Recruiting and Retaining Police Officers:
• Discuss the difficulties in recruiting, selecting, and retaining police officers. What suggestions can you offer for improving the recruitment, selection, and retention of qualified police officers? Be specific about the traits you would seek in new recruits, and why.
According to the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) report entitled Hiring and keeping police officers, financial cutbacks and negative publicity (particularly in regards to racial profiling) coupled with increased educational requirements has resulted in greater difficulty in recruiting new police officers nation-wide. Further causing shortages in the ability of police to fulfill essential functions is the corresponding increase in training time, often to specifically to expand education in community policing techniques to improve relationships between the police and historically discriminated-against communities. Attrition rates do not seem to be significantly impacted, however.
Regardless, there is a delicate balance that must be maintained...
simply increasing numbers. Recruiting from historically-discriminated against communities might be beneficial for improving force diversity, for example but to ensure that recruits are qualified it may be necessary to offer financial assistance if it is desired that all police officers have an associates or baccalaureate degree. Also, a shift in focusing on quality vs. quantity of members of the force may be necessary in terms of using financial and technological resources more effectively (Hiring and keeping, 2004, NIJ: 5). The ability to be culturally sensitive, to use technology, and to engage in creative-problem solving techniques are all necessary to improve the efforts of modern policing and to ensure an effective community response.
• The article was specific to police officers. Do the same recruitment guidelines apply to other criminal justice agencies, such as a prison? How would a recruitment strategy for prison personnel differ?
The need for a more…
