Police Recruitment
and Selection
Resources and Lessons for Workforce Building
Jeremy M. Wilson Clifford A. Grammich
This project was supported, in whole or in part, by cooperative agreement 15JCOPS-
22-GK-03551 awarded to Michigan State University by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office
of Community Oriented Policing Services. The opinions contained herein are those of the
author(s) or contributor(s) and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies
of the U.S. Department of Justice. References to specific individuals, agencies, companies,
products, or services should not be considered an endorsement by the author(s), the contribu-
tor(s), or the U.S. Department of Justice. Rather, the references are illustrations to supplement
discussion of the issues.
The internet references cited in this publication were valid as of the date of publication. Given
that URLs and websites are in constant flux, neither the author(s), the contributor(s), nor the
COPS Office can vouch for their current validity.
This resource was developed under a federal award and may be subject to copyright. The
U.S. Department of Justice reserves a royalty-free, nonexclusive, and irrevocable license to
reproduce, publish, or otherwise use and to authorize others to use this resource for Federal
Government purposes. This resource may be freely distributed and used for noncommercial
and educational purposes only.
Recommended citation:
Wilson, Jeremy M., and Clifford A. Grammich. 2023. Police Recruitment and Selection:
Resources and Lessons for Workforce Building. Washington, DC: Office of Community
Oriented Policing Services.
Published 2023
Contents
Introduction ..................................................
...............................................
................................................
..........................................
......................................
1
Resource Chart 6
Resource List 11
About the Authors 27
About the COPS Office 28
Introduction
Police Recruitment and Selection: Resources and Lessons for Workforce Building
1
P
ersonnel are the foundation for the work of all police organizations. Indeed,
personnel costs account for most expenditures for local U.S. police departments.
1
Local governments across the nation employ nearly 700,000 sworn officers and
more than 200,000 nonsworn personnel for policework.
Recruiting and selecting personnel for such a large workforce is a large, continuing,
and growing challenge for U.S. police agencies. For several years, police agencies
have been losing officers faster than they can hire new ones.
2
Police organizations
report several strategies to increase recruitment and improve selection.
3
Yet not all
solutions will succeed for all agencies. More critically, few agencies have the capacity
or resources to developsolutions.
Ongoing research led by Michigan State University is seeking to identify the most
effective strategies that police organizations may use to recruit and select officers (as
well as support other aspects of staffing). This publication highlights resources that
are relatively recent and in-depth and that list comprehensive or rigorously tested
tactics or explore novel or innovative strategies not discussed elsewhere. The focus
is on unique or particularly insightful U.S. sources, but some helpful ones from other
nations are included aswell.
The goal of this publication is to provide information to
the law enforcement field about existing methods for
These resources
improving recruitment and selection. This work is not
are presented in
two ways.
meant to be exhaustive but rather to promote awareness
of recent relevant research and professional publications
that may not be visible or accessible to practitioners.
Many of these resources have reference lists that will
guide the reader to other publications on theseissues.
These resources are presented in two ways. First, a table lists the resources alpha-
betically by title along with page references within them where readers might find
further information on various specific recruiting and selection issues. The issue
domains categorized in this way are analysis and benchmarking, cadet or intern pro-
grams, focus on race and ethnicity, focus on women, focus on other underrepresented
1. Emily D. Buehler, Justice Expenditures and Employment in the United States, 2017, NCJ 256093
(Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2021), https://bjs.ojp.gov/library/publications/justice-
expenditures-and-employment-united-states-2017.
2. Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), “New PERF Survey Shows Police Agencies Are Losing Officers
Faster than They Can Hire New Ones,” April 1, 2023, https://www.policeforum.org/staffing2023.
3. PERF, The Workforce Crisis, and What Police Agencies Are Doing About It (Washington, DC: PERF, 2019),
https://www.policeforum.org/assets/WorkforceCrisis.pdf; Jeremy M. Wilson, Erin Dalton, Charles Scheer,
and Clifford A. Grammich, Police Recruitment and Retention for the New Millennium: The State of Knowledge,
NCJ 232275 (Washington, DC: Office of Justice Programs, 2010), https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/
abstracts/police-recruitment-and-retention-new-millennium-state-knowledge.
Introduction
Police Recruitment and Selection: Resources and Lessons for Workforce Building
2
Introduction
groups, improving processes, incentives, marketing, mentorship, organizational
climate, outreach to community, outreach to schools, selection, and staff recruiters.
Note that there may be other pages in these resources with information on these and
other domains, but the page numbers cited are where these domains are discussed
mostdirectly.
Second, resources are listed alphabetically by title along with useful information for
assessing and accessing them, including the lead author of the resource, the year it
was published, its URL or DOI, and a summary of its contents. All quotations are from
the resourcesdescribed.
The resources include both broadly focused publications from organizations dis-
cussing wide-ranging issues and more narrowly focused academic publications with
precise analyses, sometimes backed by experimental evidence. Each has its unique
strengths, depending on the breadth and depth of issues a department wishes to
address. Altogether, the information in this guide provides users a means for launch-
ing evidence-based approaches to improving recruitment and selection practices.
Concurrent with this project, in April 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of
Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) and Bureau of Justice Assistance
(BJA) convened law enforcement and community leaders from across the country to
discuss best practices and solutions to address recruitment challenges. A report on
that convening was released just prior to the completion of this publication and should
be considered an additional resource for leaders in thefield.
4
The resources include both
broadly focused publications
from organizations discussing
wide-ranging issues and more
narrowly focused academic
publications with precise
analyses, sometimes backed
by experimental evidence.
4. Bureau of Justice Assistance and Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, Recruitment and
Retention for the Modern Law Enforcement Agency (Washington, DC: Office of Community Oriented Policing
Services, 2023), https://portal.cops.usdoj.gov/resourcecenter?item=cops-r1136.
