Thankful to have had the chance to present and moderate a panel at the 2025 National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) Summit on “Safer States: Shoring Up the Public Safety Workforce." Adequately, staffing public safety roles — especially in law enforcement, corrections, and public defense — has become an increasingly urgent challenge across the country. These are some of the most critical, high-stakes, and high-stress jobs in government, and the people who fill them shape the daily experience of safety in our communities. Agencies across the country are facing historic workforce shortages. The challenge isn’t just keeping people on the job — it’s finding and hiring enough qualified candidates in the first place.
