Ninety-one percent of public safety professionals surveyed by Lexipol say their agencies are not extremely confident in handling emerging incident types and new risks. That figure comes from a survey of 915 public safety professionals spanning law enforcement, fire, EMS, and corrections — 74% of whom hold command-level or chief-level positions. The seniority of respondents gives the data weight. These are not patrol officers expressing frustration. These are the people running agencies.
The contrast between routine and complex scenarios is stark. While 78% of respondents report their agencies are prepared for routine calls, that number collapses to 38% when the question shifts to legal or regulatory changes. Preparedness for major operational disruptions falls even further — only 22% of respondents feel ready for those events. The survey does not define what constitutes a major operational disruption, but the gap between 78% and 22% represents a structural vulnerability that cuts across agency type and size.
Staffing Shortages Dominate Workforce Concerns
Staffing is where agencies feel the most pressure. Only 17% report being extremely or very prepared to handle staffing shortages, according to the survey. At the same time, 65% of respondents identify staffing shortages as the top workforce factor limiting agency readiness. That creates a near-perfect storm: the problem is widely recognized, and the capacity to absorb it is almost nonexistent.
Recruitment compounds the shortage problem. Thirty-nine percent of respondents cite recruitment challenges as a major barrier to readiness. More telling is the trend line — 40% of agencies report that recruitment has become more difficult compared to just two years ago. The survey does not identify which two years are being referenced, but the direction is clear. Agencies are not recovering ground. They are losing it.
Training Barriers and Measurement Failures
Even when agencies want to train, they run into a hard wall. Eighty-three percent of respondents identify time and scheduling conflicts as the biggest barrier to training. That is not a finding about motivation or budget — it is a structural problem embedded in shift work, call volume, and the basic architecture of how public safety agencies operate.
The effectiveness picture is mixed. Forty-five percent of agencies rate their training as very or extremely effective, which means a majority do not. What makes the data more concerning is that 34% of agencies do not consistently measure the effectiveness of their training programs at all. An agency cannot improve what it does not track. A third of agencies surveyed are operating without that feedback loop.
Leadership Development and Wellness Support Trail Behind
The survey finds a strong correlation between leadership capability and overall agency preparedness. Yet only 19% of respondents rate their agency as very or extremely effective at developing future leaders. That number sits well below every other preparedness metric in the survey. Agencies struggling with staffing shortages today will face a leadership vacuum tomorrow if the pipeline is not being built.
Wellness support shows a measurable connection to retention. Among agencies that provide strong or comprehensive wellness support, 44% rate their ability to retain personnel as very or extremely effective. At agencies with low wellness support, that figure drops to 10%. The difference is not marginal. It is fourfold. The survey does not prescribe a specific wellness model, but the data makes clear that the presence or absence of support structures produces dramatically different retention outcomes.
Policy currency rounds out the readiness picture. Sixty percent of agencies review their policies continuously or at least annually. Fifty-nine percent of respondents rate their agency policies as mostly or fully current and aligned with modern laws and best practices. That leaves a significant share of agencies operating on policies that may not reflect current legal standards — a risk that connects directly to the 38% preparedness figure for legal and regulatory changes.
Pessimism Is Real, But So Is Cautious Optimism
The survey captures a profession under strain and aware of it. Forty-nine percent of respondents expressed concern about the current state of public safety. That is not a fringe sentiment — it reflects nearly half of a senior-heavy respondent pool.
Still, the survey does not end on a uniformly bleak note. Forty-four percent of participants reported being somewhat or very optimistic about the future of public safety over the next two to three years. That figure does not cancel out the readiness gaps documented throughout the survey, but it suggests that a meaningful share of public safety leaders believe conditions can improve. Whether the structural problems around staffing, training, leadership development, and policy maintenance can be addressed within that two-to-three-year window is a question the survey leaves open.
