After the police department in this midsize mountain city lost more than a third of its force to resignations and retirements last year, bringing in seven new academy graduates in December seemed like a small step in the right direction.
As its roster fell from 238 officers to only about 150, the department had to drop some community services and saw its response times climb. Department leaders gutted detective units to put more officers on road patrol. Officers were forced to triage calls, and they stopped responding in person to some they deemed low-priority.
