Hiring for the 21st Century 

Law Enforcement Officer

Challenges, Opportunities, and 

Strategies for Success 
This project was supported by cooperative agreement number 2015-CK-WX-0018 awarded by the Office of Community Oriented Policing 

Services, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions contained herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official 

position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. References to specific agencies, companies, products, or services should not be

considered an endorsement by the author(s) or the U.S. Department of Justice. Rather, the references are illustrations to supplement 

discussion of the issues. 

The Internet references cited in this publication were valid as of the date of publication. Given that URLs and websites are in constant flux, 

neither the author(s) nor the COPS Office can vouch for their current validity. 

Recommended citation:

Morison, Kevin P. 2017. Hiring for the 21st Century Law Enforcement Officer: Challenges, Opportunities, and Strategies for Success. Washington, 

DC: Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.

Published 2017 
i 

Contents

Letter from the Director of the COPS Office............................................................................................ iii

Letter from the Executive Director of PERF .............................................................................................. v

Acknowledgments................................................................................................................................... vii

Introduction: Shaping the Policing Profession for the 21st Century ........................................................1

Diverse personnel, diverse perspectives..............................................................................................2

Three overarching themes....................................................................................................................3

Discussion, recommendations, and promising practices .....................................................................4

Nexus of recruitment and hiring...........................................................................................................

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4

1. Hiring Candidates Who Share the Values and Vision of the Community and the Department 5

Identify key traits and characteristics 6

Operationalizing the process 7

A new look at traditional measures 9

Still need to “screen out the negative” 13

Dealing with past drug use 13

Dealing with bias—explicit and implicit..............................................................................................16

Providing context for financial responsibility issues...........................................................................

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18

A new look at some traditional tools 18

Reviewing candidates from other agencies 21

Ensuring the process is fair 23

Recommendations and promising practices: 

Hiring candidates who share the values and vision of the community and the department 26

2. Making the Hiring Process More Efficient 29

Different processes, different timelines 30

Procedural inefficiencies 31

Promising approaches to accelerate the hiring process 33

Recommendations and promising practices: Making the hiring process more efficient 36
ii Hiring for the 21st Century Law Enforcement Officer

3. Advancing Diversity and Inclusiveness in the Hiring Process..............................................................

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41

“Grow your own” 41

Watch out for guardians of the existing culture 45

The fallout from “zero tolerance” policing 47

Recommendations and promising practices: Advancing diversity and inclusiveness in hiring 49

4. Other Issues to Consider 51

Changing standards on tattoos 51

Raising the minimum age for police officers 54

Recruiting and hiring qualified civilian professionals 55

Recommendations and promising practices: other issues to consider 58

Conclusion: Promising Practices for Moving the Profession Forward 59

List of Forum Participants 62

Law enforcement, academic, and organizational participants 62

Federal participants 65

About PERF 66

About the COPS Office 67
iii

Letter from the Director of the

COPS Office

Dear Colleagues,

In July 2016, President Obama convened law enforcement and civil rights leaders, as well as members of 

the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, for a candid, solutions-oriented dialogue about 

improving police-community relations. There was consensus among participants that further discussions 

were needed to focus on recruiting for a diverse workplace, and on the challenges, often during the 

hiring process, that agencies experience in making that a reality. 

In response to this meeting, President Obama asked the COPS Office to explore these topics and provide 

additional recommendations for law enforcement agencies as they work to improve the recruitment 

and hiring process. Together with the Police Executive Research Foundation (PERF), the COPS Office 

hosted the Hiring for the 21st Century Law Enforcement Officer forum in September 2016. This 

publication is a companion to the Law Enforcement Recruitment in the 21st Century forum convened in 

partnership with Strategic Applications International.

The hiring forum brought law enforcement executives, human resources professionals, and other 

stakeholders together to explore hiring rules and procedures that both support and challenge hiring 

those candidates who are psychologically suited, qualified, and have the temperament to be police 

officers. But beyond rules and procedures, it is critically important to look at the hiring process to ensure 

that those candidates who are hired meet the high standards of the profession. 