Police Recruitment and Selection: Resources and Lessons for Workforce Building
3
Future research by the Michigan State team will discuss recruiting and selection
tactics from these and other sources more systematically, including input from practi-
tioners on those that are most helpful for various performance goals. It will also look
into the infrastructure necessary to support an effective recruitment and hiring pro-
gram. These are pieces of a much larger national platform of research meant to pro-
vide the law enforcement community evidence-based lessons for workforceplanning.
Our broader research on recruitment and selection is part of the Michigan State
University Police Staffing Observatory (https://cj.msu.edu/research-excellence/pso/
pso-home.html and https://www.linkedin.com/company/michigan-state-university-
police-staffing-observatory/). The Police Staffing Observatory is a global collaborative
of academics, scholars, practitioners, and students who have come together to
promote evidence-based police workforce research, strategy, and operations. Its
primary aims are to advance police workforce knowledge and its applicationby
• conducting timely and innovative research on critical aspects of
a wide range of police staffing issues, resulting in scholarly and
practitioner-oriented publications;
• creating a venue for the network of police staffing scholars to share
opportunities, discuss ideas, and enable collaborations;
• facilitating research-practitioner partnerships and technical assistance;
• serving as a repository and dissemination vehicle for collaborators’
research of so that it is easily discoverable by practitioners and others.
Through its facilitation of research and outreach, the Police Staffing Observatory is
a community of science that ultimately serves as a valuable resource for the com-
munity of practice. It currently has links to more than 100 resources for practitioners
andresearchers.
For more information on this work or the Police Staffing Observatory, please contact
Jeremy Wilson, Director and Professor, at jwilson@msu.edu.
Introduction
Resource Chart
Police Recruitment and Selection: Resources and Lessons for Workforce Building Police Recruitment and Selection: Resources and Lessons for Workforce Building
r
f
6 7
Resource Chart
See
page
Resource
Page references for recruitment and selection topics Page references for recruitment and selection topics
Analysis /
benchmarking
Cadet or intern
programs
ethnicity
Focus on race /
Focus on
women
Focus on
groups
other
unde represented
Improving
processes
Incentives
Marketing
Mentorship
Organizational
climate
Outreach to
community
Outreach to
schools
Selection
Sta f
recruiters
11 Advancing Diversity in Law Enforcement vi–b vi–a vi–b vi–a vi–a, vii vi–a vi–b
11
Articulating the Dynamic Police Staffing
Challenge: An Examination of Supply and
Demand
343–344 343 338 343
12
Blueprint for Law Enforcement
Recruitment and Retention in the 21st
Century: Principles of a Comprehensive
Recruitment, Hiring, Promotion, and
Retention Strategy
16, 26, 28 16 10, 15 11, 15, 26, 28 14 14–15, 26–27 10, 31 16, 28 26 13, 28 13–15, 28
13
Diversifying the Police Applicant Pool:
Motivations of Women and Minority
Candidates Seeking Police Employment
217 212–218 212–218 218 216 217 217–218
13
Enhancing Recruitment and Retention
of Visible Minority Police Officers in
Canadian Police Agencies
466, 471 457, 473 466 458, 460–461 466, 471, 474 457, 4 64 472
14
An Examination of Recruiting and
Selection Practices to Promote Diversity
for Colorado State Troopers
13–15, 17–20 6
9–10, 12, 16,
19–20
6, 8–10, 14,
16–20
6, 10–11, 17,
19–20
15–16, 20
4, 6, 11–13, 15,
16, 20
6, 19 14 4 4, 18 3–10, 18–19 4, 6, 10, 16, 18
14
Finding Good Cops: The Foundations of a
Screen-In (Not Out) Hiring Process for Police
687
15
Gendered Messages in Police
Recruitment: Understanding the Impacts
of Descriptors and Physical Fitness
Requirements on Potential Applicants
470 470
16
Hiring for the 21st Century Law Enforce-
ment Officer: Challenges, Opportunities,
and Strategies for Success
3, 15, 26, 41–44 9–13 33–39 10, 26, 43, 49 46 34, 42, 47, 49 45–49 6–8, 26 9, 44–45
9–11, 13–16,
18–23, 26–27,
53–58
16
Innovation and Transparency in the Recruit-
ment of Women in Australian Policing
528, 530,
534,536
529–532 528–538 535 528, 530
530, 532–534,
536
530, 534 529–531, 535 535
17
Interest in Police Patrol Careers: An
Assessment of Potential Candidates'
Impressions of the Police Recruitment,
Selection, and Training Processes
19–20 23–24 20 6, 19 7–8, 10, 19
17
Law Enforcement Recruitment in the 21st
Century: Forum Proceedings
10–11, 19 11–12, 24 13–15 15–18 11 18 11, 18–19 14 12, 14, 16, 17 11, 13–14 5–6, 11, 14 10–11, 16–17
18
Leveling the P
laying Field in Police
Recruitment: Evidence from a Field
Experiment on Test Performance
947–953
18
Low Police-Public Social Distance as the
Key to Recruiting
186–189 186 186–189 186–189
Police Recruitment and Selection: Resources and Lessons for Workforce Building Police Recruitment and Selection: Resources and Lessons for Workforce Building
r
f
8 9
Resource chart
See
page
Resource
Page references for recruitment and selection topics Page references for recruitment and selection topics
Analysis /
benchmarking
Cadet or intern
programs
ethnicity
Focus on race /
Focus on
women
Focus on
groups
other
unde represented
Improving
processes
Incentives
Marketing
Mentorship
Organizational
climate
Outreach to
