PHOENIX — The Arizona Department of Public Safety ranks grew by nearly three dozen on Thursday.
33 new troopers graduated from the academy - and it couldn't come at a better time. Colonel Jeffrey Glover says his department still needs to hire 300 new troopers to be fully staffed.
He sat down with ABC15 earlier for a wide-ranging interview about road safety, fentanyl, immigration, and also, how to recruit more troopers and retain the ones that are currently on staff.
Col. Glover, who's gearing up to mark three years as the head of DPS, says he's seeing more people apply to join the department, but also realizes there's more work to be done.
He points to positive signs, that more troopers are joining the force than leaving or retiring, wages are going up, and the department is also actively elevating its mental health resources.
Still, critics worry that the process isn't moving fast enough.
"I would say it takes time," explains Col. Glover. "The aspect of being able to get good, qualified candidates to be able to protect and serve in this job, you want to have the best of the best and you can't lower your standards. That would be horrible. I would say it's about being patient. It took a lot of time to get to where you have a deficit, so now, it takes a while to be able to crawl out of that deficit. And that's for any major police department across the U.S.."
Earlier this year, the legislature approved a five percent pay raise for state troopers. Col. Glover says he's like to see more increases and also changes to the way troopers pay for their healthcare.
Tune in tomorrow on ABC15 Mornings for even of the one-on-one interview with Col. Glover.
