"We are continuing to do what we were doing before," said Carrboro Police Chief Carolyn Hutchison, whose department is operating without five of its usual 34 officers.
Hutchison said the department was maintaining the minimum number of officers on the street while trying to recruit new officers. "It does get difficult, for example, when someone calls in sick and we have to scramble to find someone on short notice," Hutchison said.
John Butler, a Carrboro police officer, said conditional agreements had been made with four applicants, but that they required extensive training.
"There is no way we'll be up to staff for about 10 weeks,"Butler said. "We'll probably still be short until December."
But working long hours was nothing new for the Carrboro police, Hutchison said. "We have been operating short-staffed for the better part of a year now. Unfortunately, the officers have gotten used to it. They are resigned to it."
Butler said the police department's response time had not been affected, but longer hours had taken a toll on officers.
"The constant shifting people around certainly increases the fatigue factor, which is generally an adverse effect,"he said. "You can see the tiredness in their eyes, and some of the officers aren't as jovial as they used to be."
The Chapel Hill Police Department has also experienced a shortage but not a drastic one, said Capt. Gregg Jarvies, assistant chief of the department.
Seven of the department's 107 positions are not filled. Jarvies said vacancies occurred every year, so the shortage was expected. He said there were six open slots in the department on average, adding that this year's number was slightly higher due to a larger number of retirements, he said.