community
Outreach to
schools
Selection
Sta f
recruiters
19
The Model Police Officer: Recruitment,
Training, and Community Engagement
29 9−10 11−12 29 28 10,29 29 10, 14–19, 29 14–19, 29 19–22, 28 10–11
19
More than Public Service: A Field
Experiment on Job Advertisements and
Diversity in the Police
77–79 71–77 71–77 70–71, 77–79
20
Police Recruitment and Retention for the
New Millennium: The State of Knowledge
xv, 44–46,
70–72, 89
10–12, 18,
79–80
18 18 18, 80–81 18, 21 18, 21, 52–54
xv, 18, 21, 58,
75 –77, 79
21, 51–52, 74,
79
70, 72 71–72, 77–78 79–80 49, 81–87 18, 73–74
21
Police Recruitment Videos and Their
Relevance for Attracting Officers
6–7 5–11 7, 10 8
21
Preventing Attrition among Women and
Minority Police Applicants
1040–1041 1035–1043 1035–1043
1038, 1041,
1043
1040
1040–1041,
1043
1038, 1040,
1042
1038, 1041
22
Promoting the Police: A Thematic Analysis
of the New Zealand Police Recruitment
Campaigns and the Construction of
Officers' Identities
228 228 228–229 227–233 229
22
Recruiting for Diversity in Law
Enforcement: Selected Research Insights
29 4
6–8, 11–14,
17, 19, 24–25,
27–30
8, 11–16, 18–19,
24 –27, 29 –30
4, 15
5–6, 11, 14,
21–22
9, 27
7–10, 11–14,
16–19, 22–25,
29–30
6, 7, 21, 24,
27–30
7, 13, 15, 20–21 7, 26 4, 11, 22, 30 14, 16, 24
23
Recruiting and Retaining Officers in Small
and Rural Agencies
26–27 26–27 26 26–27, 33–34
24–29,
31–32,
35
31 25
23
Responding to the Staffing Crisis:
Innovations in Recruitment and Retention
31, 65–66
6, 8, 35–37,
40–41, 68
5, 9, 21–22,
31, 33, 35–36,
40, 68
5, 22–25,
28–29, 31, 34,
41, 68
17–18, 20–26,
30–34
5, 31,
37–39, 68
4, 6–7, 14,
40–41, 50–52,
55–56, 68
5–6, 20, 31–37,
40–41, 50, 68
19, 26, 36,
39–41, 47, 68
1, 3–4, 7,
17–18, 20,
23–24, 40–42,
51–52, 64
9, 33–35
4–6, 31, 34–37,
68
6, 25–32, 68 25, 40–41
24
Review of the Prince William County, VA
Police Department's Recruitment and Hiring
Practices: Final Report
12–14, 19,
21, 36, 41–43,
50, 55, 64, 66,
70, 81
73
8, 10, 13, 21,
42–43, 79, 88
12, 19–21,
74–75, 88
5, 9, 29
4–8, 11, 14–15,
17–18, 16–27,
32, 36, 40–44,
52–54, 56,
64–69, 79–81
20, 73–74
7, 18–21,
70–75, 81
73, 88 6 74 74
4–14, 17–18,
20–21, 25–30,
42–45, 49,
51–54, 64–69
76–77
24
A Signaling Theory of Law Enforcement
Hiring
519 5
19 519
514–515,
519–521
25
Thick Red Tape and the Thin Blue Line:
AField Study on Reducing Administrative
Burden in Police Recruitment
100
25
The Workforce Crisis, and What Police
Agencies Are Doing About It
12–13
14, 38–39,
40–42,
50, 59
14, 42–44,
59
10, 14,
42–43, 46, 56,
59
13, 14,
37–46
10, 14–15, 32,
46–48, 59
10, 30,
33–34, 59
10, 14, 24,
32, 37–42,
47–50
10, 38,
41–42, 45
42, 51, 56
13, 23–24, 27,
39–42, 45
10, 14,
37–39, 42–43
15, 45, 48
RESOURCE List
Police Recruitment and Selection: Resources and Lessons for Workforce Building
11
Title: Advancing Diversity in Law Enforcement
Date: 2016
Lead Author: Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Location: https://www.eeoc.gov/advancing-diversity-law-enforcement
Acce ss status: Free
A bs t r ac t: This report was part of the Advancing Diversity in Law Enforcement
initiative, which sought “to identify barriers that undermine diversity in law enforce-
ment and to highlight promising practices that help agencies better reflect the diver-
sity of the communities they serve.” It focused on barriers and promising practices
in recruitment, hiring, and retention. Among its overall suggestions were “ensuring
that the agency’s organizational culture is guided by community policing,” “engaging
stakeholders” throughout the community to help create a workforce that reflects the
community, and “being willing to re-evaluate employment criteria, standards, and
benchmarks.” Promising recruitment practices it identifies include “proactive and tar-
geted community outreach,” “partnerships with educational institutions and providing
young people with internship programs,” and “effective, innovative use of technol-
ogy and social media [to] connect with all members of the community.” Promising
hiring practices identified include “adopting a holistic view of [applicant] skills and
strengths;” “reconsider[ing] selection criteria . . . that do not correspond to job-related
duties, and that disproportionately screen out individuals from underrepresented
populations;” “streamlin[ing] and ma[king] more transparent hiring and selection
procedures,” including help to applicants preparing for examinations; and “involv[ing]
community members in the hiring process.” The report also presents case studies of
six agencies that sought to increase theirdiversity.
Resource List
Title: Articulating the Dynamic Police Staffing Challenge:
AnExamination of Supply and Demand
Date: 2012
Lead Author: Jeremy M. Wilson
Location: https://doi.org/10.1108/PIJPSM.18137aaa.004
Acce ss status: Available through subscription or one-time purchase
A bs t r ac t: This article reviews more than 150 works on police recruitment and
retention, with discussions on the demand for police, the supply of police, and how
systemic and episodic changes affect each. It notes challenges arising from increases
Police Recruitment and Selection: Resources and Lessons for Workforce Building
12
Resource List
in attrition, decreases in recruitment, and expansion of police responsibilities. To
attract officers, agencies have offered incentives “ranging from signing bonuses and
moving expenses to health-club memberships and mortgage discount programs.”