The forum participants’ forthright discussions and varied insights and experiences can be of great value 

to Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) commissions, agency HR personnel, state civil service 

boards, and others concerned with officer hiring and retention. I commend PERF for the important 

contribution they have made to American law enforcement by convening this forum and preparing this 

report.
iv Hiring for the 21st Century Law Enforcement Officer

The benefits of hiring individuals who not only reflect the communities they serve but also embody 

American law enforcement values of justice and service will benefit us all long into the future. This 

report is an excellent place to start.

Sincerely,

Ronald L. Davis

Director

Office of Community Oriented Policing Service
v 

Letter from the Executive Director

of PERF

The American policing profession may be facing the most fundamental questioning of its legitimacy in 

decades. The very essence of policing is being debated in many cities, often because of controversial 

video recordings of police officers’ actions. Community trust has eroded, and the professionalism of the 

police is being questioned. At the same time, far too many officers are being killed in the line of duty, in 

many cases in cowardly ambush attacks. All of this has made community members and police officers 

concerned about their safety and has prompted leading police officials to go back to the beginning and

take a fresh look at the police officers they are hiring. Do the officers represent the values of our 

communities? Do they share the philosophy of policing that we are developing for the 21st century? Do 

they have the skills and talents they will need to do the job we want them to do? 

Policing used to be a profession shared within families from generation to generation. We all know 

families that count many officers among their sons and brothers and uncles, and sometimes their 

daughters, sisters, and aunts as well. But, sadly, these days when PERF gathers a large group of seniorlevel police executives together for a meeting and I ask them, “How many of you would like to see your 

children become tomorrow ’s police officers?” very few, if any, raise their hands. 

The country is facing a looming crisis in the hiring of police officers. Agencies continue to rely on hiring 

standards that were created decades ago, for a different philosophy of policing and a different 

generation of police officer candidates—even while many cities are having trouble finding enough 

suitable candidates to keep up with retirements and fill vacant positions. Today’s young people 

considering a job in policing expect agencies to be quicker, more nimble and transparent in their hiring 

processes and decision making—and for many young people, especially in minority communities, 

policing is not seen as an appealing career choice in the current climate. 

However, there are signs of hope, innovation, and change. At the September 13, 2016, forum “Hiring for 

the 21stst Century Law Enforcement Officer,” police agency leaders, labor representatives, professional 

association executives, academicians, civil service managers, and others directly involved in 
vi Hiring for the 21st Century Law Enforcement Officer

police hiring discussed the issues facing the profession and explored new ideas and approaches. Their 

experiences and insights, presented in this report, provide a valuable resource that should help agencies 

of all sizes better understand the common challenges they face.

Sincerely,

Chuck Wexler

Executive Director

Police Executive Research Forum
vii

Acknowledgments

The Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) would like to thank the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office 

of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) for supporting this examination of changes and 

innovations in police hiring practices to support the 21st century policing philosophy. We support COPS 

Office Director Ronald L. Davis’s commitment to exploring new ideas and approaches to ensure police 

agencies’ hiring practices are attracting the right candidates. Thanks go to COPS Office staff, particularly 

Helene Bushwick and Brenda Auterman, for their support and encouragement throughout the project. 

We would also like to thank the more than 50 police agency leaders, labor representatives, professional 

association executives, academicians, civil service managers, and others directly involved in police hiring 

who attended our September 13, 2016, forum in Washington, D.C. (see the list of participants on page 

62). Their participation provided us with insight on how agencies have revamped and streamlined their 

hiring processes and policies in order to attract and hire the best candidates. 

Finally, credit is due to PERF staff members who prepared for and hosted the joint COPS Office and PERF 

forum and who wrote and edited this publication: Jessica Toliver, director of Technical Assistance; Kevin 

Morison, director of Program Development; Craig Fischer, director of Communications; Elizabeth Miller, 

research associate; and Adam Kemerer, research assistant. 

