totals.

According to Chief Kevin Milosevich, the department is authorized for 124 officers. Currently, the department consists of 115, but that includes 10 officers who are not yet on the streets. Milosevich said two are in field training, four are in the academy, two more are waiting for spots in the academy and two are recent hires from other police forces currently in a 2-week immersion period.

In addition, Milsevich said there are usually three-to-five officers on light duty or out with injuries.

But it’s not just Renton, the chief said. Police departments all across the state are having difficulty filling their ranks.

“We’re in competition with every other agency,” Milosevich said.

But a second problem comes in a drop in state funding for police academies. Milosevich said over the past few years, funding for the academy from the state legislature has dropped, limiting the number of classes the academy can offer and limiting the number of officers each municipality can enroll in courses.

Which pushes back the timeline of a new officer hitting the streets even further than just the nine months of training a police cadet receives.

“That person I hire today isn’t going to be on their own until next August,” Milosevich said, adding that he is lucky to get an officer or two into classes.

“We have been actively recruiting to fill all vacant positions and have been successful in filling many slots, but there is a significant time to get new officers on the street due to backlogs at the police academy and other training,” Mayor Denis Law echoed in an email.

Milosevich also said his department has seen many officers who hung around to make it through the recession decide in the past year of so to retire, creating additional openings on the force.

But Milosevich said the lower numbers does mean citizens should feel less safe. The Chief said his department is still meeting minimum staffing requirements for patrols through use of overtime and pulling from other divisions of the department to ensure patrol positions are filled.

“You shouldn’t see an impact on 911 officers,” he said. “Our shortages are in our traffic unit, detectives, and bike patrol.”

However, the short-staffing did affect the city’s ability to fully enforce the city’s fireworks ban this year, as the large presence at the Fabulous Fourth festivities at Gene Coulon Park as well as regular staffing for the day meant there were not enough officers to pair with fire inspectors this year, despite a police department policy that denies all time off over the holiday.

This year, zero fireworks infraction tickets were written. Last year, there were 12 citation totaling $2,640 in fines.

As for the affect of using overtime on the budget, Milosevich said though the overtime use is over budget for the year, the regular salary budget line is under budget, “so it evens out.”