Phoenix’s interim police chief said the department is operating about 600 officers below its target and has changed hiring steps and the academy cadence to accelerate recruitment.

Dennis Orender, interim police chief of the Phoenix Police Department, told Councilman Jim Wherry that “we're sitting just below 2,500 right now, so about 600 from our … 3,125,” and that recent classes have exceeded 40 recruits. He said the department has reworked the sequence of pre-hiring steps — moving the EasyPost screening and Phoenix background-check steps — and plans to shorten the recruit-class cadence from eight weeks to six to add two or three additional classes per year.

The changes are intended to reduce drop-off during a multistage hiring pipeline that historically shrinks large applicant pools at each stage. Orender described the typical attrition pattern he observed: large written-test cohorts thin rapidly through background checks and final selections. He said the department’s recruiting commander “is doing a phenomenal job” and that the “bigger net we can cast” has produced classes of more than 40 recently.

Orender also explained retention and training steps the department monitors after hire: academy completion, field training officer (FTO) mentoring, and a one-year probationary period. He said the department looks at attrition metrics from academy through FTO to identify what it can change to improve completion rates.

Councilman Wherry raised lateral-transfer recruitment and test metrics, asking whether standards could be adjusted. Orender said the department continually reviews metrics and practices to avoid unnecessarily losing qualified applicants, while maintaining standards for physical and academic readiness.

Orender attributed part of Phoenix’s recruiting strength to compensation, saying the city is currently “the highest paid police department in the state,” a factor he said helps attract applicants from other jurisdictions. He also cited career opportunities inside Phoenix PD — special units, K-9, SWAT, supervisory promotion tracks — as recruitment selling points.

The discussion was descriptive rather than a formal policy change; the cadence shortening and the hiring-step reordering are department operational adjustments Orender described as underway.