The RAND Center on Quality Policing (CQP) provides research and analysis on contemporary police practice and policy. By determining what practices are most cost-effective and results-oriented, the Center’s work helps law enforcement agencies across the United States make better operational decisions and consistently perform at their best.
Today’s police forces confront tough issues, including:
- identifying the best ways to spend policing dollars
- recruiting and retaining a skilled workforce
- defining what it means to police effectively and then evaluating performance
- improving police-community relations
- preventing racial profiling
- reducing community violence
- sharing intelligence within and across agencies
- choosing the safest non-lethal weapons
Research done at the Center focuses on four interrelated areas-best practices, performance measurement, use of technology, and force planning-to deliver results that help departments solve these and other problems.
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Strategies for Improving Officer Recruitment in the San Diego Police Department
September 24, 2008
By: Greg Ridgeway, Nelson Lim, Brian Gifford, Christopher Koper, Carl Matthies, Sara Hajiamiri, Alexis Huynh
In policing, achievement of recruiting goals means more than just solving a human-resource problem. It means the adequate provision of public safety to residents, workers, businesses, and visitors. The San Diego Police Department (SDPD) has been operating below its authorized size in recent years. To bridge its personnel gap, the department needs to maximize its recruiting while minimizing officer attrition. To accomplish this goal, the department sought assistance from RAND to improve its recruiting efforts and suggest ways to improve the diversity of its recruits. Specifically, SDPD can optimize the recruiting process and manage recruiters and resources to achieve the maximum number of recruits. Through interviews, observations, reviewing recruiting material, and analyzing data, the authors assessed strategies for expanding SDPD’s applicant pool, evaluated the written-test process, and reviewed fitness-exam and background-check processes. As a result, they have specific recommendations to improve SDPD’s recruiting efforts: (1) target recruiting resources more effectively to reach a broader pool of applicants, (2) improve efficiency in the screening process, and (3) revise recruiting and testing practices. This monograph describes the study and the recommendations.
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Challenges of Police Recruiting in the District of Columbia
National Summit on Recruitment and Retention
Jun. 17 & 18, 2008
Cathy Lanier, Chief Metropolitan Police Department, Washington D.C. The Washington Metropolitan Police Department, with approximately 3,800 officers, ranks among the largest in the nation. It confronts many of the same challenges facing large urban local law enforcement agencies, but its jurisdiction in the nation’s capital requires unique responsibilities requiring personnel with a wide variety of skills and interests. Chief Lanier suggests that the major recruitment and retention challenges facing the department include hiring 1600 officers and 400 civilians in just three years and further reducing officer attrition. Chief Lanier reviewed efforts her department has taken to speed the hiring process. MPD has its own recruitment unit with 35 staff. This staff does its own background checks and medical screening, hires individuals twice a month (instead of once), and takes just three days from test to background check. The Department also hired a professional marketing firm, condu
Published: 12/01/2008
Competing in a Highly Competitive Job Market
National Summit on Recruitment and Retention
Jun. 17 & 18, 2008
M. Douglas Scott, Arlington County Virginia Police Chief. Chief Scott’s briefing covered the staffing numbers and demographics of his department compared to the community demographics. He discussed major recruiting challenges – including a ten percent annual attrition, achieving a diverse workforce, and the existence of a sixty-college credit minimum for recruits. He reviewed the numerous recruitment strategies that have allowed his department to achieve full staffing in 2006, 2007, and 2008, something that had not occurred since 1998.
Published: 12/01/2008
Five Ways to Improve Police Recruiting Without Raising Taxes
National Summit on Recruitment and Retention
Jun. 17 & 18, 2008
Nelson Lim, RAND Corporation. Dr. Lim’s briefing suggests that while the military can offer many lessons in recruitment and retention for local law enforcement agencies it, unlike most police departments, has a large recruiting force and budget. Nevertheless, Dr. Lim reports that there are five ways local law enforcement agencies can improve recruiting without additional resources: (1) put one leader in charge of the entire recruiting process; (2) let everyone know that you are hiring; (3) identify untapped local markets; (4) not all applicants are equally viable—process them according to their viability; and, (5) not all recruiters and background investigators are equally productive—reward high performers.