Some may also relax age, education, or residency requirements or become more
tolerant of experimental drug use, bad credit history, or minor arrest records. Such ini-
tiatives should consider their effects in the context of officer quality and performance.
Agencies may seek “to revamp internal procedures, such as screening, interviews,
background investigations, and identifying characteristics predictive of hiring suc-
cess.” Finally, agencies may wish to rely on research regarding the “police workforce
environment” to adapt to changing preferences and attributes of applicants, and on
the demand for police services to explore alternative ways of meetingit.
Title: Blueprint for Law Enforcement Recruitment and Retention in
the 21st Century: Principles of a Comprehensive Recruitment, Hiring,
Promotion, and Retention Strategy
Date:
2022
Lead Author: Christopher Sun
Location: https://bja.ojp.gov/library/publications/
blueprint-law-enforcement-recruitment-and-retention-21st-century
Acce ss status: Free
A bs t r ac t: This report offers a four-part comprehensive recruitment and retention
strategy for police agencies. Its recruitment strategies are “effective and equitable
approaches to expand the pool of officer candidates” and “identification of the best
candidates during screening and selection.” Recommendations include “engag[ing]
with and attract[ing] candidates who are representative of the communities” that
agencies serve and “identify[ing] candidates that have the important traits and quali-
ties needed to be a successful and productive officer while also effectively screening
out undesirable individuals.”
Police Recruitment and Selection: Resources and Lessons for Workforce Building
13
Resource List
Title: Diversifying the Police Applicant Pool: Motivations of Women and
Minority Candidates Seeking Police Employment
Date:
2019
Lead Author: Jennifer C. Gibbs
Location: https://doi.org/10.1080/1478601X.2019.1579717
Acce ss status: Available through subscription or one-time purchase
A bs t r ac t: This work explores reasons cited by women and minority candidates for
applying to a large police agency in the northeastern United States. The most com-
mon reasons cited were pursuing “policing as a childhood dream, making a difference
in the community and the opportunity to help people, and believing policing was a
good transition from military to civilian life.” The least-cited reasons were salary, ben-
efits, and job security. Among its specific recommendations are “encouraging daugh-
ters of current and retired officers to join the agency,” “incentives for minority officers
who recruit family and friends,” “following up with young women and young people
of color enrolled in Police Explorers programs” and developing cadet programs,
“recruiting through veterans’ organizations,” and “visit[ing] criminal justice courses at
local colleges and universities to encourage young women toapply.”
Title: Enhancing Recruitment and Retention of Visible Minority Police
Officers in Canadian Policing Agencies
Date:
2021
Lead Author: Catherine Rigaux
Location: https://doi.org/10.1080/10439463.2020.1750611
Acce ss status: Available through subscription or one-time purchase
A bs t r ac t: To better understand how to improve recruitment of police officers, this
study interviewed minority police officers in a western Canadian police organization
about the barriers to recruitment and retention of “visible minorities.” Among the gen-
eral barriers cited were organizational culture that was slow to change and the inabil-
ity of leadership to follow through on improving diversity. The article recommends
“re-engineering the recruitment process” to ensure “that mandatory requirements
do not create ‘unintended barriers for reasons that have nothing to do with whether
you’d be a great officer.’” This might include, for example, eliminating or modifying
age requirements, credit checks, criminal record bans, aptitude tests, and long periods
at a training depot. At the same time, the article stresses the need to maintain quality
Police Recruitment and Selection: Resources and Lessons for Workforce Building
14
Resource List
standards. The article also notes the need for diversity among recruiters and in the
ranks of police leadership to attract more minority candidates. It also stresses the
need for referrals, mentoring, and community engagement, including through “gate-
keepers” who can help establish communityrelationships.
Title: An Examination of Recruiting and Selection Practices to Promote
Diversity for Colorado State Troopers
Date:
2019
Lead Author: Tracy C. Krueger
Location: https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR2999.html
Acce ss status: Free
A bs t r ac t: This report examines the Colorado State Patrol’s efforts to recruit a
workforce that better reflects the demographic characteristics of the state. Among
the barriers to diversifying the workforce that it identifies are “the composition of
the current workforce, the nature of the job, relocation requirements, and the lengthy
hiring process.” Recommendations include “assessing propensity to apply, deter-
mining why applicants drop out, adjusting application windows, exploring strategies
to shorten background investigations, and providing a realistic job preview.” The
Colorado State Patrol also moved to an online application system, added “real-time
communication opportunities” for applicants on its website, standardized its email
communications with prospective applicants, and removed the physical fitness test as
a pass-failoutcome.
Title: Finding Good Cops: The Foundations of a Screen-In (Not Out)
Hiring Process for Police
Date:
2022
Lead Author: Brice Terpstra
Location: https://doi.org/10.1108/PIJPSM-08-2021-0116
Acce ss status: Available through subscription or one-time purchase
A bs t r ac t: This study surveyed officers of an Arizona police department regard-
ing their “perceptions of the most important qualities necessary to be an exceptional
police officer, as well as the optimal processes for finding people with these traits.”
