Opinion/Solutions: As applications fall, police departments find new ways to woo recruits

In Fairfax County, Va., in the suburbs of Washington, future officers are being treated to a “signing day” ceremony where they formally accept their job offers.

Out-of-state residents who want to join the police force in Louisville, Ky., are being flown in to take entrance tests, put up in a hotel and paired with an officer for a ride-along.

And on the West Coast, some agencies are offering bonuses worth tens of thousands of dollars to lure officers from other departments to transfer.

The economics of law enforcement were long tilted in favor of police departments, which often had far more qualified applicants than they did job openings.

But a steep drop in the number of people wanting to become police officers since the start of the pandemic and the unrest of 2020 have given extraordinary leverage to job seekers, forcing departments to market themselves in new ways.

At a recent conference in Washington held by the Police Executive Research Forum, a law enforcement policy organization, officials from departments across the country said they were struggling.

They were not finding enough people willing and able to fight crime, staff unfilled shifts – and build residents’ trust in the police.

Low unemployment rates, ample job openings and a proliferation of remote work have emboldened people in many fields to seek better pay, new career paths or more time off to spend with family.

And within policing, many departments were already facing a crush of officers nearing retirement age.

But there is broad agreement among police chiefs that the dwindling of the law enforcement talent pool is directly, though not exclusively, linked to the murder of George Floyd by the Minneapolis police and the protests that followed.

“It wasn’t just what happened in Minneapolis – it was felt nationally in a way it never has been,” said Chuck Wexler, the executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum.

A scramble to recruit

There is no comprehensive, real-time federal data on police employment. But a survey of 184 police departments conducted last year by Wexler’s organization found that resignations were 43 percent higher in 2021 than in 2019, and that retirements were 24 percent higher.

Hiring was down significantly in those departments over the same two-year span, though there were more new recruits in 2021 than in 2020.

Brandon Buskey, the director of the Criminal Law Reform Project at the American Civil Liberties Union, said cities searching for new officers should be considering using public safety programs that do not involve policing.

Buskey said he was disappointed with a “return to the status quo of relying on police” since the protests of 2020, as tough-on-crime rhetoric has drowned out some of protesters’ most sweeping calls to overhaul law enforcement, root out systemic racism and rethink spending on public safety.

Since the unrest, many cities have ramped up efforts to send social workers instead of armed officers to some mental health emergencies, or they have introduced new community policing programs.

But even in the places that saw some of the largest protests in 2020, and that considered the most ambitious plans to divert spending from or even disband police departments, agencies are now scrambling to recruit and retain officers.

In Minneapolis, where residents rejected a proposal last year to replace their police department, and where police staffing levels have plummeted, the City Council recently approved $7,000 retention payments for officers to stay on the force.

Hard conversations

The widespread job openings and the intense competition for recruits have forced some hard conversations about how officers are hired and what requirements they must meet.

Some departments have sought to streamline lengthy and opaque application processes that once dragged on for months. Others have revisited longstanding hiring policies that disqualified people for past marijuana use or low credit scores – policies that they said could disproportionately hurt nonwhite applicants. And some departments have revamped fitness requirements that weeded out otherwise-qualified women.

But not all departments are struggling.

‘Greatest job in the world’

In Marion, Va., in the state’s rural southwest, the police department had been successful recruiting officers in part because of strong support from residents and a focus on quality of life, said Police Chief John Clair.

In Clearwater, Fla., Chief Daniel Slaughter said an increase in resignations had been largely offset by an influx of officers from other states. Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, a Republican, has showered praise on law enforcement and signed a law offering $5,000 bonuses for police recruits.

Kevin Davis, the chief in Fairfax County, Va., said the current job market has made departments think differently about how they recruit. The department has eased rules on hairstyles and tattoos and pays bonuses to new officers.

But more than anything, Davis said, recruiters are trying to develop personal connections with prospective applicants.

“Big picture, we have to find a way as a profession to inspire young people to put their hand in the air and want to do this tough, tough work,” he said. “It’s still the greatest job in the world.”

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