Law enforcement recruitment and retention aren’t buzzwords. It’s what is holding communities between peace and chaos, and a recent report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) sheds some light on the issue.
Law enforcement recruitment and retention are now being tested by a hard arithmetic problem: more exits, fewer entrants, and a retirement wave already visible on the horizon. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), in a February 2026 report to Congress, captures the scale of the challenge in plain terms. Staffing shortages are widespread, and they are likely to grow as retirements increase.
Law Enforcement Recruitment and Retention: A Thinning Workforce
According to a nationwide survey cited in the report, the number of law enforcement officers who resigned increased by 18%, and the number who retired increased by 2% from 2019 through 2024, contributing to “overall large decreases in officer staffing.”
GAO also notes what many agencies fear about law enforcement recruitment and retention, but can’t easily budget away: about one-third of federal law enforcement officers will be eligible to retire in the next five years.
In other words, even if law enforcement recruitment and retention improve tomorrow, the outflow pressure is structural, built into age, service time, and retirement rules.
And the pipeline is not simply a smaller version of what it used to be. GAO reports that after 2020, some agencies saw more candidates treating law enforcement as a short-term stop, rather than a 25-year vocation.
Federal staffing: a patchwork of strain
At the federal level, GAO examined staffing levels across eight agencies in four departments and found that staffing levels varied significantly from 2020 through 2024.
A few examples show how “staffing” is not one story, but many:
- Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported law enforcement staffing levels ranging from 46,646 (2022) to 47,346 (2024).
- Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ranged from 12,280 (2023) to 12,803 (2021).
- The FBI reported special agent staffing levels from 13,566 (2020) to 13,969 (2022), with 983 special-agent vacancies in 2024.
- The Bureau of Prisons (BOP) showed staffing falling to 32,565 (2023) and reporting 5,082 vacancies that year.
- The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) reported staffing rising to 6,281 (2024), while still showing large gaps versus targets and reporting 2,236 vacancies in 2023.
Behind each table is a different operational reality: borders, prisons, investigative caseloads, public lands, and hospital campuses. But GAO’s throughline is consistent. When staffing slips, mission coverage gets thinner and risk increases.
The report is careful not to reduce the workforce to numbers alone. It documents why people still do the job. Across associations and agencies, GAO reports that public service remains a primary motivator; people who want to help and serve, and who feel drawn to mission-driven work.
Military veterans also remain a key recruiting pool; GAO notes that VHA officials estimated about 80% of their officers had prior military experience, and that more than half of federal agencies targeted veterans in recruiting in FY2020.
But the reasons officers leave are increasingly shaped by stress, competition, and legitimacy.
GAO cites a 2021 survey finding that about 54% of officers reported high levels of burnout, and notes how low staffing can spiral into mandatory overtime, fueling mental health strain and attrition.
Officers also move laterally: one of the most common reasons officers resign is to accept a job at another agency, with pay and incentives driving competition.
And then there is the morale factor. GAO reports that officials across associations and several federal agencies cited public backlash as a primary reason for resignations and retirements. One survey cited in the report found over 77% of officers agreed, to varying degrees, that negative publicity affected their motivation to do the job.
What staffing means for safety, not just budgets
The most consequential part of the report is also the most policy-relevant: what staffing levels do to public safety outcomes.
GAO reviewed rigorous research and reports evidence that increased local police presence is associated with crime reductions, and in some studies, meaningful prevention estimates.
In GAO’s synthesis, some research estimated that each additional officer hired prevented around 20 crimes per year (including a breakdown in one study of 15 property crimes and 4 violent crimes), with effects appearing to operate through deterrence rather than simply higher arrest totals.
On homicide, GAO reports mixed findings across studies. One found no significant effect, while others estimated that adding roughly 10 officers could prevent one homicide, and another found that 10 to 17 officers could prevent one homicide on average.
The law enforcement recruitment and retention report also highlights research suggesting staffing affects road safety. One study GAO summarizes found that a 1% decline in highway patrol officers was associated with a 0.33% to 0.38% increase in traffic fatalities, and estimated that aligning trooper growth with increased vehicle miles traveled could have meant over 5,000 fewer fatalities over a long historical period.
The recruitment playbook must change
GAO describes agencies adapting by using electronic media, targeted outreach, streamlined hiring processes, and compensation tools (including bonuses and retention incentives), alongside wellness supports and career development options.
But the law enforcement recruitment and retention report also warns that these are not independent levers. When one agency improves pay, another loses trained people. When vacancies persist, overtime rises. When overtime rises, burnout rises. And when burnout rises, the profession becomes harder to sell.
That is why law enforcement recruitment and retention are not only staffing issues. It’s a systems issue. An ecosystem where retirements, morale, benefits, hiring speed, community legitimacy, and labor-market competition all collide in the same place: the availability of an officer when the public needs one.
The next era of policing may not be defined by technology, policy, or politics alone, but by whether agencies can rebuild a workforce that sees law enforcement as a calling again, not a short contract with an expiration date.