1 

Introduction: Shaping the Policing 

Profession for the 21st Century

“To build a police force capable of dealing with the complexity of the 

21st century, it is imperative that agencies place value on both 

educational achievements and socialization skills when making hiring 

decisions. Hiring officers who reflect the community they serve is 

important not only to external relations, but also to increasing 

understanding within the agency.” 

– President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing

The President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing (task force) recognized that a police agency’s 

process for hiring new officers can be the foundation of effective, procedurally just policing. In its final 

report, the task force highlighted the importance of hiring officers who reflect the diversity and values of 

the community, and who have both the mindset and the skills needed to engage with the community. 

The task force encouraged states to establish high standards for who qualifies to be a police officer, and 

it recommended that agencies ensure that the officers they hire possess “the character traits and social 

skills that enable effective policing and positive community relationships.”

1

The task force emphasized why the issue of hiring is so important to policing in the 21st century, but it 

did not go into great detail about how agencies can improve their hiring standards and procedures. That 

type of specific guidance was beyond the scope of the task force. However, as a follow-up to the task

force’s report, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS 

Office) and the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) organized a day-long forum titled “Hiring for the 

21st Century Law Enforcement Officer.” Held on September 13, 2016, in Washington, D.C., the meeting

brought together approximately 50 expert practitioners, primarily in the fields of police standards, 

screening, and hiring. The meeting was moderated by Chuck Wexler, executive director of PERF. 

 

1 President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, Final Report of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing

(Washington, DC: Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, 2015), 51, 

https://cops.usdoj.gov/pdf/taskforce/taskforce_finalreport.pdf. 
2 Hiring for the 21st Century Law Enforcement Officer

Diverse personnel, diverse perspectives 

The majority of forum participants were sworn and civilian personnel from a range of police agencies of 

different sizes and from different regions of the country. They included lieutenants, captains, command 

personnel, and chief executives. These practitioners were selected because their agencies had 

implemented innovative hiring programs that have shown promise in their communities and that may 

be useful models for other jurisdictions. 

The forum also included representatives from the following entities and disciplines: 

• Labor organizations in policing 

• State agencies responsible for police standards

• Professional associations representing police chiefs, sheriffs, women in law enforcement, Hispanic 

command officers, mayors, the transgender community, and police trainers

• Municipal civil service agencies

• Practitioners in the field of police psychology

• Academic experts

They were joined by PERF staff members and representatives of the COPS Office and other federal 

agencies (see the complete list of forum participants on page 62). Their charge was to explore how

police agencies can make effective hiring decisions that serve their individual organizations and advance 

the policing profession as a whole. 

“Whether it’s building trust and legitimacy, fighting crime and violence, 

implementing new technologies such as body cameras, or addressing the 

challenges of police use of force—there isn’t a challenge that we’re 

facing right now that doesn’t point back to the issues of recruitment 

and hiring.”

– Ronald L. Davis, Director, COPS Office
Introduction: Shaping the Policing Profession for the 21st Century 3 

Three overarching themes

The forum covered a wide variety of issues. These ranged from detailed aspects of the hiring process

(such as agency policies on candidates’ past drug use) to “big picture” issues, such as hiring philosophies, 

advancing diversity, and addressing implicit bias among officer candidates. The session also included 

discussions of the practical aspects of streamlining the hiring process and of organizing and operating 

police cadet and internships programs to introduce high-quality candidates into the hiring process

This report summarizes the major issues explored in the forum. These issues are organized around three 

themes:

• Hiring candidates who share the values and vision of the community and the department. This 

section explores how some agencies are using the hiring process to do more than disqualify 

individuals who fail to meet basic standards. Rather, more and more agencies are using the process

to “hire the positive”—that is, to attract and ultimately hire people who reflect the values and vision 

of the law enforcement agency and the community. This section also explores new ways of thinking 

about such traditional disqualifiers as past drug use (an increasingly complex matter, given the trend 

toward marijuana legalization or decriminalization in many states) and applicants’ financial 

difficulties (which may be a result of poor economic conditions nationwide). This section also 

examines the role of polygraph exams, psychological screenings, and the National Decertification 

Index, a relatively new and underused tool to help agencies screen candidates in a more 

comprehensive, multijurisdictional fashion. 

