Navajo Nation Police welcomes 12 new recruits amid officer shortage

SHIPROCK, N.M – After 25 weeks of training, 12 new officers, men and women, one-by-one took the oath last week to serve and protect the Navajo Nation. They were the 56th graduating class of the Navajo Police Training Academy.

There are seven police response districts, and almost each district will get at least two new officers. While that’s a big help, right now there are about 200 officers on the force, but the police department is still understaffed.

“Our chief is pushing all of us, every officer, every recruiter in our department. He’s made it a standing as far as he wants to grow our department up to 500 police officers,” said Captain Emmett Yazzie Navajo police.

The Navajo Nation is a very large area to cover and with few officers the response time can sometimes be longer.

“We don’t have too many cars; most of our officers are single officers taking calls in a land that is the size of West Virginia, so it does add to response time when you have less officers,” said Captain Emmett Yazzie.

With 12 new officers, the hopes are high to get more recruits. The police department is always recruiting, and they do have recruiting events planned for next month.

For more information about Navajo Nation Police recruitment, visit their website.