Recruiting and Hiring Police Officers

Law enforcement agencies in the United States are understaffed. Recruiting, hiring, and retaining personnel has become a significant challenge, resulting in longer work hours, a lack of resources to serve the community and longer call response times. Negative media attention, controversial law enforcement incidents, and antiquated recruiting processes have contributed to the shortage of police applicants. These contemporary law enforcement issues call for different attracting, recruiting, and hiring practices of tomorrow's police force. Therefore, it is the position of the researcher that law enforcement agencies should consider innovative methods for recruiting the next generation of police personnel. Changes in recruiting strategies will require administrators to go beyond their standard recruiting comfort zones. This paper will inform the reader of essential processes that may attract applicants from the Baby Boomer Generations to Generation Z with technology and an innovative approach to advertising and branding the department’s professional image. This paper will also address methods for recruiting Generation Z in their early career development stage. This recruiting practice will significantly increase the organization's possibilities for hiring and filling vacant positions. Lastly, the researcher addresses the need to salvage marginal applicants who may not meet the minimum physical agility requirements by offering them an opportunity to train and develop the necessary skills to continue through the onboarding process.