A Comprehensive Approach: Building Effective Recruitment Programs

• In Event: Police Recruitment and Selection: Field Lessons from a Platform of MSU-COPS Research (Sponsored by Division of Policing)

Abstract

The police staffing crisis has led to much research and discourse about different strategies departments can implement to recruit officers. However, a strategic recruitment plan is just one of many components necessary for a comprehensive recruitment program. With support from the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, this paper seeks to identify and discuss additional components practitioners must consider to fully support recruitment. We review academic and practitioner literatures across several professions to uncover issues and promising practices decision makers should consider in developing their recruitment infrastructure. We explore these more fully via a quota sample of interviews with subject matter experts representing different types, sizes, and regions of agencies, forms of responsibility, and occupations. We find factors associated with recruitment success are multi-dimensional and span individual, unit, and organizational levels. Our results illustrate how police decision makers must think far beyond their recruitment strategy when looking to bolster their workforce, and they provide a blue-print for developing a holistic, evidence-based approach to recruitment.

Authors

• Rosa Isabel Rivera, Michigan State University

• Jeremy Wilson, Michigan State University