Law Enforcement Best Practices: Lessons Learned from the Field  
The Final Report of the President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing noted that the quality of American policing depends upon the quality of its officers and stressed the importance of hiring individuals who reflect the diversity and values of the community - and also have the character and social skills to positively engage with it. This was emphasized in a later task force meeting with President Obama, who asked the COPS Office to explore promising practices and policies for hiring and retaining officers who meet these requirements. In response, the COPS Office and the Police Executive Research Forum hosted the Hiring for the 21st Century Law Enforcement Officer forum. This report details the discussions and recommendations of the forum, which included experts in police standards, screening, and hiring. Their insights and recommendations in areas such as psychological screening, educational requirements, promotion policies, and methods for retaining the best officers can be of great value to Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) commissions, HR, and agency executives.

Conversations with Rural Law Enforcement Leaders: Volume 2   
Rural law enforcement agencies face increasing rates of crime and disorder - and often have dwindling resources with which to combat them. To discuss critical issues in rural policing, the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) and the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) has convened a listening session series with rural law enforcement stakeholders to discuss rural law enforcement's common concerns, challenges, and needs. The results of the second round of these sessions, which took place in seven states in late 2019 and early 2020, are summarized here.

Recruiting and Retaining Officers in Small and Rural Agencies   
In December 2019, the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services held a day-long forum to discuss the challenges of law enforcement recruitment and retention and specifically focused on these issues in relation to smaller and more rural law enforcement agencies. The 32 participants included police chiefs, captains, lieutenants, academic experts, researchers, and agency directors of state police standards. The forum's small size allowed for a wide-ranging discussion that focused on the qualities that make an effective police officer, an in-depth examination of why people leave a department, the most significant challenges to recruiting and retaining officers, and a brainstorming session on the range of strategies these departments use to attract and keep officers. The result was an exchange of ideas and success stories that reflected the unique regional and size differences between the departments.

CRI-TAC Spotlight: Recruitment and Retention for Workforce Diversity  
The CRI-TAC Spotlight series is committed to advancing knowledge through sharing tools, resources, and information developed for the law enforcement field as a result of customized training and technical assistance delivered by CRI-TAC. This guide highlights and summarizes publications that provide the law enforcement field reference and resources for promoting workforce diversity.

CRI-TAC Spotlight: Roundtable on Recruitment, Hiring, and Retention  
The West Greenwich (Rhode Island) Police Department requested assistance through the Collaborative Reform Initiative Technical Assistance Center (CRI-TAC) to host an event for local law enforcement agencies from Rhode Island and the surrounding areas to discuss regional challenges in recruitment, hiring, and retention. On January 29, 2020, CRI-TAC hosted Recruitment, Hiring, and Retention: National and Local Trends, a roundtable discussion in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. This document summarizes and annotates the discussions from that roundtable, supplemented by a list of additional resources.

Recruitment, Hiring, and Retention Resources for Law Enforcement CD-ROM  
Nationwide, it has been increasingly difficult to find and retain talented police officers. This CD is designed to assist chiefs and sheriffs, as well as other executives, in finding, training, and retaining qualified staff.

Police Recruitment and Retention for the New Millennium  
This guidebook summarizes for police practitioners lessons on recruiting and retaining divers, effective workforces. It provides a means for local officials to identify what has been tried elsewhere and what might be applicable in their own communities. It is a broad analysis of issues confronting many agencies and how these have developed over time. Each agency will face unique circumstances that it must consider in workforce planning: this report can provide guidance on relevant lessons learned elsewhere.

Law Enforcement Recruitment in the 21st Century: Forum Proceedings  
The President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing identified recruitment, training, and retention as priorities for the future of law enforcement. Because of their importance to advancing community and police relations, the task force included them in the first pillar - Trust and Legitimacy - of their final report. And in a follow-up meeting with task force members, the President asked the COPS Office to continue to explore new hiring and policies and practices. In response, the COPS Office hosted the Law Enforcement Recruitment in the 21st Century forum with Strategic Applications International. This report covers the discussions of the forum's participants, drawn from law enforcement, civil rights, and other stakeholder groups. The forum's goals were to identify ways to improve recruitment programs, practices, and strategies with a special emphasis on diversity; to better understand how the image of law enforcement impacts recruiting efforts; and to provide action steps for developing and enhancing recruitment strategies.

Innovations in Police Recruitment and Hiring - Hiring in the Spirit of Service  
As the issue of recruiting and retaining quality law enforcement officers makes national headlines, this report helps fill the void by telling the story of how five sites selected to participate in a COPS-funded project entitled "Hiring in the Spirit of Service," implemented significant change into existing hiring processes to recruit and select law enforcement officers that reflect a more service-oriented field. This document has relevance for all practitioners seeking to enhance their department's recruitment and hiring practices. Specifically, this publication discusses how each site progressed to meet its goals of hiring service-oriented law enforcement recruits and it describes the challenges encountered along the way as well as lessons learned that other agencies and practitioners can replicate.

Police Recruitment and Retention in the Contemporary Urban Environment  
The RAND Center on Quality Policing convened a national summit on police recruitment and retention in the contemporary urban environment in June 2008. This summit, supported by the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services and the National Institute of Justice, brought nearly 60 participants to the RAND Washington Office to discuss the challenges of recruiting and retention of officers. Speakers discussed changing police workforce issues, strategies being employed, lessons that could be learned from other organizations such as the military, and in-depth analyses of police recruiting and retention in selected cities. This document summarizes presentations, discussions, and opinions offered by panelists at the summit.

