《经济学人》（The Economist）是一份创办于1843年的英国杂志，主要关注政治和商业方面的新闻。它是英语专业学生课外阅读的必备刊物，更是考研英语命题小组最钟爱的题源，历年考研真题中几乎有一半的文章都选自《经济学人》。

Police departments struggle to stay fully staffed. STAR WARS can be used to sell almost anything, from Lego to a career in policing. Fort Worth’s police department released a recruitment video on its Facebook page in December featuring an officer at target practice with a stormtrooper.

译文： 警察系统艰难维持满员状态。星球大战可以作为从乐高到开辟政治生涯等几乎所有事情的噱头。12月，沃斯堡的警察局在脸书上发布了一条招募视频，画面中是一个官员和暴风兵（星球大战中的人物）进行目标打击训练。

The white-clad soldiers are notoriously poor shots, and the video shows the galactic GI missing every attempt he makes until he creeps so far forward that his goggles are very nearly touching his target. When the exasperated officer asks “who referred you to us?”, Darth Vader peeks out from the back of the room, shaking his helmeted head in disgust.

译文： 这些身着白衣的暴风兵们一直以枪法没有准星“著称”，在视频里，这些星际士兵们除非蹑手蹑脚接近目标直到面对面，否则没法中靶。当被激怒的官员问到：“到底是谁把你招进来的？”，黑武士正在房间后面偷看，嫌弃的摇了摇他戴着黑色头盔的头。

The scrolling text at the end of the video, which has garnered 17m views thus far, urges: “Join our Force! If you have what it takes to be a Fort Worth Police Officer and are a better aim than a Stormtrooper.” The advert underscores a serious problem affecting police forces nationwide. Economic and social changes have made it harder for police departments to keep their forces fully staffed, and lead to increasingly desperate recruitment.

译文： 这个视频在网上有1700万的播放量，视频最后的滚动字幕上显示着：“如果你有成为沃斯堡警官的资历并且能比暴风兵更擅长射击，那就加入我们吧！”这则招募广告揭示了现在全国警局面临的一个问题。经济和社会的发展使得警局难以维持充足的警力，也就导致了这些孤注一掷的招募。

The Los Angeles Police Department was short of nearly 100 officers as of mid-December—only 1% of its total workforce, but still enough to be felt on the ground, says Captain Alan Hamilton, who runs recruitment for the department. Philadelphia had 350 vacancies, largely due to a spate of retirements.

译文： 负责警署招募工作的阿兰-汉密尔顿警监谈到：“洛杉矶警察署自12月中旬起空缺近100个职位，虽然这只占职工总数的1%，但是这依然有着切实的影响。”费城的警察职位空缺达到了350个，这主要归因于大量的退休人员。

Last spring, Dallas cancelled two academy classes for lack of applicants; its preliminary applications dropped by over 30% between 2010 and 2015. In 2012, the ratio of police officers to population hit its lowest level since 1997, according to Uniform Crime Reporting Programme data published by the FBI.

译文： 去年春天，因为缺少求职申请者，达拉斯警局取消两期警校培训班；初步的求职申请在2010年到2015年降幅超过30%。根据美国联邦调查局公布的犯罪数据报告数据：在2012年，警官人数占总人口数的比例达到了自1997年以来的最低点。

The dynamics underpinning the shortages vary by department, but there are national trends making it harder for police forces to attract applicants. The first is a strong economy. Nelson Lim, a researcher at the RAND Corporation, a think-tank, says this is nothing new. When plenty of jobs are available, people are usually less motivated to enter dangerous professions. Police forces as well as the armed forces tend to field less interest in boom times.

译文： 每个警局的职员短缺程度不同，但是整个国家的趋势使得招募陷入困境。第一个原因是繁荣的经济。智库兰德公司的调查员纳尔森-里姆表示：“难以招募并不是新的问题。”当工作机会增多的时候，人们就不太愿意去从事危险的工作。警察和武装部队这种职业在繁荣时期往往不是一个令人感兴趣的领域。

The second is the perception of increased danger associated with policing: 135 officers were killed in the line of duty between January 1st 2016 and December 28th 2016—a 10% increase from 2015 but fewer than the 192 killed in 2007. Shooting deaths increased from 41 to 64. Several of them were high profile and gruesome, such as the assassination of five Dallas police officers in July 2016.

译文： 第二个原因是，在很多人眼中，警察职位是一个危险的工作：从2016年1月1日到12月28日有135名警察在执勤中被杀，相比2015年警察的死亡人数上升了10%，但是相比2007年警察的死亡人数192人却是减少了。死于枪杀的人数从41人上升到64人。其中有几起引人注目的可怕事件：如2016年7月达拉斯警局的五名警察被暗杀的事件。

“When you look around the nation and you see the acts of violence directed at police officers—it makes people reluctant to join. Many people join the profession when they’re 22 or 23 when parents still have a heavy influence,” says Scott Walton, deputy chief in Dallas, though sympathy can also boost recruitment. Dallas has seen an uptick in applications since its officers were attacked.

译文： 达拉斯警局副局长斯科特-沃顿表示：“当你环顾整个国家，你会看到一些针对警察的暴力事件，这使人们不愿意从事这份警察工作。很多人会在22岁或23岁加入警察的队伍，或者是受到从事警察职业父母的深刻影响而从事这份职业。”不过对警察遭遇的同情可能也会促进招募工作进行。所以自从警察受到袭击后，达拉斯警局的申请人变多了。

The last is the image of policing. The deaths of several unarmed black men at the hands of police officers and the ensuing backlash seem to have made police work less appealing. “We have a situation where law enforcement is being scrutinised more heavily,” says Mr Hamilton of the LAPD.

译文： 最后一个原因就是警官的形象。几位并未携带武器的黑人在警官手里死去，引发了对警察的强烈抵制，这使得警官工作越来越失去吸引力。洛杉矶警局的汉密尔顿先生谈到：“我们正处于执法被公众严厉审查的时期。”

According to Gallup, a polling organisation, trust in law enforcement generally has remained fairly stable since it began surveying the topic in 1993. But according to data collected by Harris, another polling group, the share of both whites and blacks who believe that African Americans are discriminated against by the police has risen markedly between 1969 and 2014. Baltimore Police Department’s officer shortage led it to Puerto Rico in search of fresh faces.

译文： 一家名为盖洛普的民意调查机构表示，从起源于1993年公众对执法信任度这一主题的研究来看，人们对执法者的信任程度一直保持在相对平稳的态度。但是，根据另一家民意调查公司哈里斯收集得到的数据来看，认为警察歧视非洲裔美国人的白人和黑人比例在1969到2014年间显著上升。巴尔的摩警察局官员短缺使得他们不得不去波多黎各寻找新鲜面孔。

The department also mulled relaxing its stance on past marijuana use. Chicago has cut its minimum age requirement for its police academy from 25 to 21. Several departments have lowered educational requirements for recruits.

译文： 该部门还考虑放松其过去对使用大麻的立场。芝加哥已将其警察学院的最低年龄要求从25降至21岁。几个部门降低了对新兵的教育要求。

If President-elect Trump follows through on his promises to beef up military and infrastructure spending, the plight of police departments might worsen, worries Mr Lim. The armed and police forces tend to compete for applicants. If more jobs become available in industry and construction, putting on a badge might become even less appealing to young workers.

译文： 利姆先生担心，如果新晋总统特朗普兑现了自己的承诺，加强军事和基础设施支出，警察部门的困境可能恶化。军队与警察系统常争夺申请者。如果在工业和建筑业中有更多的工作机会，成为警察可能对年轻人来说，就不再那么有吸引力了。