Published: 12/01/2008
Maximizing Officer Retention
National Summit on Recruitment and Retention
Jun. 17 & 18, 2008
Dwayne Orrick, Public Safety Director, City of Cordele. Retention expenses which include separation costs, recruitment costs, selection costs, new employee costs, and other “soft” costs (such as those departments incur when they forego proactive policing work because of staffing shortages) amount to $100,000 for each officer lost to a department. As a result, the best way to reduce the demand on recruiting resources is for a department to reduce attrition. Orrick cites numerous internal and external reasons for departure including officer’s immediate supervisor, uncompetitive salaries, lack of career growth, unmet job expectations, inadequate feedback, insufficient recognition, or lack of training that officers may seek for career growth. The briefing offers suggestions on what law enforcement agencies can do to retain officers, including conducting “stay” interviews with the best officers, holding supervisors accountable for retention, making salaries competitive, offering flexible work schedules.
Published: 12/01/2008
New Orleans Experience
National Summit on Recruitment and Retention
Jun. 17 & 18, 2008
Warren J. Riley, Superintendent, New Orleans Police Department. following the storm, both authorized and actual end officer strength decreased by about one-sixth, or by about 300 officers. Two briefings, one from New Orleans Police Superintendent Warren J. Riley and another from RAND researcher Dr. Jeremy M. Wilson, tell the story of catastrophe and rebuilding in New Orleans. At the request of the New Orleans Police Department, RAND identified practical and low cost initiatives that could be implemented in New Orleans to improve recruitment and retention of police officers. The RAND recommendations focused on five areas: compensation; career management and the promotion process; recruiting; the mix of officers and civilians in the department; and morale. The study discussed at the Summit can be found at http://www.rand.org/ .
Published: 12/01/2008
PERF’s National Survey on Recruiting and Hiring in Law Enforcement
National Summit on Recruitment and Retention
Jun. 17 & 18, 2008
Bruce Taylor, Director of Research, Police Executive Research Forum. Dr. Taylor reported on a national study PERF conducted in 2002 (with NIJ-funding) to understand the nature and extent of the “cop crunch” and identify agency and jurisdiction-level policies/practices that facilitate the recruiting and hiring of quality personnel (including women/minorities). The survey findings indicate that most law enforcement agencies have few resources, no dedicated recruitment unit and small budgets for recruitment and retention. The PERF findings are the most recent national findings of their kind and describe the various recruiting, application, selection, and salary and benefits information for about 1,000 law enforcement agencies surveyed. The study discussed at the Summit can be found at http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/213800.pdf.
Published: 12/01/2008
Planning in Large Personnel Systems: From the Military to Police Departments
National Summit on Recruitment and Retention
Jun. 17 & 18, 2008
Bernard Rostker, Senior Fellow, The RAND Corporation. Dr. Rostker asserts that many of the recruitment and retention issues that local law enforcement agencies face are similar to those that the military faces. Both are market-driven, hierarchical rank systems in which recruits typically enter at the bottom and are promoted through the ranks. Similarly, both offer promotions on a competitive basis, peg pay to time of and grade in service, and offer early retirement options. The police and the military also have similar life-cycle events in careers for their personnel and require data-driven personnel systems. Research that helped the military address many of the issues it shares with police agencies might be adapted for law enforcement use. This includes research on how to build a high-quality force and its effects, increasing pay to improve retention, and appealing to new age groups.
Published: 12/01/2008
Police Personnel Challenges After Sept. 11: Anticipating Expanding Duties and a Changing Labor Pool
National Summit on Recruitment and Retention
Jun. 17 & 18, 2008
Laura Miller, Social Scientist, RAND Corporation. Dr. Miller’s briefing focused on examining the personnel issues that police departments face, what police departments are doing to address these issues and what police agencies can learn from military experience in recruitment and retention. Dr. Miller suggested that law enforcement can benefit from the military’s analysis of survey and demographic data; the needs assessment methods the military uses to examine personnel supply and demand dynamics; and military efforts to retain personnel through initiatives such as general pay increases and additional pay for special duties, educational benefits for those agencies wish to retain, faster promotion for the most qualified, and lateral movement programs to address staffing problems in specific areas. Dr. Miller also observed that police agencies may learn from other agencies’ innovations and suggested that national leadership is required to deal with police personnel issues.
