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.
Recruitment and retention remain top challenges for law enforcement agencies across the country. A 2024 survey conducted by the International Association of Chiefs of Police found that 70% of the 1,158 agencies that completed the survey indicated hiring is more difficult now than it was five years ago. Additionally, on average, agencies are operating at only 91% of their authorized levels, indicating a nearly 10% deficit.
To address this challenge, the University of Virginia’s Center for Public Safety and Justice, in partnership with the National Association of Professional Staff in Public Safety and with support from Urban Institute and Arnold Ventures, convened 80 participants from 31 major agencies along with more than a dozen researchers for the Restoring the Ranks: Innovations in Police Recruitment Workshop.
This two-day workshop provided space for practitioners and researchers to identify innovations in police recruitment and discuss methods for evaluating these strategies.
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Multi-faceted strategies to improve recruitment and retention
Workshop discussions revealed that several agencies are implementing new, comprehensive strategies to address police recruitment and retention. These efforts largely focus on improving the application process, using digital advertisements and social media, attracting qualified applicants and modernizing standards.
Because most agencies are using multiple recruitment strategies from the table listed below to improve police recruitment and retention, it is crucial for agencies to leverage research and evaluation to determine which changes led to the desired improvements.
| Strategy Table | |
| Improve application process |
|
| Use digital advertisements and social media |
|
| Attract qualified applicants |
|
| Modernize standards |
|
Developing a logic model for evaluation
A first step in evaluating whether these innovations are achieving their desired results is creating a logic model. A logic model visually demonstrates how a program, project or innovation is designed to work. In other words, why, logically, one would expect to get the results they are aiming for.
It identifies the intended relationships between the program’s inputs/resources, activities, outputs and desired outcomes. It also captures assumptions of the program, project or innovation and the external factors that can affect activities, outputs or outcomes but are outside of your control.
For example, if your agency plans to develop a multi-phased recruitment campaign, your agency will need officers, recruiters and media consultants (i.e., inputs). The campaign may run for three months and include targeted outreach on social media, attendance at community events and informational sessions about career opportunities in law enforcement (i.e., activities).
By the end of the campaign, 200 potential applicants will have engaged with recruitment materials or attended an event (i.e., outputs). Immediately after the campaign, participants will have increased knowledge about the recruitment process and greater interest in applying (i.e., short-term outcome). Over time, this effort should lead to a stronger pool of qualified applicants (i.e., intermediate outcome) and better officers on the street (i.e., long-term outcome).
The model assumes that human resources will have the capacity to process an increased number of applications and that the campaign will occur during periods when the agency has the staffing and operational capacity to support recruitment activities (i.e., assumptions).
However, local or national events affecting public perceptions of policing may influence applicants’ interest regardless of the campaign’s quality or reach (i.e., external factor).
Building a sound foundation for assessment
Having a sound logic model is an important first step in evaluation and can strengthen subsequent evaluation activities by identifying which aspects of the program to evaluate, what information to collect and how to collect it. Additionally, logic models can show stakeholders that the proposed interventions have a solid rationale, even if they are not yet backed by rigorous research.
The following table offers a simple logic model agencies can use as they develop and implement retention strategies to improve police recruitment and retention.
| Logic Model Table | |||
| Inputs | Activities | Outputs | Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
|
What resources do I need? (e.g., staff, materials, funding, equipment) |
What do I do? (e.g., draft and send personalized emails, host informational sessions, create social media posts) |
What are the direct results from the activities? (e.g., # of personalized emails sent, # of informational sessions held, # of social media posts) |
What short, intermediate, and long-term changes do I expect to experience? (e.g., more qualified applicants, reduced time from application to offer, better officers on the street) |
| Assumptions | What core beliefs, expectations, or theories do I have about my project, program, or innovation? (e.g., the agency has adequate recruitment personnel) | ||
| External Factors | What might influence the outcomes but are outside of my agency’s control? (e.g., national police incidents, continued funding) | ||
For questions or assistance with developing a logic model for your agency’s recruitment and retention efforts, contact the Center for Public Safety and Justice’s Research Scientist, Jenna Tyler, PhD (jenna.tyler@virginia.edu).
In addition, the National Association of Professional Staff in Public Safety generated a special conference report detailing the findings and learnings made at Restoring the Ranks. Access the report here.
This article first appeared here at the Center for Public Safety and Justice and is being reposted with permission.
About the author
Jenna Tyler joins the Center for Public Safety and Justice as a Research Scientist to help shape the Center’s research branch. She holds a Ph.D. in Public Affairs from the University of Central Florida.
Prior to joining the Center, Jenna was a Senior Researcher at Fors Marsh, a federal consulting firm, where she worked with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to evaluate preparedness grant programs and strengthen their evaluation practices. She has published more than 20 peer‑reviewed journal articles and has contributed to the field’s understanding of risk management, preparedness and emergency response.