Police Recruitment and Selection: Resources and Lessons for Workforce Building
15
Resource List
The results confirm the findings of earlier research on the importance of honesty,
integrity, ethics, compassion, empathy, and communication and listening skills. The
authors also suggest “expansion of existing screen-out processes to also screen-in
desirable prospects, application of some academy training processes to the hiring
pool, and more proactive recruitment efforts” to identify candidates with desired
traits. The article recommends in particular finding “veterans with a guardian philos-
ophy,” “focus[ing] on students with undergraduate majors that emphasize targeted
traits, such as social work teaching, nursing, communications, and psychology,” or
“target[ing] people who work in those professions, as well as those who have success-
ful experience in other service industries that require dealing effectively with people
(e.g., bartending, food service,retail).”
Title: Gendered Messages in Police Recruitment: Understanding the
Impacts of Descriptors and Physical Fitness Requirements on Potential
Applicants
Date:
2019
Lead Author: Michael Francis Aiello
Location: https://doi.org/10.1108/PIJPSM-05-2018-0072
Acce ss status: Available through subscription or one-time purchase
A bs t r ac t: This work explores how potential applicants might respond to specifica-
tion of physical requirements in police recruitment requirements. It finds that, contrary
to much previous research, women were more likely to provide their contact infor-
mation for recruitment when they knew an agency’s physical fitness requirements.
This suggests “that departments should not be concerned about limiting the pool of
women applicants by stating their age and sex-categorized physical fitness require-
ments. In fact, this choice may actually improve applicant pooldiversity.”
Police Recruitment and Selection: Resources and Lessons for Workforce Building
16
Resource List
Title: Hiring for the 21st Century Law Enforcement Officer: Challenges,
Opportunities, and Strategies for Success
Date:
2017
Lead Author: Kevin P. Morison
Location: https://portal.cops.usdoj.gov/resourcecenter?item=cops-w0831
Acce ss status: Free
A bs t r ac t: This document summarizes discussions of a forum held among expert
practitioners in police standards, screening, and hiring, including representatives from
police labor organizations, state agencies responsible for police standards, professional
associations, municipal civil service agencies, practitioners in police psychology, and
academic experts. Themes of the forum included “Hiring candidates who share the val-
ues and vision of the community and the department,” “Making the hiring process more
efficient,” and “Advancing diversity and inclusiveness in the hiringprocess.”
Title: Innovation and Transparency in the Recruitment of Women in
Australian Policing
Date:
2020
Lead Author: Aiyana Ward
Location: https://doi.org/10.1080/15614263.2020.1720955
Acce ss status: Available through subscription or one-time purchase
A bs t r ac t: This paper “reviews developments in gender equity–oriented recruit-
ment policies” in Australia from 2015 to 2019, summarizing findings for each of the six
states as well as the federal police and Northern Territory police. Its “primary aim was
to identify successful or promising strategies to increase the number of female offi-
cers, with possible transferable lessons.” Four of the eight departments had explicit
50:50 male-female recruitment targets, and five had recruitment campaigns targeted
toward women. Targeting included advertising and incentives focused on women,
women-only information sessions and recruiting rounds, and female mentoring.
Efforts also included profiling female officers on social media and developing a public
image that would “encourage women to ask themselves whether they have the attri-
butes that policingrequires.”
Police Recruitment and Selection: Resources and Lessons for Workforce Building
17
Resource List
Title: Interest in Police Patrol Careers: An Assessment of Potential
Candidates’ Impressions of the Police Recruitment, Selection, and
TrainingProcesses
Date:
2018
Lead Author: Charles Scheer
Location: https://aquila.usm.edu/fac_pubs/15651/
Acce ss status: Free
A bs t r ac t: This research explores why potential applicants may or may not choose
careers in police patrol work. It surveyed college students enrolled in criminal justice
courses to gauge their perceptions of the policing profession, the application pro-
cess, public demands of police officers, and police training, focusing on “fear points”
regarding each of these. Most students saw patrol work as a step to some other career
path. Most also noted having a mentor would influence their decision regarding polic-
ing. Nearly half said they have little knowledge about the realities of a police academy.
Non-White students were more likely than White students to say their families would
disapprove of becoming a patrol officer. Most saw police patrol work as requiring
substantial lifestyle changes. Among the principal recommendations of the report are
providing applicants individualized guidance and communication aboutpolicing.
Title: Law Enforcement Recruitment in the 21st Century:
Forum Proceedings
Date:
2017
Lead Author: James E. Copple
Location: https://portal.cops.usdoj.gov/resourcecenter?item=cops-w0830
Acce ss status: Free
A bs t r ac t: This document summarizes discussions of a forum held by the Office
of Community Oriented Policing Services and Strategic Applications International on
law enforcement recruitment. Forum participants included representatives from law
enforcement and community organizations, researchers, and subject-matter experts.
Forum topics included characteristics of the ideal recruit and recruiting action steps
for female, LGBTQ, and millennial law enforcementcandidates.
Police Recruitment and Selection: Resources and Lessons for Workforce Building
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Resource List
Title: Levelling the Playing Field in Police Recruitment: Evidence from a
Field Experiment on Test Performance
Date:
2017
Lead Author: Elizabeth Linos
Location: ht tps: //doi.org/10.1111/padm.123 4 4
Acce ss status: Available through subscription or one-time purchase
A bs t r ac t: This work reports the results of a randomized controlled trial in a United
Kingdom police force where a disproportionate number of minority applicants chose
not to complete an online situational judgment test. This online test is mandatory for
continued consideration in the hiring process and “is meant to capture how potential
recruits would react to different realistic situations in which they may find themselves
as a police officer.” The intervention was to change the email eligible applicants
received before taking the text. For half the sample, the intervention “removed any
language that was unnecessary and may have caused anxiety,” “changed the lan-
guage to be more positive and to prime success and belonging,” and added language
to encourage applicants to reflect on why they wanted to join the force. The inter-
vention resulted in “a 50 percent increase in the probability of passing the test for
minority applicants in the treatment group, with no effect on white applicants.” That
is, it “closed the racial gap in the pass rate without lowering the recruitment standard
or changing the assessmentquestions.”
