Wayne County Sheriff recruiting 100 deputies for openings

DETROIT (FOX 2) - The Wayne County Sheriff is looking for some good men and women to join the workforce as 25% of the jobs are currently vacant.

The struggle of hiring people isn't new for most industries - but it doesn't just include businesses. The Wayne County Sheriff's Office is searching for workers and having a hard time finding people to fill the open seats.

"The staffing levels are not what we would like them to be, but we're able to get the job done," Ed Foxworth, Wayne County Sheriff's Office's Director of Communications, said.

We're not just talking a few empty seats.

"The Wayne County Sheriff's Office has been working very hard to recruit individuals to become sheriff's deputy deputies," Foxworth said. "Right now we're looking to recruit about 100 sheriff's deputies."

The openings include both deputies and civilian jobs

"There are a variety of office openings -- whether they're in the prosecutor's office or here in the Wayne County main office administrative office, and we're working real hard to try to fill them," Foxworth said.

The social climate -- including Covid concerns, potential dangers of working in law enforcement -- and finding people willing ot take the oath and wear the uniform is understandably tough.

"Quite honestly, we're reaching out to individuals from the age of 18, to 55, in an attempt to try to get them to join Wayne County Sheriff's Office. And so that means we're, we have a multipronged approach. We're in high schools, we're in colleges, we are working with veterans," Foxworth said.

In the end, county officials know that things are changing and the old ways aren't working anymore.

"There's a lot of work that has to be done," Foxworth said. "Warren Evans is doing a great job and working with all the elected officials and their departments to figure out ideas on how to fill the vacancies that we have."