On average, the El Paso Police Department receives around 5,000 applications per class, but the numbers for their current class show that number of applications has been cut in half.

"The number of applications is down. Why they’re down, police is just not a profession people are seeking. It’s being demonized in the media and being demonized throughout the country and there’s a lot of people that don’t want to go through what police officers go through. So, that could play a part, but we’ll know more as time goes by," Sgt. Robert Gomez, public information officer for the El Paso Police Department, said. "Policing throughout the country is under a lot of scrutiny right now and I think it could play on a person's decision making to try to come into this profession. The job market is competitive or was before coronavirus. The economy was booming, people were finding jobs and a lot of people decided, or young people decided, that becoming a police officer wasn’t their first choice."

KFOX 14