Instead of following a family member into the profession, minority recruits applied because a relationship had been established with someone in the agency. In an effort to attract more applicants, agencies may want to evaluate their personal relationships with potential applicants. Balanced investigations, focus on the applicant
Full Answer
How do minorities recruit in law enforcement?
This differs from existing research that depicts the generational aspect of law enforcement recruiting with applicants following a family member into the profession. Instead of following a family member into the profession, minority recruits applied because a relationship had been established with someone in the agency.
What are some recruiting strategies for women in law enforcement?
Some recruiting strategies include: Developing internships and promoting ride-a-longs that introduce and orient women to the culture of policing; Creating mentorship programs that provide women with the opportunities to better understand policing and to create connections with existing law enforcement;
Do we need more diversity in law enforcement?
The discussion about recruiting, hiring, retaining, and promoting minorities and females in law enforcement has been going on for the last two decades. Even so, many departments still lack needed diversity.
What are the best creative law enforcement recruiting strategies?
Not all creative police recruiting strategies have to be all business all the time and that’s why our third creative law enforcement recruiting strategy is creating bite-sized social media videos. It’s a great way to show multiple sides of the job and also ideal when trying to attract millennials.
How can law enforcement agencies increase diversity?
Promising Practices for Increasing Diversity. By adopting proactive and intentional recruitment, hiring, and retention strategies, law enforcement agencies can address barriers, drive reform, and make progress in ensuring that their workforces better reflect the diversity of the communities they serve.
Why do law enforcement agencies discourage underrepresented communities from applying to be officers?
Strained relations and a lack of trust of law enforcement may deter individuals from underrepresented communities from applying to be officers. The reputation or operational practices of law enforcement agencies may dissuade applicants from underrepresented communities from pursuing a career in law enforcement.
How many law enforcement agencies are there in the US?
There are approximately 18,000 Federal, state, county, and local law enforcement agencies in the United States. [36] These agencies range from police departments employing just one sworn officer to departments with more than 30,000 officers. [37] In 2008, the Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) conducted a census of state and local law enforcement agencies. [38] That census, which included 17,985 agencies, found that those agencies collectively employed more than 1.1 million people on a full-time basis, nearly 800,000 as sworn personnel. The census revealed that the vast majority of these agencies - more than 12,000 - are local police departments, a category that includes municipal, county, tribal, and regional police departments. BJS's research also found that there are more than 3,000 sheriffs' offices; approximately 2,000 special jurisdiction agencies, which are agencies that provide police services for entities or established areas within another jurisdiction (e.g., parks, schools, airports, housing authorities, and government facilities); 50 primary state law enforcement agencies; and nearly 700 other agencies, such as county constable offices. [39] BJS also conducted a census of Federal law enforcement agencies in 2008: that survey collected data from 73 agencies, which employed approximately 120,000 full-time sworn law enforcement officers. [40]
How does diversity affect law enforcement?
Law enforcement agencies face a number of challenges when seeking to foster a robust talent pipeline that widens the diversity of their workforces and reflects the diversity of the communities they serve. These challenges, which manifest themselves in the recruitment, selection, and retention processes, are far from insurmountable. And in fact, agencies that have undertaken efforts to broaden their talent pool have found that increased diversity brings a range of benefits that can be seen both within their workforces as well as in their relations with the communities they serve.
How does mentoring help in law enforcement?
Mentoring is a crucial mechanism for conveying critical and often unwritten information about how to succeed and advance within the agency . As in all professions, employees in law enforcement agencies often seek mentors and mentees to whom they relate or who remind them of themselves. Some agencies, recognizing that racial minority and female officers have sometimes struggled to identify mentors, have developed innovative programs that successfully bring mentors and mentees together in ways that enhance the overall diversity of the workforce. Additionally, recognizing that promotion is critical to retaining a diverse officer corps, several departments have begun to place a particular emphasis on providing officers - especially women and racial or ethnic minorities, who are significantly underrepresented in leadership roles - with the support they need from the outset.
What is the advancing diversity initiative?
The Advancing Diversity in Law Enforcement initiative was premised on engagement with those who have firsthand experience confronting the challenges related to advancing diversity in law enforcement. To that end, the teams undertaking this effort - at the Department of Justice, the EEOC, and CPE - engaged law enforcement agencies along with other stakeholders through a variety of efforts. Those efforts are broadly discussed in this section.
Why do law enforcement agencies do background checks?
For that reason, law enforcement agencies, like many other employers, also often utilize extensive background checks as part of their selection processes, including information relating to criminal history. However, an employer's use of criminal background information can violate either the intentional or disparate impact provisions of Title VII, depending on how that information is used. When using criminal background checks, employers should consider the nature of the crime, the time elapsed, and the nature of the job. While some applicants have succeeded in challenging criminal background check policies as having unlawful disparate impacts on the basis of race or national origin, cases bringing these types of claims against law enforcement agencies have generally not been successful in court. [147]
How can recruiters help recruit police?
Recruiters should also employ their efforts in trade schools, junior colleges and four-year colleges by developing relationships with criminal justice program directors and counselors who can assist in identifying potential police candidates. Being present on local college campuses, including at college events and fundraisers, provides recruiters with opportunities to meet students and foster trusting relationships. Young people need to appreciate police officers as real people and not adversaries as the media often portrays them.
How do police recruit women?