Today's Police and Sheriff Recruits: Insights from the Newest Members of America's Law Enforcement Community   
This report provides the results of a recruit assessment conducted by RAND, including both findings about the overall sample as well as those focused on groups often of particular interest to law enforcement recruitment professionals: women, racial/ethnic minorities, older recruits, recruits from immigrant families, college graduates, recruits with military experience, and recruits with prior law enforcement experience. Recommendations informed by the results are also featured in the report.

Law Enforcement Recruitment Toolkit  
The Law Enforcement Recruitment Toolkit developed by the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) comprises four reports, each focusing on a different area of recruitment.

Law Enforcement Recruitment Toolkit CD  
Recruiting and staffing challenges, affected by military call-ups, retirements, homeland security obligations, and increased competition, exist for many law enforcement agencies across the United States. The Law Enforcement Recruitment Toolkit CD developed by the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) comprises four reports, each focusing on a different area of recruitment.

Recruitment and Retention for the Modern Law Enforcement Agency: Revised  
On April 18, 2023, at the request of the U.S. Attorney General, more than 35 participants met in Washington, D.C., in a convening hosted by the COPS Office and the Bureau of Justice Assistance to review the current state of law enforcement recruitment and retention and explore ways they can be modernized to meet the needs of today’s agencies, communities, and workforce. The group pinpointed practices that may be contributing to hiring and retention difficulties in several areas: eligibility, benefits and incentives, work/life balance and officer wellness, diversity, image and public relations, and pipeline programs. In each of these areas, leaders from various agencies and community groups proposed solutions that can be implemented at the agency level and also action steps that can be taken by local and state governments as well as the Federal Government to support and institutionalize these changes. This revised publication summarizes the convening and presents the group’s recommendations.

Youth Law Enforcement Experience Programs as a Potential Recruitment Pipeline      
Law enforcement agencies across the United States use youth law enforcement programs such as camps, Explorers, internships, and vocational education programs to introduce young people to the potential of a law enforcement career. The decline in law enforcement applicant pools makes such engagement strategies even more necessary. To help determine the reach and effectiveness of these programs, the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) funded RAND, in partnership with the Law and Public Safety Education Network, to conduct a census of U.S. youth law enforcement programs. This publication, Youth Law Enforcement Experience Programs as a Potential Recruitment Pipeline, summarizes the findings of that census and draws guidance from it for law enforcement agencies implementing their own youth programs. Intended as a roadmap for successful founding, expansion, or continuation of such programs and as a resource for networking among agencies, it describes key program features and considerations. This publication also provides resources for agencies seeking networking and mentorship from agencies with established youth engagement programs.

Hiring for the 21st Century Law Enforcement Officer: Challenges, Opportunities, and Strategies for Success  
The Final Report of the President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing noted that the quality of American policing depends upon the quality of its officers and stressed the importance of hiring individuals who reflect the diversity and values of the community - and also have the character and social skills to positively engage with it. This was emphasized in a later task force meeting with President Obama, who asked the COPS Office to explore promising practices and policies for hiring and retaining officers who meet these requirements. In response, the COPS Office and the Police Executive Research Forum hosted the Hiring for the 21st Century Law Enforcement Officer forum. This report details the discussions and recommendations of the forum, which included experts in police standards, screening, and hiring. Their insights and recommendations in areas such as psychological screening, educational requirements, promotion policies, and methods for retaining the best officers can be of great value to Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) commissions, HR, and agency executives.

Selecting the Best Analyst for the Job  
The rapid growth in applications and usage of crime mapping and analysis in recent years has increased job opportunities for new analysts. As crime analysis has become an established profession, there is a need for consensus about the specific knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics and the extent of formalized training necessary for new analysts. Through various discussion channels, including in-house forums, focus groups, visits with crime analysis units, and participation at annual crime mapping conferences, the Police Foundation's Crime Mapping and Problem Analysis Laboratory recognized the importance of creating hiring standards and a systematic and comprehensive hiring process for selecting highly capable crime analysts. This publication and accompanying CD-ROM focuses on defining the job of a crime analyst and on a model procedure for selecting the best possible crime analyst for your agency.

Establishing Appropriate Staffing Levels for Campus Public Safety Departments  
IACLEA engaged Strategic Direction LLC to conduct a study of appropriate campus public safety staffing levels. It conducted a thorough review of existing literature on this topic, convened focus groups to identify staffing issues and considerations, and administered a comprehensive survey of U.S. campus public safety departments. This publication identifies the factors and considerations that impact staffing, including the characteristics of a particular campus, the geographic setting (urban, rural, suburban), number of students, faculty and staff, programs and/or facilities that have security implications, venues and athletic programs that affect campus public safety staffing, and other considerations.

A Performance-Based Approach to Police Staffing Allocation   
A Performance-Based Approach to Police Staffing and Allocation summarizes the research conducted by the Michigan State University team. It highlights the current staffing allocation landscape for law enforcement agencies and provides a practical step-by-step approach for any agency to assess its own patrol staffing needs based upon its workload and performance objectives. Additionally, it identifies some ways beyond the use of sworn staff that workload demand can be managed, and discusses how an agency's approach to community policing implementation can affect staffing allocation and deployment. This guidebook will be particularly useful for police practitioners and planners conducting an assessment of their agency's staffing need, and for researchers interested in police staffing experiences and assessment methods.