(Photo by Casey Kuhn - KJZZ)

Maricopa County Sheriff Paul Penzone speaks about law enforcement shortages.

High-ranking officials of three Arizona law-enforcement agencies came together Monday to promote recruitment and explain why there’s a need for more officers in the Valley.

The recurring theme echoed by Maricopa County Sheriff Paul Penzone, as well as the Arizona Department of Public Safety and Phoenix Police Department, is that public perception has changed officer recruitment techniques. And they said vacancies in law enforcement need filling as soon as possible.

Penzone said after the economic downturn and hiring freezes, the competition is high among all law-enforcement departments to get good recruits.

“And for each agency here and others throughout the Valley, we are depleted of resources," he said. "The men and women who are doing the jobs right now are facing dynamics that are not only difficult in themselves, but to be short-handed as an organization, not being able to fill those vacancies, means not only are they unsafe, but our community is unsafe.”

Phoenix police are even taking their recruitment out of state — officers are in Texas this week to find potential candidates.

Penzone says public perception of police has changed since a surge of hiring in the 1980s, and that now those officers are retiring.

“Not a whole lot has changed in the career, just the perception," Penzone said. "So with the economic downfall and the other factors, what you’re seeing is the attrition is so high, that even if we’re hiring aggressively, we can’t catch up to the loss of numbers. We need to have just constant investment in recruitment and hiring to stay stable.”

Northern Arizona University is hosting a law-enforcement career fair this Saturday in Phoenix.