Responding to an informal—and totally unscientific—poll, law enforcement educators and trainers from around the country pointed to shrinking budgets and increasing anti-police sentiment, but paramount in the list of challenges facing them in the past 12 months was officer recruiting and retention.
Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) Executive Director Chuck Wexler, National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) President Patrick Yoes, and International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association (ILEETA) Deputy Executive Director Brian Willis offer ideas on what many people believe was the most difficult challenge police leaders and trainers faced in 2022.
When contemplating Virginia's action to attract laterals with a foreshortened academy stint, the sayings "Robbing Peter to pay Paul" and "Missing the forest for the trees" come immediately and inevitably to mind.
“The program introduces kids to police officers, but the students can also serve as ambassadors,” Capt. Wilson Lee said. “So, it’s a force multiplier in police recruitment.”
If police trainers can examine—with an objective and critical eye—some of the suggestions made in the new Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) report on recruit training, a great deal of good can potentially come of it for officers, agencies, and the communities they serve.
“TikTok provides us with another avenue to begin conversations with individuals who we know are looking for a meaningful career of service," Col. Charles A. Jones, patrol superintendent, says.
Officers voiced a desire for a take-home vehicle program, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens explained. It doesn't just have benefits to the officers, either. Dickens said seeing vehicles parked around the community brings people a sense of safety and security.
One reason IMPD says some officers, especially young officers, are leaving the department is because of the patrol vehicles.
Along with recruiting more officers, the governor seeks to boost their pay, provide them with better training and equipment, hire more prosecutors, and increase support for crime victims and witnesses.
The video features “Officer Big B” energetically selling recruits and “trade-ins” (lateral transfers) on working for the Fort Worth PD.
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