Recruiting Quality Candidates in an Era of Police Reform is both possible and essential
/By: Sgt. Jon Greenawalt
Chambersburg, Pennsylvania is a borough of approx. 21,000 people The 34-member police department has existed since 1818 and it continues to proudly serve a population which is growing in total number and diversity. The events of 2020, which include a global pandemic and civil unrest directed toward law enforcement, should signal a clear mandate to law enforcement leaders that we must be responsive to the citizens we serve while working in the best interest of public safety.
In order to accomplish our mission, two issues become critical for agencies, 1) community policing and 2) recruiting officers who are fitted to a service-oriented criteria which will enhance legitimacy of the police in the communities that we serve. Without quality people, the first item is a moot point. So, recruiting should become our initial focus. This begs the question, can we recruit in this era and are there still people who want to wear the badge in this society? The short answer is yes, don’t believe the pessimist. But how?
In Chambersburg, we believe that we have cracked the code on recruiting in terms of gaining applicants and finding diverse candidates from whom we can select for hire despite anti-law enforcement sentiment and the COVID-19 pandemic. In the 2020 recruiting cycle, we received 314 applications for testing, 124 of which met diversity targets (women and minorities) that we sought to attract as part of our overall effort. This was accomplished through a multifaceted approach which included building a recruiting team from within the agency, advertising and social media, seeking diverse candidates and community relations, which should be the heart of all policing.
Build a Recruiting Team and Develop Relationship with Applicants
In 2018, the department commissioned a recruitment team made up of three officers from within the agency. The officers were trained on recruiting and were then sent off to find recruiting fairs and events to build their contact list. It is not enough to simply compile a list of contacts, recruiters must continue their contacts with potential applicants through an ongoing process which occurs through the testing and hiring process.
Many reading this article might believe that you don’t have the time or resources to pull officers off the street for recruiting, which is an understandable problem. At CPD we didn’t pull officers off the street, we simply offered a job enlargement opportunity to our officers and three of them stepped up to the challenge.
Advertising and Social Media
If you want candidates to apply for positions within your agency, you have to advertise and in doing so must reach a larger audience than your local area. At CPD, we used our department website in association with popular social media platforms and job sites such as Indeed and PoliceApp. We published ads in local newspapers and their affiliated websites along with radio advertisements on multiple stations throughout the region. We also used billboard advertisements which were featured throughout Pennsylvania, Maryland and West Virginia. Much of the advertising that the agency did during the 2020 recruiting push came at very little or zero expense to the agency’s budget. We found that many advertising entities were willing to support their community’s law enforcement by donating advertising.
Seek Diverse Candidates and They Will Come
If any entity wishes to diversify its staff or agency, it must go out and find those diverse targets that it wishes to offer the opportunity. At CPD, we did this via advertising and we clearly stated that we were seeking and encouraging women and minorities to consider applying for a law enforcement career with our department. We placed ads in Diversity Magazine, which is marketed to a diverse audience including people of color and women. We also targeted minority applicants on college campuses through ads on their job boards. CPD has also developed a relationship with several diverse churches in the Chambersburg area. We are using these partnerships to enhance recruiting
The evidence of the positive effect that this had on recruiting diversity was substantial as seen through the 124 diverse targets who applied to the department during this campaign. In most previous recruiting years, 124 candidates would have been beyond the upper limit of total candidates who applied for the Chambersburg Police Department.
Perhaps many might not think of community policing as a tool that goes hand in hand with recruiting. If our strategy on recruiting can work for Chambersburg Police Department, it can work for your agency, too. In the era of calls for police reform, we cannot afford to fail in our efforts to recruit quality people who can provide quality policing.
