Police Recruiting and Training week 3 discussion 1

Police Recruiting and Training week 3 discussion 1

Your department has been concerned about the quality of police applicants. Training is an expensive process for the department, and recently, a substantial number of applicants have not successfully completed the training academy because they have washed out or quit.

As you are recruiting candidates for the department, what types of candidates should you attempt to recruit? What kinds of candidates should your department try to avoid? Are there certain incentives that can be offered to attract highly qualified individuals? If so, what are they? How would you attract individuals who are looking for a career and not a job?

Our discussion first then individuals response, just need to tell the bad and good of the discussion lit references thanks

Individuals answer :

Orison: I think when it comes down to recruiting new officers the needs of the department and community play big parts. In some departments intimidation and bruit force are of higher importance while in others the hug a thug approach is higher ranking.  So each department looks for different traits in their candidates. In our department we look for someone who has equal balance between the two above. We are located two hours from anywhere and when it comes right down to it our officers have to be able to hold their own because there is not backup close. The other issue we face in our location is that new recruits from the academies want to be in the bigger cities where the “action” is and where there are things to do off duty.  Departments should avoid those job seekers who have a hard time staying with the truth or have had recent criminal activity history.  In our case most of our applicants get kicked out for drug use in the last four years and for lying during the CVSA or on their application. We use our schedule of 12 hour shifts with a three four rotation as part of the incentive. There is also pay increases for years of service and for completion of the FTO process and other career goals. We are working toward having take home cars as well but have not gotten into a position for that yet. I have heard about other cities using reduced utility rates for their employees as an incentive as well. In the case of a rural community we try and sponsor local candidates through an academy. This way we are hiring local people who are already established in our community and have a vested interest in making it a better place to live.  We have found that if we hire officers out of the academy from the cities they tend to get a year or two of experience and then go to the cities so we were a stepping stone and training facility more or less.