• Making the hiring process more efficient.

Traditionally, the police hiring process in most agencies has been slow and cumbersome. As a result, 

some agencies are losing qualified candidates to other departments, and in some cases, the policing 

profession is losing highly attractive candidates to other professions. This section of the report 

explores what some agencies are doing to shorten the hiring process and make it more efficient and 

user-friendly to applicants. Forum participants emphasized that speed and efficiency in hiring are 

especially important among the younger generations—Millennials and Generation Z2

—who make 

up the bulk of people now entering the workforce. 

• Advancing diversity and inclusiveness in the hiring process.

This section examines how agencies are meeting their goals of building a workforce that reflects the 

diversity of the communities they serve, while also ensuring high-quality candidates and a process 

that is fair to everyone. Hiring Forum participants described new approaches to “growing their own 

candidates” through programs such as police explorers, cadets and internships. They also discussed 

the important role that background investigators play not just in screening and evaluating 

candidates, but also in shaping the “culture” of an agency. 

 

2 Definitions vary, but Millennials are generally thought to include persons born in the 1980s to mid-1990s, while 

Generation Z, also known as Post-Millennials, the iGeneration, or the Homeland Generation, includes persons born 

beginning in the mid-1990s to early 2000s. 
4 Hiring for the 21st Century Law Enforcement Officer

In addition, this report examines a number of other issues confronting today’s police hiring authorities. 

These include, for example, whether visible tattoos undermine the image of police officers that an 

agency may wish to convey, whether to raise the minimum age for new hires, and how the hiring of 

civilian employees can support agency goals while relieving some pressure on the process of hiring 

sworn officers. The report also discusses new thinking about educational requirements and physical 

standards in the hiring process.

Discussion, recommendations, and promising practices

In each chapter, the report presents an overview of the key issues discussed in the forum. In addition, 

the report presents a number of specific recommendations and promising practices for agencies to 

review. In this respect, the report builds on the foundation established by the Final Report of the 

President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing by presenting practical and useful information and action 

items for agencies to consider and implement.

Nexus of recruitment and hiring

This forum followed a separate session on police recruitment, also sponsored by the COPS Office. Like 

the hiring forum, the meeting on police recruiting brought together experts from multiple disciplines 

and multiple agencies. The recruitment forum explored innovative ways to attract diverse, qualified, and 

community-oriented people to the policing profession in the first place—in other words, to get them in 

the door. As a complement to that meeting, the hiring forum centered on how to efficiently screen and 

evaluate those candidates who have expressed an interest in policing, and how to get the best 

candidates through the hiring process and out into the community as 21st century police officers. 

Together, recruitment and hiring play a major role in shaping how police agencies develop, grow, and 

ultimately succeed. As COPS Office Director Ronald Davis noted at the hiring forum, there are few major 

issues confronting policing today that do not stem from recruitment and hiring on some level. The two 

COPS Office–sponsored forums provide guidance on how agencies can move forward in a unified 

manner on both fronts. 
5 

1. Hiring Candidates Who Share the 

Values and Vision of the Community and 

the Department

“About three or four years ago, we started to look at our hiring process 

in terms of our outcomes. We’re trying to find the right individuals who

we can train to be the kind of officers we want. We can give them 

training, but if they are not coming in with those human qualities that 

you want, we can’t train those. So we say ‘Hire the heart, train the 

brain.’”

