If you ask any law enforcement executive about the most challenging internal issues facing their agency, recruitment and hiring are likely to be on their list. This month’s edition of the Dispatch addresses the never ending nature of recruiting and provides information intended to help your agency hire the next generation of officers.

Promising Practices on Recruitment and Hiring contains information from the COPS Office’s Law Enforcement Best Practices report. Among the practices addressed is leveraging partnerships with nontraditional community stakeholders. Given that competition for recruits is keen between agencies, taking advantage of strategic partnerships within your jurisdiction represents potential opportunities that may previously have been untapped.

What Makes a Good Alaska State Trooper shares the insight of a recruiter with the Alaska Department of Public Safety (ADPS) on the core characteristics that agency seeks in recruits. The article also identifies a few diverse attributes of recruits that are helping the ADPS meet the staffing challenges resulting from current public perspectives on policing.

Enhancing Recruitment and Retention in Anna, Texas highlights support that the COPS Office’s Collaborative Reform Initiative Technical Assistance Center (CRI-TAC) provided to the Anna Police Department. Anna, a small department located 40 miles outside of Dallas, lost five officers in a six-month period and faced stiff competition for recruits from neighboring agencies. The support, expertise, and guidance provided by CRI-TAC helped the Anna Police Department develop a recruiting program that nearly quadrupled their pool of quality applicants.

Identifying the best and most capable recruits to serve our communities and wear the badge has never been easy. Salary wars, working conditions, the need for comprehensive background investigations that ensure high standards, and other factors make it a challenging process. It is my hope that this edition of the Dispatch provides insight about effective recruitment measures that can benefit your agency.

– Director Keith

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