Title: Low Police-Public Social Distance as the Key to Recruiting
Date: 2020
Lead Author: Jennifer C. Gibbs
Location: https://doi.org/10.1093/police/pay020
Acce ss status: Available through subscription or one-time purchase
A bs t r ac t: This study explores whether creating “low social distance may be
one way police agencies can attract more women and minority applicants.” It tested
this assertion by surveying a sample of university students on interest in being
a police officer. Having a family member or friend as a police officer increased
interest in policing among men, while knowing a police officer by name increased
interest among women. The authors note, “reducing social distance by acquainting
citizens—especially women and minority candidates—with the police may be a fruitful
Police Recruitment and Selection: Resources and Lessons for Workforce Building
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Resource List
avenue of exploration for police recruiters.” More specifically, the authors suggest
management provide incentives to officers to recruit qualified applicants, especially
women and minority candidates.
Title: The Model Police Officer: Recruitment, Training, and
Community Engagement
Date:
2018
Lead Author: International City/County Management Association
Location: https://icma.org/documents/
model-police-officer-recruitment-training-and-community-engagement
Acce ss status: Free
A bs t r ac t: This document presents views of local government leaders and staff,
police chiefs and union representatives, and community members regarding “model”
police officers, their characteristics, and how to recruit them. The project interviewed
from two to ten representatives of 28 communities of varying size nationwide. Many
police staff were unsure of the most effective recruiting method, and a few even said
there were no effective recruitment strategies, but those identifying specific strategies
most frequently cited relationship or “word-of-mouth” recruiting, recruiting college
students, or advertising on socialmedia.
Title: More than Public Service: A Field Experiment on Job
Advertisements and Diversity in the Police
Date:
2018
Lead Author: Elizabeth Linos
Location: https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/mux032
Acce ss status: Free
A bs t r ac t: This study presents the results of a field experiment in Chattanooga,
Tennessee, aimed at increasing diversity of police force applicants. Specifically, it
compares the results of postcard messaging focusing on public service motivations
for policing with that focusing on the personal benefits of policing (e.g., challenge
of the job or career benefits). It found the public service motivation messages were
“ineffective at attracting candidates who would not have applied anyway,” while the
Police Recruitment and Selection: Resources and Lessons for Workforce Building
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Resource List
personal benefits messages were “three times as effective at getting individuals to
apply . . . without an observable loss in applicant quality,” and were “particularly
effective for people of color andwomen.”
Title: Police Recruitment and Retention for the New Millennium:
TheState of Knowledge
Date:
2010
Lead Author: Jeremy M. Wilson
Location: https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/
police-recruitment-and-retention-new-millennium-state-knowledge
Acce ss status: Free
A bs t r ac t: This work explores the threefold challenge that local police agencies
face in staffing. First is attrition, resulting from retirements or decisions of younger
officers to leave policing for other fields. Second is the diminishing supply of new
officers, resulting from changing generational preferences or expanded require-
ments that reduce the number of individuals who qualify for police work. Third is
the expanded duties that policing agencies must undertake, such as the adoption of
community policing or increased emphasis on homeland security. Among its sugges-
tions for recruitment and selection are involving the community in the hiring process,
developing a separate recruitment team and incentives for it, comparing benefits with
those of other employers seeking applicants, investing in high-quality media, selling
the profession of policing as a service career, providing realistic job previews, commu-
nicating consistently with applicants, developing a cadet or intern program, targeting
second-career applicants, streamlining the application and testing process, developing
an assessment team, and considering which recruiting standards might berelaxed.
Police Recruitment and Selection: Resources and Lessons for Workforce Building
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Resource List
Title: Police Recruitment Videos and Their Relevance for
Attracting Officers
Date:
2022
Lead Author: Rylan Simpson
Location: https://doi.org/10.1093/police/paac057
Acce ss status: Available through subscription or one-time purchase
A bs t r ac t: This work analyzes the content of recruitment videos from 567 U.S.
police agencies. It finds “that in addition to some technical information about the
job, many videos also feature high-speed driving, the use of firearms, the demon-
stration of canine as well as special weapons and tactics units, and an emphasis on
men, masculinity, and physicality.” The article suggests that “recruitment videos may
misrepresent the reality of work for many police officers” and thereby “impact who
decides to pursue policing careers.” The article further suggests that “transforming
the image of policing via recruitment materials could minimize interest among some
groups who were attracted to the ‘action-packed’ image of the job, but simultaneously
increase interest among other groups who . . . would still be excellent candidates for
policingcareers.”
Title: Preventing Attrition among Women and Minority Police Applicants
Date: 2020
Lead Author: Jennifer C. Gibbs
Location: https://doi.org/10.1093/police/paaa069
Acce ss status: Available through subscription or one-time purchase
A bs t r ac t: This work explores reasons for withdrawal from the application pro-
cess among 143 women and minority police applicants to a large agency in the north-
eastern United States. The primary reasons for withdrawal, after change of mind or
another personal reason, were finding other employment or the length of the hiring
process. The author suggests increasing communication to applicants, shortening the
hiring process, and hiring continuously assolutions.
Police Recruitment and Selection: Resources and Lessons for Workforce Building
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Resource List
Title: Promoting the Police: A Thematic Analysis of the New Zealand
Police Recruitment Campaigns and the Construction of Officers’ Identities
Date:
2022
Lead Author: Angelique Nairn
Location: https://doi.org/10.1177/26338076221085310
Acce ss status: Available through subscription or one-time purchase
A bs t r ac t: This article examines a recruitment campaign that helped New Zealand
Police exceed monthly application targets. The analysis identifies four key themes
of the campaign: (1) that police make New Zealand safe, (2) that New Zealand Police
comprise diverse personnel, (3) that police officers are normal people, and (4) that law
enforcement is a rewarding career. The videos demonstrating that police are normal
people featured officers discussing the meaning of their tattoos as well as reference
to the removal of height restrictions. The videos on policing as an interesting and
rewarding career conveyed the message that “joining the police would allow a person
to ‘get better work stories’” in an organization that encourages personaldevelopment.