– Karianne Thomas, Deputy Chief,

Kalamazoo (Michigan) Department of Public Safety

Traditionally, police agencies have used the hiring process primarily as a way to identify and exclude 

candidates who do not meet certain agency standards. Applicants who pass a basic written examination 

and other minimum entry requirements are put into a background investigation process that focuses 

almost exclusively on trying to uncover issues in the candidates’ backgrounds that would disqualify them 

from service. For some candidates, it feels as if they are being treated more like criminal suspects than 

job applicants.

Participants at the hiring forum did not discount the importance of weeding out candidates who lack the 

ethical foundation, moral compass, and basic capabilities to be a police officer. In fact, much of the 

discussion focused on how to improve systems and procedures to be more accurate, discerning, and 

efficient in identifying unsuitable candidates. 

However, many forum participants emphasized that in the 21st century, police agencies need to use the 

hiring process to do more than simply disqualify the negative. Agencies need to use that process to 

proactively identify and hire the positive—the candidates who possess the values, character traits, and 

capabilities that agencies are looking for in their employees. For many forum participants, that change in 

perspective about the basic purpose and ultimate value of the hiring process was seen as a critical first 

step toward improving the system and getting better outcomes.
6 Hiring for the 21st Century Law Enforcement Officer

Identify key traits and characteristics

What are those positive traits, characteristics, and skill sets that agencies need to hire for in the 21st 

century? And how can agencies measure and evaluate those qualities? While the answers to those 

questions will vary somewhat from agency to agency, forum participants offered some helpful 

suggestions. 

The first step is for agencies to clearly identify what specific traits and characteristics they are seeking in 

their officers. These are the qualities that go above and beyond the minimum standards that are 

established by many state Police Officer Standards and Training (POST) agencies. Each agency’s list will 

be guided in large part by the policing philosophy of that agency. Still, forum participants identified a 

number of fundamental qualities that all agencies should embrace, which include the following:

• Integrity 

• Service orientation

• Empathy

• Communication and human relations skills 

• Self-control

• Team orientation

• Problem-solving skills

Several forum participants noted that while the traditional approach to police hiring has skewed heavily 

toward the “warrior” aspects of the profession, agencies today need to focus attention on recruiting and 

hiring for the “guardian” role that police officers must be prepared to play. In fact, some forum 

participants argued that agencies should concentrate most of their attention on ensuring that applicants 

coming into the system have the necessary qualities of the guardian, because the warrior elements of 

the job can be taught. 

“You have to understand what your community expects of your police 

officers, and implement those expectations. If you don’t have a 

relationship with the community and your officers aren’t exemplifying 

the behavior the community wants, you’re not going to be able to 

recruit the people you want to hire.” 

–Commander David Robinson, Dearborn (Michigan) Police Department 
1. Hiring Candidates Who Share the Values and Vision of the Community and the Department 7 

Identifying the key traits that applicants should possess must be more than an internal brainstorming 

session. Agencies should also solicit the input of community members. What are their expectations? 

What qualities and skills do residents, business owners, civic leaders, and others want to see in the 

officers who police their communities? After all, these are the people who are the primary recipients of 

police services, and they have a vested interest and a unique perspective on what constitutes effective 

policing. If agencies are not asking for the community’s input on the hiring process, they are not getting 

a complete and accurate picture of the workforce they should be looking to build.

“When we looked at our process, we started by trying to identify what 

type of officer we would like to see in the coming generation. We’re 

trying to focus more on officers with problem-solving skills, 

communication skills, and interpersonal skills. There’s a lot in policing 

that we can teach to an officer, but we don’t believe that we can teach 

the fundamental human ability to interact well with others.” 

– Brian Maxey, Chief Operating Officer, 

Seattle (Washington) Police Department

Operationalizing the process

Once agencies have identified the core set of traits, characteristics, and capabilities they are looking for 

in officer candidates, they need to operationalize the process of hiring people who match those ideals. 

