By Jeremy M. Wilson, Seth Williams, Ronal Serpas, & Clifford Grammich
Police agencies seeking to maintain their staffing levels often focus first on recruitment and retention of officers. A more critical initial question, however, is how many officers do they need? This guidebook provides a framework for understanding, conducting, and managing staffing studies using evidence-based and workload-driven approaches.
Drawing on research and practical experience, this guidebook outlines key questions to consider in conducting staffing studies, including
Ultimately, staffing studies are not one-time exercises but part of an organizational learning process that supports resource optimization, policy development, and community trust. This guidebook can help agencies use staffing as a strategic tool for achieving broader public safety objectives and to integrate research, stakeholder input, and continuous evaluation into workforce planning decisions.
By Jeremy M. Wilson, Tiana Gaudette, Tanya Meisenholder, & Maureen McGough
This guidebook provides insights into developing and maintaining police forces. Featuring input from both practitioners and policing scholars, its three sections discuss
A key lesson of this work is that the most effective response to the police staffing challenge involves addressing all its multiple dimensions. Creating meaningful and long-lasting impact to workforce levels will demand careful attention to recruitment, promotions, turnover and retention, workforce environment, and workforce planning. The guide also underscores the value that academic research and collaboration can bring to policing. Combining insights from research and practice, this guide provides evidence-based guidance to critical areas affecting police staffing.
By Jeremy M. Wilson & Rosa Rivera
Law enforcement agencies continually seek to attract applicants but have little systematic guidance for constructing recruitment programs. This work draws on research from multiple fields and interviews with police practitioners to illustrate the organizational-, unit-, and individual-level characteristics most important for police recruitment programs. By systematically building the infrastructure needed for successful recruitment programs, police agencies can effectively address the dynamic staffing challenges they face.
Abstract
Law enforcement agencies continually seek to attract applicants but have little systematic guidance in conducting recruitment. The need for such guidance has become even more acute in recent years as they struggle with legitimacy issues and other sources of decreasing interest in the field.
This work draws on research from multiple fields and interviews with 26 subject-matter experts from a variety of agencies to outline the elements of a successful recruitment program. At the organizational level, the analysis highlights the importance of leadership, culture, budget, and recruitment goals. At the unit level, it highlights the importance of strategies to achieve goals, metrics for measuring progress toward them, and the ability to continually learn from experiences. At the individual level, it discusses recruiter attributes, recruiter training, recruiter incentives, and recruiter types.
The importance of these components may vary by agency circumstance. But recruiting must be a systemic effort. By building the broader infrastructure necessary for recruitment programs, police organizations can effectively address the dynamic staffing challenges they face.
By Jeremy M. Wilson, Clifford A. Grammich, & Ethan Humphrey
This work assesses 225 recruitment tactics law enforcement agencies may use to attract candidates. It reviews rankings of these tactics by 30 law enforcement practitioners on dimensions of staffing levels, workload management, timing of effects, ease of implementation, agency costs, quality of policing, and community policing outcomes. The analysis notes the need for law enforcement agencies to select the tactics most appropriate for their circumstances.
Abstract
This work assesses 225 recruitment tactics that law enforcement agencies may use to attract candidates to their agencies. The authors review rankings of these tactics by 30 law enforcement practitioners on dimensions of staffing levels, workload management, timing of effects, ease of implementation, agency costs, quality of policing, and community policing outcomes.
The analysis shows that no single recruitment tactic is universally optimal. Rather, effectiveness will depend on agency-specific circumstances and priorities. Tactics such as mentoring applicants, providing individualized guidance, streamlining hiring processes, and conducting community outreach rank highly for increasing staffing levels and improving other performance dimensions. Financial incentives such as increasing pay can boost both recruitment and retention but entail significant costs. Modifying hiring requirements may be a relatively quick way to increase staffing levels but it can also raise concerns about quality of policing.
