Lots of employers offering jobs that are considered a calling - teaching or law enforcement, for example - struggle to find people to fill slots these days.
Mexico Public Safety Department …
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Lots of employers offering jobs that are considered a calling - teaching or law enforcement, for example - struggle to find people to fill slots these days.
Mexico Public Safety Department is no different, as it has some openings now.
MPSD Chief Brice Mesko gave a recap of the 2024 annual report for his department at the March 24 Mexico City Council meeting. The report detailed data on everything from incidents to traffic stops to personnel and fleet numbers.
Mesko said the department at full staff would have 34 commissioned public safety officers, 10 volunteer firefighters and two non-commissioned staff, one of whom on the non-commissioned side is part time. The department has 29 people now, he said. The department is down one non-commissioned staffer and two volunteer firefighters.
“Through all of 2024, we were four down,” Mesko said about employees. “There might be a day or two that we were three down, and then a day or two when we were five down. But basically, our number was four down the entire year.”
Mesko told the Ledger there have been times in the past when the department was short eight officers, although it wasn’t for the whole year.
In 2024, his department had just 10 applicants - the lowest percentage of applicants he has seen in his public safety career. Of those 10 people, the department hired just two people, and that was the lowest number of people his department has hired in a given year.
“Those numbers can be a little frustrating or a little daunting, but the lemonade is that we only lost two people in 2024,” he said. “So actually our ratio of replacement went up to one to one, so we didn't gain any ground (and) we also didn’t lose any ground. And we are still sticking with kind of our tactics of we’re out there (and) trying to stay flexible in what we’re looking for, meet people where they are, but also not lower our standards to a point where we end up with trouble five years from now.”
Earlier, in his comments to council, Mesko praised his current staff.
“The men and women, I will say they are really second to none in policing and firefighting right now,” he said. “Not saying we won’t make mistakes, not saying we can’t get better - we’ll always try to do that. But honestly, on a day-to-day basis, what they pull off is kind of impressive.”
Later in the week, in an interview with the Ledger, Mesko discussed his department’s goals in hiring and other data, including starting salary for a public safety officer with a commission, which is $20.98 an hour, or about $43,600 a year. Officers can, though, be in a position to earn closer to $46,000 a year, and that comes from such circumstances as additional hours from working 12-hour schedules, overtime opportunities from special assignments and taking advantage of shift differential (working nights). And that occurs when they get their commission.
MPSD faces the same challenges as other employers in modern times.
“I think everybody knows the entire work force is having trouble with finding good, competent staff,” he said. “This is not new for policing. Actually, the police profession has been struggling since ballpark 2015, and our percentage of how light we are is actually not out of line with other Missouri police departments. So everybody is trying to figure out how to recruit and retain good officers.”
Mesko said his department evaluates pay every year, even as salary is not the only consideration for applicants, as he said his department has had people leave for less money. He would like to get more money for officers, but “practically speaking, all agencies are in the same boat.” The department, at the beginning of 2025, doubled down on outreach and advertising efforts, and the department has seen some decent results.
“I will say over the last month, we’ve actually received a large number of applications, or a relatively large number of applications and we are currently putting in the time and vetting all of those to see if we can bring some additional people on,” he said.
He looks for three traits in an officer: strength of character, work ethic and a willingness to cope with the rigors of policing. Applicants go through a background check, interview process and psychological testing. Firefighting also requires certain skills and traits, including bravery and hard work, Mesko said.
“It is pleasant for me to see the team that we’ve been able to assemble here in Mexico. This is, overall, a very solid bunch of officers that do exhibit those traits,” he said, noting work ethic, strength of character and a willingness to do the job right. He appreciates the department’s strong partnership with the community.
“Not all police departments in communities can say that, and that makes a difference, too,” he said.
Some notable data from the report:
National Incident Based Reporting System data:
Crimes against people (homicide, sexual assault, robbery and aggravated assault): 31
Property crimes: 425
Under crimes against people, two homicides were reported in 2024, with one of those crimes being a domestic incident and the other related to two people being charged for murder in the overdose of an individual, Mesko said.
A graph shows NIBRS crimes in Mexico fell dramatically from 2020 to 2021 and then spiked from 2021 to 2022 and have since modestly increased from 2022.
Mexico had 219 crashes in 2024, which have dropped over the last few years, from 2020, with a high of 271 in 2021. In 2024, the city had 43 injury crashes, 60 injuries and one fatality.
Under training, public relations and public education, the department reported 3,221 hours of training, with police accounting for 1,532 and fire accounting for 1,689, and those hours don’t include field training and similar efforts, Mesko said.
Mexico had 46 drug arrests in 2024, and that figure was up 39%. The report also included information on homeless issues and how the department has responded to the problem.
Mesko said in the Ledger interview that the most significant numbers are the crimes against people, and they are what any community should care about the most. But he said other crimes, such as property crimes, and quality of life issues should be considered important, too.