Title: Recruiting for Diversity in Law Enforcement: Selected Recent
Research Insights
Date:
2021
Lead Author: Jane Wiseman
Location: https://scholar.harvard.edu/sites/scholar.harvard.edu/files/janewiseman/
files/police_recruiting_research_summary_august_2021.pdf
Acce ss status: Free
A bs t r ac t: This report “seeks to assist law enforcement agencies in hiring a
diverse force.” Its recommendations are to “widen outreach strategies to attract more
candidates,” “make the process more efficient,” “support recruits so that fewer aban-
don the process,” “employ targeted recruitment strategies to attract candidates of
color [and] female candidates,” and “experiment with recruiting varied messages and
their focus on what works.” It offers specific tactics for following these recommenda-
tions, a “thematic summary of research insights” including specific examples of their
application, and a listing of studies on which the report isbased.
Police Recruitment and Selection: Resources and Lessons for Workforce Building
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Resource List
Title: Recruiting and Retaining Officers in Small and Rural Agencies
Date: 2020
Lead Author: Kelly Bradley
Location: https://portal.cops.usdoj.gov/resourcecenter?item=cops-p426
Acce ss status: Free
A bs t r ac t: This document summarizes “a day-long forum to discuss recruitment
and retention challenges for smaller and more rural law enforcement agencies.” The
report draws on previous recruitment and retention research while recognizing a
lack of focus on smaller and rural departments. The forum explored whether smaller
departments engage in qualitatively different strategies than larger departments
do. Specific tactics discussed include investing in marketing, directed recruitment to
underrepresented groups, community engagement, and cadet and intern programs.
Title: Responding to the Staffing Crisis: Innovations in Recruitment
andRetention
Date:
2023
Lead Author: Police Executive Research Forum
Location: https://www.policeforum.org/assets/RecruitmentRetention.pdf
Acce ss status: Free
A bs t r ac t: This report builds on a previous report by the Police Executive Research
Forum on the workforce crisis in police agencies. It notes continuing increases in
officer retirements and resignations and decreases in applications leading to dropping
staffing levels. Strategies it suggests for boosting recruiting include re-examining
hiring processes, adopting innovative recruiting strategies (e.g., social media
outreach), “going upstream” (e.g., to schools) to identify future officers, updating
hiring standards to reflect current needs, and offering recruitment incentives (e.g.,
housing assistance).
Police Recruitment and Selection: Resources and Lessons for Workforce Building
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Resource List
Title: Review of the Prince William County, VA Police Department’s
Recruitment and Hiring Practices: Final Report
Date:
2021
Lead Author: Police Executive Research Forum
Location: https://www.pwcva.gov/assets/2021-07/PWC%20Report%20Final.pdf
Acce ss status: Free
A bs t r ac t: This report reviews recruitment and hiring of the Prince William County
(Virginia) Police Department. It includes a review of the department’s protocols and
processes for hiring and recruitment, an analysis of data on its job applicants, and
findings from interviews with department staff. It highlights good practices by the
department and makes specific recommendations forimprovement.
Title: A Signaling Theory of Law Enforcement Hiring
Date: 2017
Lead Author: Susan Hilal
Location: https://doi.org/10.1080/10439463.2015.1081388
Acce ss status: Available through subscription or one-time purchase
A bs t r ac t: This study interviews police chiefs in Minnesota, where law enforce-
ment candidates must have completed at least a two-year degree from an accredited
institution as well as professional police officer education before being hired. Such a
system, the authors note, “creates a large pool of ostensibly identical license-eligible
candidates, hence this article examines how hiring managers separate the high-quality
ones from their low-quality counterparts.” The article suggests “evaluating observable
signs” of candidates “that chiefs believe to be correlated with unobservable trust-
warranting properties, such as honesty, loyalty, and cultural competency.” It also
notes the need to have schools “reach out to potential high-quality candidates early
and try to ‘sell them’ into the profession, particularly people of color and low socio-
economic status who may be deterred” by the cost and burdens of the qualification
process. Often, it says, “High-quality candidates may not even be aware they are well
suited for a career in law enforcement.” At the same time, it suggests schools “be hon-
est who aren’t cut out for law enforcement” and who therefore may wish to pursue
otherfields.
Police Recruitment and Selection: Resources and Lessons for Workforce Building
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Resource List
Title: Thick Red Tape and the Thin Blue Line: A Field Study on Reducing
Administrative Burden in Police Recruitment
Date:
2020
Lead Author: Elizabeth Linos
Location: ht tps: //doi.org/10.1111/puar.13115
Acce ss status: Available through subscription or one-time purchase
A bs t r ac t: This article reviews administrative data and a field experiment con-
ducted in the Los Angeles Police Department to assess the impact of administrative
burden on a candidate remaining in the recruitment process. It found that simplifying
processes led to increases in compliance with them and likelihood of being hired. At
the same time, this streamlining kept unqualified candidates in the process for longer,
reducing the efficiency of hiring. The specific interventions tested were an email not-
ing an online option for completing a personal history statement and stating that most
applicants can complete such a statement within two weeks, and a text message one
week after the initial email reminding applicants to submit the personal history state-
ment within the nextweek.
