Influences That Affect the Recruiting and Retention of Officers in Rural Sheriff's Departments

The article also discusses the challenges of attracting and recruiting police officers. Many police departments pay higher than the state police department, which tends to draw the police officers’ attention. Currently state police departments have to decide how to attract police

There is an endless amount of careers in criminal justice. Out of that endless amount, I chose the career of a small town police officer. Ever since the ending of last year, I’ve wanted to be a police officer. I pictured it as what better way to learn about the career I want to pursue than to research and write a paper about it. Small town police officers are the backbone of any community. They worry about everyone who comes in or goes out of that area. This paper will identify the requirements and prerequisites to become a small town police officer, small town police training and education, major duties and responsibilities, and salary and promotion opportunities.

In recent years, recruitment and retention of police officers has been a pain point for many departments across the nation. Odd and inflexible hours, uncompetitive pay, para-militaristic organizational structures, and a negative public perception have all worked to diminish the pool of applicants interested in careers in law enforcement. Add to the mix the sexist “brotherhood” police culture, emphasis on masculinity and aggression, and the nearly non-existent opportunities for advancement for women, and over half of the eligible workforce has been discouraged from even considering a career in law enforcement. In 2013, women comprised just over 57% of the labor force, but accounted for only 13% of sworn police officers (USDOL, 2013; Crooke, 2013). Not only are women sorely underrepresented in the field of law enforcement, but those who are employed experience discrimination at the hands of their supervisors and coworkers, and as a result, the attrition rate for women is often much higher than that of their male counterparts. Departments should pledge dedication to recruiting and retaining more female officers, as research indicates that not only do females perform just as well as males in patrol positions, but they also have a unique set of advantages to offer agencies when employed in law enforcement. In order to improve the recruitment and retention of females into policing roles, departments must determine the biggest deterrents for women who are considering the pursuit

The New Jersey State Police does not experience much turnover. However, within a twenty-five year career, a trooper’s attitude, and how that attitude relates to job satisfaction and output can be measured. While a trooper with 10-15 years experience may be distrustful of command staff, junior troopers (those with 1-5 years) are viewed as zealots. Junior troopers are productive and engaged in their field. A trooper’s job satisfaction can be measured by his/her’s perceived organizational support. Job satisfaction has a direct correlation to employee engagement and perceived organizational support.

An important part of the United States workforce is made up of police officers. The number of police officers employed has grown drastically over the past few years. However, although the number of police officers employed has increased, public scrutiny has as well. The police employment practices have affected the publics’ perception of the police because of the factors involved as well as the desire to seek employment in law enforcement. The paper below will describe some of the factors involved with race and ethnicity when seeking police careers.

The profession of policing derives its effectiveness from its ability to attract and employ quality individuals who will strive to better their community. Therefore proper recruitment and selection of officers is incredibly important to a police organization. Some major needs to Missouri’s recruitment process will be addressed in the following paragraphs.

The article Attracting females and racial/ethnic minorities to law enforcement is about local law enforcement agencies and their efforts to engage women and ethnic/minorities into participating in law enforcement agencies applicant processes and also concerns the hiring patterns of law enforcement agencies and the abilities of these agencies to fill sworn positions with females and minority officers. The arrival of the 20th century brought with it a change in the policing environment from the spoils system of earlier days to a more inclusive environment for female and minority presence within officer ranks. Some of the problems that law enforcement agencies of the more recent times will have with attracting females and minorities into law enforcement agency careers comes from outside of the agencies, but the most important determining problems can come from within those agencies themselves such as fear of the race and gender discrimination from the likes of employers and co-workers that makes females and minorities reluctant to join law enforcement agencies. The more highly televised incidents of the police brutality such as the Rodney King beating, Abner Louima torturing, and other abuse of force incidents make it very important