Published: 12/01/2008
Police Recruitment and Retention in New Orleans: Crisis as Catalyst
National Summit on Recruitment and Retention
Jun. 17 & 18, 2008
Jeremy M. Wilson, Associate Director, RAND Center on Quality Policing. Hurricane Katrina, one of the costliest and deadliest hurricanes to strike the United States, wreaked extraordinary havoc on New Orleans and its institutions. In the year following the storm, both authorized and actual end officer strength decreased by about one-sixth, or by about 300 officers. Two briefings, one from New Orleans Police Superintendent Warren J. Riley and another from RAND researcher Dr. Jeremy M. Wilson, tell the story of catastrophe and rebuilding in New Orleans. At the request of the New Orleans Police Department, RAND identified practical and low cost initiatives that could be implemented in New Orleans to improve recruitment and retention of police officers. The RAND recommendations focused on five areas: compensation; career management and the promotion process; recruiting; the mix of officers and civilians in the department; and morale.
Published: 12/01/2008
Recruiting for a Rapidly Growing Community
National Summit on Recruitment and Retention
Jun. 17 & 18, 2008
James N. Owens, Deputy Chief, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. Deputy Chief Owens reported on his department’s efforts to increase the staffing of the 7th largest police department in the United States by 1200 officers over the next 10 years. Fueled by a sales tax increase for this purpose, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department is using the following strategies: (1) robust advertising; (2) strong Internet presence; (3) establishment of recruitment councils for Hispanics, African-Americans, women, Asian Americans, and military personnel; (4) offering bonuses for existing officers who recruit new officers; (5) expansion of out-of-state testing; (6) testing what best predicts the probability of an applicant completing the hiring process; (7) expanding the number of academies offered; and (8) improvement of retention efforts.
Published: 12/01/2008
Recruitment And Hiring: Challenge Or Opportunity For Change?
National Summit on Recruitment and Retention
Jun. 17 & 18, 2008
Ellen Scrivner, Director, John Jay Leadership Academy at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Dr. Scrivner briefed the audience on challenges facing the law enforcement field, the changing nature of the industry, and the new skill sets required to be a successful police officer. She compared and contrasted a recruit of the 1970s and 1980s to that of today and suggested that the industry needs to dramatically change the way they conceptualize recruitment and retention in order to attract the officers of today. Dr. Scrivner finished with a discussion of the COPS-funded Hiring in the Spirit of Service projects including the successes of the projects and lessons learned from their design and implementation.
Published: 12/01/2008
Strategic Recruiting in the New York City Police Department
National Summit on Recruitment and Retention
Jun. 17 & 18, 2008
Rafael Pineiro, Chief of Personnel, New York City Police Department. Chief Pineiro’s briefing demonstrates how a large urban department tackles the continuous issue of recruitment and retention of personnel. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) has more than 35,000 officers and between 2002 and 2008 hired more than 18,000 officers. The department is seeking to “sell and brand the NYPD’s image” as a “premier employer of choice” as well as appeal to changing generational preferences. Chief Pineiro explained how a low-starting pay for officers (which has since been increased) posed particular challenges to department recruiting. The department emphasizes pay growth, benefits, and chances to advance, including opportunities to gain advanced degrees to attract and retain officers. Methods of attracting recruits are discussed; critical among them is the department’s recruiting website and the URL (nypdrecruit.com) appears in all recruiting ads. The department’s efforts to collect
Published: 12/01/2008
The Military Way: Marine Corps Recruiting
National Summit on Recruitment and Retention
Jun. 17 & 18, 2008
Colonel Daniel Choike and Lieutenant Colonel Michael Zeliff. This briefing focuses on the Marine Corps Recruiting Command’s efforts to find, screen, and enlist qualified individuals into the Marine Corps. The briefing detailed the recruiting cycle, enlistment process, and branding and advertising efforts used to attract individuals to service. Choike and Zeliff suggest that like local law enforcement agencies, the Marine Corps seeks to attract individuals with “dignity” goals of personal achievement and respect for self and others. They also described several measures of effectiveness for the $140 million in advertising the Marine Corps spends to attract recruits, including measures of ad recall and action taken because of the ads.
