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 lawsuit was filed by three academy graduates from 2017 and 2018 on behalf of their whole classes
Departments often call Penn Highlands Police Academy, asking if any soon-to-be graduates are ready for jobs and offering pay incentives
The move will result in an estimated decrease of officers to about 29,000 by 2025
“We’re not poaching anyone,” Sgt. Clarence Tosh said, “because no one wants to do this job right now.”
State law requires that the raises be calculated based on the base salaries, retirement benefits and add-ons of five other departments
The move would give the department chief more discretion to fill, change or leave vacant officer shifts and respond to department needs
The union claims the city had “ample time” to pay up; the union said they are calculating individual back pay for each of the 8,800 sworn officers
Recruits will go through 12 weeks of field training, which is “desperately needed because the department is getting younger and younger,” Superintendent Cheryl Clapprood said
“It’s important for us to be able to show that we’re being innovative, we’re using new recruiting techniques — things that set us aside from other agencies,” Sgt. Todd Grager said
The state has given more than 3,350 bonuses to new or newly transferred officers since the program’s launch
ABOUT THE SPONSOR: eSOPH by Miller Mendel
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