Women are generally underrepresented in the policing profession. According to the FBI, in 2017 only 12.5 percent of fulltime police officers in the United States were females. Law enforcement leaders must develop strategies to attract women to the profession. Some recruiting strategies include: 1 Developing internships and promoting ride-a-longs that introduce and orient women to the culture of policing; 2 Creating mentorship programs that provide women with the opportunities to better understand policing and to create connections with existing law enforcement; 3 Ensuring there are positive female role models within the department, as well as the RHU to encourage and mentor new female officers; 4 Offering longer maternity leave, developing a defined pregnancy procedure and providing assistance with childcare to foster a family-friendly environment.
Why is proactive recruiting important in the police profession?
Proactive recruiting is necessary in the current environment of the policing profession. Law enforcement leaders and their staff charged with recruiting and hiring new police officers must transform recruitment strategies to identify overlooked pools of candidates including high school students, minority populations, and women.
How many police officers are female?
Women are generally underrepresented in the policing profession. According to the FBI, in 2017 only 12.5 percent of fulltime police officers in the United States were females. Law enforcement leaders must develop strategies to attract women to the profession. Some recruiting strategies include:
What is SRO in recruiting?
Recruiters should partner with School Resource Officers (SRO) to identify students who possess the qualities of their agency’s “ideal candidate.” Interested students can participate in internship programs, ride-a-longs, police camps, Law Enforcement Exploring Programs and other activities designed to build trust and confidence in the policing profession. Agencies can also partner with school boards to implement and support specialized public safety academies in local high schools. It is paramount to develop innovative recruiting efforts that target high school students because this is when they are beginning to decide their career paths.
What should recruiters do instead of marketing?
Instead, recruiters should develop targeted marketing campaigns designed to appeal to minorities, go to locations in minority communities, like schools and church groups, as well as community events such as those held by fraternal and professional organizations and social advocacy groups.
How should the recruiting staff be selected?
The recruiting staff should be selected carefully and exemplify the diversity the agency wants to see in its potential recruits. Department leaders should also identify several officers within the organization who reflect the diversity of the community and develop them as recruiters.
What are some ways to find young people interested in law enforcement careers?
Police Athletic League camps, internships, police explorers, and similar programs are a good way to find young people interested in law enforcement careers and prequalify them too. SROs may be able to identify high school students who are likely candidates. And it may be possible to hire young men or women in nonsworn support positions where they can learn, earn tuition money, and join the force when they reach the required age.
What attracted previous generations to law enforcement careers?
What attracted previous generations to law enforcement careers doesn’t always appeal to Millennials or Generation Z, who have not only different job expectations but also a variety of other work options in a growing job market. However, there are some new methods as well as tried-and-true practices that have paid off for agencies in the past.
What are some recruiting tools?
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and an engaging website are essential recruiting tools, but there are other sites and applications that can serve you well too. Among them are PoliceApp, a program that not only simplifies the processes for applicants and police departments but also posts positions on social media and job boards. Others are Discover Policing, an IACP-sponsored site that introduces viewers to the profession, PoliceOne.com ‘s career site, and the PublicSafetyApp.
What can regional agencies do?
Two or more regional agencies may be able to collaborate to hold joint recruitment fairs, develop messaging, or partner in other efforts. By sharing the costs, they could create high quality videos, flyers, web content, or other marketing tools that could be adapted to each agency with minor changes.
What are the barriers to recruitment?
Examine barriers to recruitment such as residency and education requirements, background checks, physical standards, or training and academy requirements that might exclude potential recruits. Remove unnecessary or outdated ones, or consider ways to help otherwise solid candidates overcome them.
What majors do criminal justice majors have?
Though criminal justice programs at local colleges are a sure way to find recruits, don’t overlook other majors such as law, political science, psychology, or sociology. And in addition to making presentations at job fairs, work with local schools’ career placement offices.
How to make the application process easier?
Making the application process faster and easier is the most effective way of ensuring that applicants fill out and submit the forms. Streamlining and automating the entire application and acceptance process can pay big dividends. Planning recruitment days for weekends, when applicants can do everything on site at the same time, makes applying easier too.
What is creative police recruiting?
Our next creative police recruiting strategy is to produce content around specific members of your department. This video strategy allows your department to share the individual stories of those who serve your community and city.
Why do we need a recruiting website?
Having a recruiting website is an opportunity to show off all that your city or county has to offer . Most importantly, extracting your recruiting page from the city website allows you to control your messaging and how you want to be perceived.
How long has Epic Recruiting been in business?
At Epic Recruiting, we have over 16 years of experience recruiting the next generation of officers through creative police recruitment strategies. Let’s take a closer look at the top five creative recruiting strategies for your police department.
What is epic recruiting?
The fact is, your department is unique in its own way. Epic Recruiting finds those aspects and shines a light on it. Our bread and butter is creating a brand through high-quality video production and photography all while developing a cohesive online recruiting campaign to reach qualified applicants.
Why is it important to use video in recruiting?
Using video in your recruiting strategy is a great way to give a glimpse into your department’s culture.
What is a police overview video?
A police overview video is one of the many creative police recruiting strategies because it can be utilized in a multitude of ways. It’s great content for your website which captivates recruits right off the bat and it’s ideal even for your social media channels. Take a look at this police recruiting overview video for Richmond PD.
U.S. Department of Justice Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Acknowledgments
Executive Summary
I. Introduction
II. Why Diversity in Law Enforcement Matters
III. Current State of Diversity in American Law Enforcement
IV. Project Methodology
v. Barriers to Diversity
VI. Promising Practices For Increasing Diversity
- By adopting proactive recruitment, hiring, and retention strategies, law enforcement agencies can address barriers, drive reform, and make progress in ensuring that they more closely reflect the diversity of the communities they serve. In the section that follows, the report highlights promising practices - identified through existing online materi...
VII. Case Studies