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Expanding the talent pool: How civilian hiring is reshaping police recruitment and operations

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

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Civilian leaders now have “a true voice at the table,” said Marshall Freeman, Chief Administration Officer at the Atlanta Police Department (left), pictured with Training Manager Dr. Lisa Domini and Robert Woodard, Executive Director of Employee Services.

Photo/Katja Ridderbusch

Editor’s note: This article is part of Police1’s Police Recruitment Week, which provides resources and strategies for police agencies to improve their hiring initiatives. Thanks to our Police Recruitment Week sponsor, eSOPH by Miller Mendel.

Lisa Domini distinctly remembers 2021, one year into her new role as training manager at the Atlanta Police Department, when a uniformed colleague handed her a police badge engraved with the title “Atlanta Training Doctor.” The gesture, she said, symbolized acceptance — “you are one of us.”

Domini, who holds a doctorate in education and previously taught business at Broward College in South Florida, is one of about 550 civilian employees working alongside Atlanta’s more than 1,800 sworn officers. Since 2022, the department’s civilian workforce has grown by roughly 24%.

Atlanta’s hiring strategy reflects a broader national shift often described as the civilianization of law enforcement — a move to bring professional staff into roles once filled primarily by sworn officers.

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Traditionally, civilians in police departments have served in clerical and administrative functions, said Ben Haiman, assistant professor and executive director of Public Safety and Justice at the University of Virginia. In recent years, however, agencies have deliberately expanded civilian hiring into areas historically managed by sworn personnel.

Agencies recognize they must “best utilize a wide range of skill sets if they want to advance their public safety mission,” said Haiman, who previously served as chief of staff at the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C.

Today, civilian employees account for about 30% of the average law enforcement agency employees nationwide, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. They serve in dispatch and communications, human resources, recruitment, training, accreditation and fleet management, as well as in records, property and evidence, forensics, background investigations, IT and crime analytics.

The shift is accelerating. The National Association of Professional Staff in Public Safety, founded less than a year ago, already counts more than 1,500 members across 40 states. Influential think tanks like the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) have also identified civilianization as a key strategy for addressing staffing shortages and adapting to the growing complexity of modern policing.

Yet there is no uniform path to civilianization. With more than 18,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide, each department faces its own staffing realities, political landscape and operational priorities, Haiman said.

Across agencies, the push to expand civilian roles is not accidental or symbolic. It is driven by a combination of operational, financial and workforce pressures that are reshaping how departments think about staffing.

1. Enhancing efficiency and stability

When newly elected Mayor André Dickens launched an initiative in 2022 to hire more civilians into public safety roles, the main argument was efficiency. For years, the Atlanta Police Department, like many larger agencies, had deputy chiefs, majors or captains in charge of managing the fleet, overseeing recruitment efforts or developing the curriculum for the academy, said Chief Darin Schierbaum, speaking at the 85-acre Atlanta Public Safety Training Center south of the downtown police headquarters.

“But then many of those police leaders stayed in these roles only for a short time until they got promoted or retired,” Schierbaum said. The lack of consistency and stability weakened the department for years, he adds, leading to issues such as a crumbling vehicle fleet and outdated precinct facilities.

Like other police departments, Atlanta has long employed civilians in public affairs and 911 communications. What is new — and what makes Atlanta one of the pioneers in the field of civilianization — is the expansion of civilian leadership. In the agency’s organizational chart, there’s a civilian counterpart for nearly every sworn leadership position, beginning at the deputy chief level.

“Professionalization runs deep in our department,” said Marshall Freeman, who serves as Chief Administration Officer, the highest-ranking civilian. “And that means we have a true voice at the table.”

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“Having a civilian perspective has been invaluable,” says Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum during a visit to the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, which opened in 2025 with significant funding from community donations.

Photo/Katja Ridderbusch

2. Fighting the recruitment and retention crisis

For many agencies, the shrinking labor pool for police officers has made hiring more civilians a necessity, especially after the recruitment and retention crisis reached a peak during the 2020/2021 anti-police protests.

Some agencies saw their sworn ranks dwindle by a quarter or more, but the volume of calls didn’t go down. “You’re now having fewer officers responding to as many, if not more calls for service in an increasingly complex environment,” said Haiman. “And you’ve got to have a relief mechanism.”

At the Atlanta Police Department, having professionals with specific skill sets manage business operations has freed up sworn personnel to focus on the core mission of police, “which is crime suppression, crime prevention and enforcing the law,” Schierbaum said.

With a mixed team of sworn and civilian staff members working on recruiting campaigns and strategies, the department significantly increased the number of new officers, added Robert Woodard, the executive director of Employee Services, which oversees the department’s recruitment unit.

The new hires boosted Atlanta’s sworn ranks from a 2020 low of roughly 1,600 to a little more than 1,810 by early 2026. The goal is to bring the department close to its authorized strength of 2,200 in time for this summer’s FIFA World Cup.

