OnPolicing Blog

Policing in the 21st century continues to struggle with a complex challenge nationwide: Fewer people want to be in law enforcement, and a number of individuals are leaving the profession. Everyone wants to solve this critical problem. Although there are many different strategies organizational leaders are implementing to help with their recruitment and retention approaches, an essential question remains: Is there an effective standard of practice in place to support those approaches?

Using a football analogy, in my 20-plus years of experience, I’ve seen many leaders who focused more on celebrating the touchdown—the big win—rather than celebrating the small wins, such as reception completion, positive run yardage, the first down, or even the field goal way before the clock runs out. Yes, the touchdown gives the most points and an objective to achieve. In this profession, however, our environments change constantly, and personnel assignments are always adjusting. Having an approach that identifies the smaller issues could allow for opportunities to address them without disrupting the plan.

A 2021 survey about recruitment offered some interesting insights (S. Bohn et al, 2021). Two of the authors (law enforcement recruiter, Sergeant Terry Cherry, and law enforcement lead instructor, Sergeant Matt Cobb) used Police1’s State of the Industry survey from 2020 to determine best practices for recruitment. Cherry noted that research suggests that departments should “not have 10+ year male officers conduct modern, progressive recruitment efforts (as 85% of the study was male and 56% of those polled would not recommend a career in law enforcement).”

Cobb provided data-based recruitment approaches in the following:

Almost all research points to “purpose.” Look at how the respondents answered, “Why did you choose law enforcement as a career?” Seventy-five percent selected to serve the community, 52% selected variability of the job and 48% picked the challenges of the job. Take those three topics and tailor to your department—there’s your recruiting message. Then dive a little deeper: many respondents may not have chosen law enforcement because of pay and benefits, but they may have settled with a certain agency because it had the best of one or both.

Altogether, these examples show direct application of data to strategic recruitment practices.

A data-based approach also involves micro-level practices that support the big plan. For example, using an evidence-based approach offers a constant education of what is working and identifies areas that need to be worked on. Leaders can be more balanced in decision-making, development, and implementation. Creating such a culture in the organization will not only support strategies to reduce crime and the fear of crime and improve quality of life, but will also strengthen the agency’s efforts in recruitment and retention. Additionally, this approach will create a standard of practice involving both the departmental employees (sworn and civilian staff) and external community stakeholders.

Reference

Bohn, S., Cherry, T., Cobb, M., Dudely, J., & Gasparini, J. (2021, August 19). Roundtable: Predicting the future of police recruitment and retention. Police1. https://www.police1.com/police-recruiting/articles/roundtable-predicting-the-future-of-police-recruitment-and-retention-TQA8mHKtnhNcc9zn/