In a time when more than 82% of What Cops Want 2024 respondents told their department is not fully staffed, the Plano (Texas) Police Department is using billboards in Texas and Oklahoma to recruit officers to the north Dallas suburb. To date, 30 officers have been hired from 386 billboard-informed and motivated applicants. Plano also credits a police recruit’s starting salary of $80,889 per year as an important factor in competing in a tight labor market.
Yes, your department should use digital media — Instagram, Tik Tok, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube, along with a robust, modern website and timely email communication to reach applicants. Digital media recruitment strategies can be highly effective and engaging, just ask Big B about the Fort Worth Police Department viral video, but they shouldn’t be at the expense of analog advertising, outreach and word-of-mouth employee referrals.
Billboards
Plano is spending $30,000 per billboard. A billboard is online 24/7 and impressions of each ad are only dependent on passing traffic. Billboard prices likely vary based on location, size and duration. If a billboard is out of your department’s budget, team up with neighboring departments to promote law enforcement and public safety careers or promote an upcoming career fair. The billboard company may even want to show its support for community safety by giving community-serving organizations a reduced rate.
Recruitment fairs
The best in-person recruitment fairs match the needs and interests of applicants and employers. Universities and colleges host recruitment fairs, as do other community organizations, religious organizations and economic development organizations. Stand out from the other employers at the career fair by having engaging face-to-face conversations with applicants who want to make their community safer and serve others. Be memorable for your professionalism and community-mindedness, not for a trinket or pamphlet.
Community events
You’ve probably heard the adage that the typical consumer has seven or more impressions or interactions with a product or service before they decide to purchase. The same is likely true for public safety employment. Seeing a billboard one time isn’t likely enough to drive an application. Instead, an applicant, through a series of impressions they might not even be conscious of, glimpses a billboard, interacts with an officer at a community event, sees positive news about their police department on social media and hears from a friend, neighbor or family member about how an officer took a report seriously, solved a crime or identified a community resource. It is those things together that motivate a person to go from an impression to interested to applied.
Word of mouth
The best analog advertising is a current employee sharing position openings with their friends, family and digital and analog social connections. To get employee referrals all you need to do is make your department a great place to work, which requires executing this not-so-secret recipe.
- Excellent top and mid-level leadership
- Competitive wages and benefits
- Modern, functional tools and equipment
- Physical fitness, wellness and peer support programs
- Regular, relevant, actionable and up-to-date training
- Officers get to do the job of law enforcement
The last one is perhaps the most important. Nancy Perry, Police1 Editor-in-Chief, says it best, “Officers will come to your department and stay for their career if they are able to serve their community, prevent crime and apprehend criminals.”
The top three reasons respondents to the question, “Why did you choose law enforcement as a career?” in the 2024 What Cops Want survey were:
- To help people (70%)
- To serve my community (64%)
- Variability of the job (51%)
- Fight crime (49%)
If these reasons match the job in your department, your officers will recommend the department to potential applicants. What Cops Want respondents also told us that the top reason they are staying (71%) with their department is they are satisfied with the work they do. If you want referrals, you might only need to ask.
Earned media
As your recruitment campaigns succeed, double down on your success with press releases and announcements to local media. I suspect local media regularly contact Plano PD PIOs for story ideas and a recent conversation probably started like this, “Have you seen our billboards around Plano? In a time when departments across the country are struggling to recruit police officers, we’ve had 386 applicants.” As an editor, that’s a great launching point for a report to fill 180 seconds of airtime or file 700 words of news copy.
Compelling local news can quickly become national news on a mainstream news site or industry news site like Police1, further amplifying the department’s message. Big B landed a spot to talk about the Fort Worth Police Department on Fox and Friends.
How is your department succeeding with analog advertising, community outreach and employee referrals? Share your successes with Police1 readers, editor@police1.com.
