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SALT LAKE CITY — Inside Utah's police academy, a mystery is unfolding.

Since 2004, Utah has experienced a 60 percent decline in new officer certifications.

According to statewide data provided by the Utah Department of Public Safety, there were 418 new officer certifications issued in 2004. But last year just 164 were issued.

Both Joshua Honour and Brooklyn Welch are part of a shrinking breed of young people entering the law enforcement profession, yet they remain enthusiastic.

"I'd love to go into K-9 or any of the narcotics kind of undercover type of stuff would be really interesting," said Welch, who will soon start work with the Davis County Sheriff's Office.

"Eventually I want to focus a lot on search and rescue, and I have a great interest in doing investigations, being a detective," said Honour.

Salt Lake Police Chief Chris Burbank was surprised by the data because his department hasn't experienced the same trend.

"Is that because there are fewer vacancies because we're retaining people? Is that because there is less interest? Has the pay gone down? There's so many factors that when I looked at your numbers last night I starting thinking, 'OK, what is affecting this? What is driving this?'"

Salt Lake County Sheriff Jim Winder told KSL he is having a tougher time finding quality recruits.

When he applied to become a deputy sheriff in the late 1980s, he competed against 1,300 applicants for 30 law enforcement positions. At the most recent hiring event, there were 250 candidates for 20 positions.

"That is a function of benefits, it's a function of stagnation of pay, and it's a function — in my opinion — of public perception of the law enforcement career," Winder said.

Brooklyn Welch trains with a K-9 at Utah's police academy. (Photo: KSL TV)

Law enforcement is a dangerous job that can be peppered with confrontation and decisions that can lead to public outrage.

But a closer analysis of data from the last decade demonstrates that pinpointing a single cause for the decline may be as evasive as a bandit on the run.

But consider this:

Big growth in Utah police forces leveled off by the mid-2000s.

Plus, veteran officers who can retire after 20 years of service are choosing to stay longer. For example, the 230 police officers who retired in 2013 had an average of 22 years and three months of service.

"They can't leave because they can't afford the insurance when they go, (and) the opportunities for secondary employment have been eliminated or reduced because of the change in the retirement system," Winder noted.

That change prevents retired officers from so-called "double dipping." This means they have to be retired one full year before they can take another state or local government job in Utah if they want to continue collecting their retirement pension.

Burbank said some retirees are adjusting to the change by packing up.

A lot of people in this field haven't joined for the financial benefits. If they wanted to make a lot of money they'd probably chose a different profession. –Brooklyn Welch

"They're having to leave the state. In fact, most of my command staff who have gone on to be police chiefs somewhere are not even considering inside the state — they're going outside the state in order to take those opportunities."

The new retirement rules aren't scaring off recruits Honour and Welch, even though they will have to serve 25 years to qualify for retirement — not 20 like their predecessors — and they'll earn smaller pension checks.

Honour says he will save as much as he can from his $3,000-a-month salary as a deputy for the Grand County Sheriff's Office.

"A lot more is going to be going into that than it normally would have, so it'll be less money to survive on," he said.

"A lot of people in this field haven't joined for the financial benefits. If they wanted to make a lot of money they'd probably chose a different profession," added Welch.

There is no sign public safety is at risk.

The same number of officers are still patrolling our streets as there were three years ago — it's just a more "experienced" force that is protecting us.

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