3. Leveraging costs

Cost is another factor playing into the trend of civilianization, said Haiman. For many clerical and administrative functions, civilian employees often don’t require the same level of specialized, cost-intensive training as sworn staff; their benefits packages, including pensions, are usually less expensive, and they are not eligible for the contractual overtime pay officers receive.

However, there may be fewer cost savings for civilians in leadership roles. Many of those employees come from the private sector, where salaries tend to be higher than those of officers with comparable responsibilities.

In these situations, “the front-end investment pays for itself in the longer run,” said Atlanta’s Freeman.

For example, hiring more civilians has allowed the department to reduce expenditures for fleet repair and maintenance and cut down overtime for sworn staff by 54%, according to Freeman.

4. Aligning with technology-driven policing

Another catalyst for civilianization is the increasingly high-tech nature of police work, with trends such as intelligence-driven policing, AI-powered investigative tools and the surge of real time crime centers across the country.

“Any agency that wants to be successful in 2030 and beyond must recognize that the landscape of policing is fundamentally and rapidly changing,” said Haiman.

While sworn members can be trained to serve as data and crime analysts, cybersecurity experts and background investigators, forward-thinking police leaders are bringing in more professional staff with specialized skill sets “to complement, not to replace the work done by officers,” and ensure consistency of performance, Haiman added.

Already, many real time crime centers have a mix of sworn and civilian staff, and Haiman expects the trend to continue.

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5. Easing the burden on officers

There are other areas where civilians could fill roles traditionally held by uniformed officers. For a routine collision without major injuries, a government employee can serve as a traffic investigator and take a report, said Haiman.

Mental health crises or homeless outreach are other situations where an alternative response may be appropriate. Many departments already deploy social workers and counselors to handle these calls. Some agencies have implemented co-responder models, pairing police officers with mental health professionals.

Given the unpredictable nature of mental health calls, which can quickly escalate from uneventful to violent, departments must be nimble in selecting the appropriate skill set for their response, said Haiman.

But “for many of these calls, you don’t need someone with a badge and a gun and the powers of arrest,” he added.

Mental health is also a growing internal concern within law enforcement. Research shows that police officers experience significantly higher rates of depression, PTSD, substance use and suicide than the general population.

Hiring more professional staff provides an indirect benefit for officer wellness, said Haiman. As police are tasked with ever more responsibilities — including protector, mediator, educator, social worker and counselor — having civilians fill some of these roles eases the burden on officers, he said.

The main pushback against civilianization is rooted in fear, said Haiman — fear that hiring more civilians into public safety roles is being prioritized over recruiting and training more police officers.

“There is no doubt we need more cops,” Haiman said. “But it’s not a zero-sum game. It’s about aligning the skill sets that an organization needs to effectively serve their community.”

Civilianization best practices

Civilianize strategically — not just administratively
Place civilians in leadership and specialized roles such as training, HR, analytics, fleet and wellness to create stability, continuity and professional expertise. Free sworn officers to focus on core policing functions.

Match skill sets to the mission
Deploy civilians where arrest powers are not essential — technology, business operations, alternative response, mental health and administrative functions — to improve efficiency, reduce burnout and modernize operations.

Build an integrated sworn–civilian culture
Give civilians a real voice at the table. Encourage cross-learning to challenge outdated practices, strengthen decision-making and reinforce a unified, mission-driven team.

6. Boosting cross-cultural benefits

In Atlanta — aside from the tangible results of civilianization — sworn and civilian staff agree they benefit from each other’s perspectives.

“We tend to have our police blinders on,” said Schierbaum. Having a civilian perspective at the leadership table — whether that’s on training matters or public messaging around an officer-involved shooting — “has been invaluable,” he said.

Civilian employees have also inspired sworn members to rethink long-ingrained approaches and processes, Schierbaum said. “Getting civilian input breaks up the stagnant ‘That’s the way we’ve always done it’ mindset that has sometimes permeated our profession.”

Conversely, professional staff members at the Atlanta Police have learned valuable lessons about operational workflows and decision-making from their sworn co-workers. Woodard, who came to public safety from the corporate world, said he’s found police officers to approach their work in an “extremely methodical, bold and direct manner.” Being inquisitive and thorough, he said, is their “default process.”

Freeman, who has a background in entertainment and event management, has been particularly impressed with “the cadence of how an organization like a police department runs,” the ability to make decisions in a split second and do so repeatedly. After all, that’s what law enforcement officers are used to, he said.

Domini credits her sworn colleagues with helping her shift her mindset to being more alert to threats, challenges, but also opportunities; to paying closer attention to behavioral patterns; and to focusing more on problem-solving skills.

Before joining the Atlanta Police, Domini said she had completed courses in emotional intelligence and gained a certification as a life coach. “But I’ve learned so much more than during any of these classes by just spending hours and hours with police officers,” she said with a smile.

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Katja Ridderbusch is an award-winning print, radio and online journalist based in Atlanta. She reports on public safety, law enforcement and health care topics. Her work has appeared in outlets such as Time, the Washington Post, U.S. News & World Report, NPR, KFF Health News and more.