Because police agencies may need to address multiple goals in recruitment, the analysis examines how tactics perform in a variety of scenarios. Developing a recruitment website, for example, can be helpful for agencies seeking to improve staffing relatively quickly at relatively low cost. Targeting a broad range of college majors among recruits may help agencies who are seeking to improve the quality of their force and the quality of their community policing efforts particularly.
The analysis highlights three lessons for police departments. First, they should use the tactics that appear to be most tailored to their environment. Second, they need to understand what works under their particular circumstances. Third, they should consider tactics that can perform across the most relevant combination of dimensions they need to address.
By Jeremy M. Wilson, Clifford A. Grammich, & Ethan Humphrey
This work reviews 49 tactics that police agencies may use to select personnel. More specifically, it reports on assessments that 30 practitioners gave to these tactics on dimensions of staffing levels, workload management, speed of impact, ease of implementation, cost of implementation, quality of police work, and effects on community policing. It notes there is no one ideal tactic equally applicable across all agencies but rather that tactics have tradeoffs, requiring each agency to choose the tactics most suited for its circumstances.
Abstract
This work reviews 49 tactics that police agencies may use to select personnel. More specifically, it reports on assessments that 30 practitioners gave to these tactics on dimensions of staffing levels, workload management, speed of impact, ease of implementation, cost of implementation, quality of police work, and effects on community policing.
It finds the effectiveness of selection tactics will depend on agency-specific needs, constraints, and priorities. Agencies will need to consider tradeoffs in choosing particular tactics. For example, the review finds that streamlining hiring processes can boost staffing levels but may pose implementation challenges. Hiring ahead of vacancies can improve workload management but may require at least a temporary redeployment of resources from elsewhere. Easing residency requirements may offer more candidates for selection but adversely affect community policing.
The authors advise agencies choosing among selection tactics to consider those most tailored to their circumstances, not just those that appear easy or that have been done historically or elsewhere. Police agencies should understand there is no single best tactic but there are alternatives for addressing their most pressing need. Finally, police agencies should consider relevant combinations of dimensions. For a faster and inexpensive solution, for example, it should consider tactic speed and costs. This work can guide agencies in identifying and balancing tradeoffs among the tactics most applicable to their situation.
By Jeremy M. Wilson & Rosa Rivera
This work assesses 63 tactics that law enforcement agencies may use to retain their officers. It reviews rankings of these tactics by 30 law enforcement practitioners on dimensions of staffing levels, workload management, timing of effects, ease of implementation, agency costs, quality of policing, and community policing outcomes. The analysis notes the need for law enforcement agencies to select the tactics most appropriate for their circumstances and to integrate retention tactics with a broader personnel strategy.
Abstract
While recruitment tactics have received considerable attention from policing practitioners and scholars, retention tactics have not. This is unfortunate, because the cost to retain a police officer is much lower than that to recruit one. To overcome this gap, this research reviews 63 tactics, identified through a review of academic literature, practitioner reports, and media accounts, that police agencies may use to increase their retention of officers. More specifically, it presents rankings of these tactics by 30 law enforcement practitioners on dimensions of staffing levels, workload management, timing of effects, ease of implementation, agency costs, quality of policing, and community policing outcomes.
The authors find that tactics vary in their effectiveness and across dimensions. Practitioners note that financial tactics such as increased pay and enhanced benefits, for example, can boost staffing levels but entail significant costs. Reducing workload by reducing calls for service (e.g., by responding to calls through other means) can improve workload management but may be difficult to implement. Civilianizing positions can have some positive effects on maintaining staff levels and workload management while having relatively quick effects but also be difficult to implement.
Agencies will need to consider their own specific contexts in choosing tactics for retention. This guide can help agencies choose tactics that align with their specific goals, constraints, and needs. More broadly, it can help agencies move from ad hoc retention efforts to evidence-based workforce planning that integrates retention with broader personnel strategies.