The first step in consideration of law enforcement selection, is recruitment and Conser (1978) explained mandated minimum state standards for selection dates back to the early 1950 's; albeit the actual reinforcement of established selection standards emphasized to the states until 1975, when The Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations found police selection standards lacking (Conser, 1978). This lead to enacting legislation, employing the development of state commission councils of policing standards composed of local officials’ and law enforcement agencies, whose main responsibilities were to: oversee, implement and enforce the screening and evaluation of potential candidates; ensuring properly provided services and protection of local communities (Conser, 1978). The commissions set minimum standards of: 21 years of age or higher, good physical health, set minimum and maximum height and weight requirements to ensure the abilities of candidates would meet the physical demands of law enforcement work (Conser, 1978). Equally important officials’ sought out characteristics of candidates’ skills that consisted of: high emotional and stress level, endurance, confidence, public trust, and knowledgeable, psychologically sound individuals (Cosner, 1978). Moreover, officials’ conducted personality profiles, checked citizenship, verified addresses, and ran background checks (Conser, 1978). In addition, Cosner (1978) state the process also also involved: oral interviews,

Currently, the role of the human resources (HR) department within any given sheriff's office is limited to the purely administrative functions of processing a new hire's paperwork, managing benefits for each employee, conducting administrative trainings on sheriff's office policies when necessary, hearing complaints about internal affairs from other employees and investigating those complaints, and answering employee questions about administrative matters. The HR department in a sheriff's office plays a more limited role than in other traditional companies, because the sheriff's office is a government entity, not a private or public company, and because the duties of most of the employees at a sheriff's office, with the exception of clerical or office workers, have very little to do with administrative matters. The sheriff and the deputies are very far removed from the working world of the HR department personnel of their offices. The measurement of the performance of the HR department is limited to how organized it is and how well it knows the information it is supposed to know and is able to communicate that information to others as necessary.

“So goes the economy, so goes the government applications” (Anjewierden, D. 2016). When the economy is good, people go out and make money inside the private sector. On the alternate scenario when the economy is not as good, people look for government jobs in search for security through the economic storm. In recent years, recruitment has been difficult at least in Utah’s law enforcement sector in finding not only law enforcement officers, but administrative staff as well. Someone with correct qualifications may jump on a law enforcement administrative job, but a few years later realize they could double their money by exiting to the private sector. Not everyone who’s hired will stay with the organization forever, which can lead to recruitment and management conflicts. This is just one of many problems facing recruitment inside law enforcement and government

I did my forty-hour patrol practicum the Perry County Sheriff’s Department. I started on February Fourth, 2016 and went ever following Friday until April First of 2016. I learned a lot of useful things while riding with the Deputy. I learned some of the codes that Perry county uses. I learned the Youth Correction center and even went to one in Lancaster. I have got to see a Domestic Violence happen and how the Sheriffs, State Trooper, and Town Officers deal with them. There was so much to like about riding with the Sheriff’s department.

Line-level law enforcement officers, investigators supervisors, and police executives are more educated and sophisticated with technology in their arsenal to enhance job performance. Despite having better education, training, equipment, access to specialized resources, and information, law enforcement agencies struggle with sharing power with their workforce. The result of this failure to modernize leaves law enforcement officers going through the motions and working at less than maximum efficiency.

The culture or shared values and underlying assumptions of the Sheriff’s Office consist of various things. One shared value of every individual that works at the Sheriff’s Office is the high ethical standard of each person. To work in law enforcement requires people to agree to abide by a code of ethics that you must follow in order to keep your job. Another belief and understanding of the office are to strive for constant improvement in all areas and to serve everyone in the county despite their race, sex, religion, or socioeconomic standing. The Sheriff pushes people to always be honest, even if a mistake is made and to be professional at all times because you never know who is watching you.

To begin with, many police agencies have avoided hiring candidates who have low ethical standards and have identified those onboard employees early in their careers who might compromise the department’s integrity. In addition, research has discovered new methods of testing candidates for their psychological propensity to act ethically. However, unethical conduct by the nation’s police officers continues to occur in departments large and small” (Martin, n.d.).

In so much as all local law enforcement agencies are desperately searching for those quality candidates, the Sheriff’s Office is gradually becoming one of the areas other agencies are utilizing to recruit staff. This trend has increased over the years supported by the number of deputies who have left the agency for local law enforcement agencies. From January 2015 through August 31, 2013, the Sheriff’s Office has experienced a loss of 16 deputies resigning and accepting positions with other agencies with 11 of the deputies having three years or less of service to the Sheriff’s Office. Thus, the retention of staff is an area for