Title: The Workforce Crisis, and What Police Agencies Are Doing About It
Date: 2019
Lead Author: Police Executive Research Forum
Location: https://www.policeforum.org/assets/WorkforceCrisis.pdf
Acce ss status: Free
A bs t r ac t: This report explores the dimensions of the “workforce crisis” for
policing agencies and what agencies are doing to resolve it. It notes that “even as
police departments are struggling to get enough applicants in the door, they need
to be raising the bar and looking for applicants with a wider variety of talents and
skills” to address the diversifying demands on them. It notes a “triple threat” to police
workforces: fewer applicants, increasing attrition, and increasing numbers of offi-
cers becoming eligible for retirement. It summarizes findings on these issues from a
conference held on them, including law enforcement leaders and officers, researchers,
and other subject matterexperts.
ABOUT
Police Recruitment and Selection: Resources and Lessons for Workforce Building
27
About the Authors
Dr. Jeremy M. Wilson is a Professor of the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan
State University, where he founded and directs the Police Staffing Observatory. As
a scholar, educator, advisor, and consultant, he has collaborated with a wide array
of institutions, published more than 160 products, and led more than $14 million of
research and outreach projects sponsored by the U.S. Congress, U.S. Departments
of Justice and the Interior, foundations, governments, agencies, associations, and
corporations. His policing research focuses on evidence-based personnel planning
and developing a systems approach to police staffing, integrating aspects of work-
load demand, performance objectives, resource allocation and deployment, recruit-
ment, retention, cohort management, workforce attributes and related areas. Among
his staffing publications are A Performance-Based Approach to Police Staffing and
Allocation, Police Recruitment and Retention for the New Millennium: The State of
Knowledge, Recruiting and Retaining America’s Finest: Evidence-Based Lessons for
Police Workforce Planning, Police Retention: A Systematic Review of the Research,
Staffing Composition in Large, U.S. Police Departments: Benchmarking Workforce
Diversity, and Police Workforce Structures: Cohorts, the Economy, and Organizational
Performance. To learn more, see https://jeremywilson.org/.
Dr. Clifford A. Grammich is director of Birdhill Research and Communications, LLC.
As a communications analyst with the RAND Corporation, Dr. Grammich collaborated
with Dr. Wilson on a COPS Office project on police recruitment and retention in the
contemporary environment, coauthoring both a volume of conference proceedings
and a monograph summarizing lessons on recruiting and retaining effective police
workforces. As an independent contractor, Dr. Grammich continued his collaboration
on policing projects with Dr. Wilson, including compiling resources and examining
case studies on police consolidation and shared services, conducting field research for
an NIJ multisite evaluation of police consolidation and shared services, and coauthor-
ing more than a dozen publications on police organization and staffing.
Police Recruitment and Selection: Resources and Lessons for Workforce Building
28
About the COPS Office
The Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) is the component
of the U.S. Department of Justice responsible for advancing the practice of community
policing by the nation’s state, local, territorial, and tribal law enforcement agencies
through information and grant resources.
Community policing begins with a commitment to building trust and mutual respect
between police and communities. It supports public safety by encouraging all stake-
holders to work together to address our nation’s crime challenges. When police and
communities collaborate, they more effectively address underlying issues, change
negative behavioral patterns, and allocate resources.
Rather than simply responding to crime, community policing focuses on preventing
it through strategic problem-solving approaches based on collaboration. The COPS
Office awards grants to hire community policing officers and support the development
and testing of innovative policing strategies. COPS Office funding also provides train-
ing and technical assistance to community members and local government leaders, as
well as all levels of law enforcement.
Since 1994, the COPS Office has been appropriated more than $20 billion to add com-
munity policing officers to the nation’s streets, enhance crime fighting technology,
support crime prevention initiatives, and provide training and technical assistance to
help advance community policing. Other achievements include the following:
• To date, the COPS Office has funded the hiring of approximately 136,000
additional officers by more than 13,000 of the nation’s 18,000 law enforcement
agencies in both small and large jurisdictions.
• More than 800,000 law enforcement personnel, community members, and
government leaders have been trained through COPS Office–funded training
organizations and the COPS Training Portal.
• Almost 800 agencies have received customized advice and peer-led technical
assistance through the COPS Office Collaborative Reform Initiative Technical
Assistance Center.
• To date, the COPS Office has distributed more than eight million topic-specific
publications, training curricula, white papers, and resource CDs and flashdrives.
The COPS Office also sponsors conferences, roundtables, and other forums focused
on issues critical to law enforcement. COPS Office information resources, covering a
wide range of community policing topics such as school and campus safety, violent
crime, and officer safety and wellness, can be downloaded via the COPS Office’s home
page, https://cops.usdoj.gov.
Police ocer recruitment and selection are challenging, yet vitally important contributors to
police accountability and establishing a trusted relationship with the community. To help police
leaders make informed decisions, researchers at Michigan State University reviewed existing
literature and compiled this guide to current resources on law enforcement stang. The guide
presents summaries of publications describing innovative strategies and rigorously tested
recruitment and selection tactics in a format that is concise and accessible. All information is
cross tabulated on an easy-to-read table that allows readers to easily identify resources (and
the specic page numbers within the resource) that address fourteen relevant themes such as
mentorship, outreach to schools, and focus on various underrepresented groups. This work
supports a comprehensive commitment by the U.S. Department of Justice to provide resources
for the eld to help police leaders meet the challenges of recruitment and stang, as indicated
by the 2023 publication of Recruitment and Retention for the Modern Law Enforcement Agency,
a joint publication of the Bureau of Justice Assistance and the COPS Oce.
U.S. Department of Justice
Office of Community Oriented Policing Services
145 N Street NE
Washington, DC 20530
To obtain details about COPS Office programs, call
the COPS Office Response Center at 800-421-6770.
Visit the COPS Office online at cops.usdoj.gov.
e082317062
Published 2023