From attracting qualified candidates and telling an authentic agency story to streamlining hiring processes and building long-term career pathways, departments are rethinking how they recruit and retain the next generation of officers. Police Recruitment Week explores how agencies are modernizing recruitment, with practical insights for leaders navigating staffing shortages, community expectations and the realities of building a sustainable workforce.
What the data and the field reveal about where agencies lose candidates and how to keep them
FEATURED CONTENT
A practical, agency-wide framework that turns every sworn and civilian employee into an active recruiting force
Agencies relying on bonuses and short-term tactics may see temporary gains but lasting staffing stability comes from strategies that improve retention, reputation and community trust
A customized childcare model built for law enforcement families aims to improve retention, boost morale and deliver measurable return on investment
Integrating civilians, structured internet sleuth programs, artificial intelligence and regional partnerships may be the key to sustaining clearance rates in the 21st century
Facing staffing shortages and rising complexity, departments like Atlanta are expanding civilian leadership and professional staff roles to stabilize operations, modernize capabilities and relieve pressure on sworn officers
From paperwork to people skills, seasoned cops offer hard-earned advice for the next generation
If you’re losing applicants, stretching hiring timelines or watching academy classes shrink, this guide outlines what agencies are doing to rebuild their staffing pipeline
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The 1,200 applications came after the officers in the department received a 13% raise with a new four-year contract signed in 2023
Your response is crucial in identifying the most effective strategies to enhance women’s representation in policing roles
The spike follows the CHP 1000 recruitment campaign and the release of the recruitment web series “Cadets,” which followed recruits as they trained to become CHP officers
“I’m pleased that we now have more troopers today than when I came into office — a few more, to be blunt. We have another class [of trainees] coming in. We need more troopers. We need more police,” Gov. Ned Lamont said
“We prepare them for the rigors of the police academy and the policing profession, so that when they do enter into the recruit class they have the tools and skills to be successful,” Capt. Parker Bode said
“It’s really not fair to discriminate against these people who use a legal product,” Kingston Mayor Steve Noble said; recreational cannabis use has been legal in the state of New York since 2021
Statistics provided by Golden PD show that among all 15,362 calls handled by police in the last half of 2023, including for non-emergency runs, response times dropped every month compared to 2022
The money is intended to go toward salaries for sheriffs and deputies, as well as boost recruitment and retention efforts
“I do not think 9,500 [officers] is realistic...” Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez said. “And the reason it’s not realistic is because ... people who are entering the workforce do not want to be police officers”
The Vallejo Police Department is working with the Solano County Sheriff’s Office and the California Highway Patrol to supplement its ranks
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With a primary focus of turning past practices used by city, county, state and federal government agencies into modern, efficient, and cost-effective digital solutions, Miller Mendel (MMI) has been creating category-leading systems since 2011.
eSOPH by Miller Mendel is a secure, cloud-based, pre-employment background investigation software system designed specifically for public safety agencies. Used by hundreds of agencies nationwide, eSOPH has been credited with cutting the time it takes to process a pre-employment background investigation by up to 50%, saving agencies significant time, money, and resources without sacrificing investigation quality.
eSOPH by Miller Mendel is a secure, cloud-based, pre-employment background investigation software system designed specifically for public safety agencies. Used by hundreds of agencies nationwide, eSOPH has been credited with cutting the time it takes to process a pre-employment background investigation by up to 50%, saving agencies significant time, money, and resources without sacrificing investigation quality.
How to use recruitment messaging and leverage new technology to attract, hire, onboard and retain top talent