Published: 12/01/2008
Why Recruitment in Law Enforcement Isn’t Working!
National Summit on Recruitment and Retention
Jun. 17 & 18, 2008
Alan Deal, Assistant Executive Director, California Commission on Peace Officer Standards & Training. Mr. Deal’s presentation suggests that while recruitment is a problem for many law enforcement organizations they’ve yet to make it a priority, lack a recruitment strategic plan or planning process, and produce advertising that is out of date (because law enforcement doesn’t have a solid understanding of the market). The briefing also highlights specific ways the recruitment process itself undermines effective recruitment and discusses ways to improve both the recruitment and retention processes.
Published: 12/01/2008
Recruitment and Retention
Lessons for the New Orleans Police Department
By: Bernard D. Rostker, William M. Hix, Jeremy M. Wilson
March 30, 2007
Since Hurricane Katrina, resignations from the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) have increased, and the department went more than a year without recruiting enough candidates to justify a police academy training course. This study presents practical recommendations for change that could help the NOPD improve recruiting and retention. Issues addressed include the lack of affordable post-Katrina housing, the fact that the families of many police officers no longer live in the New Orleans area, the destroyed departmental infrastructure, and a budget that does not provide enough resources to meet basic needs. The study focuses on compensation, including housing; the promotion process and the career management system; recruiting; the mix of officers and civilians; and ways to improve the morale of the NOPD. The recommendations, which are specifically tailored to the unique circumstances of the NOPD, include (1) using civilian employees, where appropriate, for jobs currently being performed by uniformed officers; (2) developing a proactive recruiting program; (3) offering some of the city’s housing stock in-kind to police officers or selling the property and using the proceeds to improve compensation; (4) increasing the frequency of promotion examinations; (5) eliminating the backlog of promotions to higher levels in the department; (6) restructuring compensation to attract recruits and retain serving officers; (7) establishing a first-responders charter school; and (8) rebuilding the police infrastructure to improve morale.
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Police Personnel Challenges After September 11
Anticipating Expanded Duties and a Changing Labor Pool
By: Barbara Raymond, Laura J. Hickman, Laura Miller, Jennifer S. Wong
November 16, 2005
Many police departments face ongoing challenges in recruiting and retaining police officers. Heightened concern about terrorist attacks has exacerbated this problem by increasing demands on local law enforcement agencies. To address this problem, the authors, drawing on RAND’s extensive work in military personnel management, identify key lessons that could help develop a force management plan for police agencies focusing on future demand for police personnel and creative sources of supply. This analysis considers changing demands for police services; labor pool qualifications; and possible national and regional efforts to adapt military recruitment strategies for police agencies. The Long Beach Police Department, a metropolitan police department struggling with officer recruitment and retention in the face of increased security-related demands, serves as a case study example offering informative background data about these issues.
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Occupational Safety and Health for Public Safety Employees
Assessing the Evidence and the Implications for Public Policy
By: Tom LaTourrette, David S. Loughran, Seth A. Seabury
December 18, 2008
Police officers, firefighters, and other public safety workers are asked to put their lives at risk to protect the general public, so it is not surprising that they face exceptionally high rates of injury and fatality relative to the general workforce. To help protect public safety employees from work-related injuries and illnesses without compromising their ability to do their jobs, policymakers need a better understanding of the specific risk factors associated with different aspects of public safety occupations. To further such understanding, LaTourrette, Loughran, and Seabury conducted a literature review of research on this topic; held roundtable discussions with representatives from several public safety departments in California; and analyzed national survey data, as well as administrative data from California, to illuminate how the injury, illness, and fatality rates for public safety employees differ from those of the general workforce. The authors highlight opportunities and challenges to improving the health and safety of public safety workers.
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