Clearly, that process starts well before an applicant ever takes a written test or enters the background 

process. It begins with how and where agencies recruit potential candidates in the first place. As Dr. 

Patrick Oliver, Director of Criminal Justice Programs at Cedarville University, stated, “Once you know 

what you’re looking for, where do you go and find that kind of a person?” For example, in the search for 

candidates who possess the full range of traits needed by today’s police officers, recruiting and hiring go 

hand-in-hand. Agencies can’t screen for and ultimately hire their strongest and most well-rounded 

candidates if their recruiters have not identified those people and encouraged them to start the process. 

This is called “Targeted Selection,” and it is considered an especially effective recruitment method.

Within the hiring and screening process itself, evaluating and measuring the desired qualities and traits 

of officer candidates are not simple tasks. They require effort, resources, and some creativity on the part 

of hiring agencies. Major James Handley of the Baltimore Police Department noted that civil service 

tests are currently based mostly on cognitive abilities. Baltimore police are working with the city’s 

human resources department to update the test so that it measures key personality traits as well. 
8 Hiring for the 21st Century Law Enforcement Officer

“Once you’ve met statutory criteria and you’re selecting candidates, I 

really like scenario-based questioning in the interview process. I think 

that’s a good way to identify the candidates with the characteristics you 

want.”

– Sean Smoot, Director, 

Police Benevolent & Protective Association of Illinois

Other jurisdictions are expanding their oral interview process to focus more on community-oriented 

skills and capabilities. For example, the Dallas (Texas) Police Department conducts in-depth interviews 

with candidates that include questions about how they would handle various situations that an officer 

will likely encounter in the community. Patricia Marsolais, Director of Dallas Civil Service, said the 

interview and assessment process for recruit candidates is being structured in a similar fashion to the 

assessment center the city uses for police promotions. 

In Kalamazoo, Michigan, candidates are given scenario-based questions that address the city’s “fair and 

impartial policing” approach and that touch on a variety of human experiences, as opposed to only the 

traditional roles of a police officer. In addition, candidates participate in ride-alongs with police officers 

that include interactions with a community-based group. This exercise serves two purposes: it helps the 

department evaluate the skills of the candidate in relating to and communicating with community 

members, and it gives the candidate a realistic view of what police work entails.

Another approach suggested by some forum participants is to provide special consideration for 

candidates who have engaged in activities that support the characteristics and skills the agency is 

looking for. For example, candidates could earn points in the hiring process for community service or 

volunteer activities, in which they demonstrated the ability to work with diverse communities in 

different settings. This would be similar to the extra hiring “points” that some states and agencies give 

to candidates with prior military service or who have attained certain educational levels. 

While these types of approaches reward efforts that demonstrate a commitment to the agency’s ideals, 

some Forum participants cautioned that they could also have a disparate impact on working-class or 

low-income candidates who may not have had the ability to attend college or do volunteer work. There 

may be excellent candidates who have been busy working multiple jobs to support their families, for 

example. Participants suggested that agencies need to offer a range of opportunities for candidates to 

demonstrate the character traits and skill sets that fit with the agency’s philosophy and priorities.
1. Hiring Candidates Who Share the Values and Vision of the Community and the Department 9 

A new look at traditional measures

In addition to discussing how to identify and measure the character and personality traits of police 

officer candidates, forum participants also examined the value of some of the traditional measures by 

which candidates have long been measured. Two areas in particular—educational requirements and 

physical standards— were explored in some detail.

Educational requirements 

Forum participants generally agreed there is value in police officers having attained some level of higher 

education, but whether that should be a prerequisite for hiring remains a much debated topic. 

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, just 15 percent of local law enforcement agencies in the 

United States required their officers to have some level of college in 2013, and only 1 percent required a 

four-year degree.3 The large majority of agencies do not require more than a high-school diploma. 

However, departments serving a population of at least 1 million are more likely to require some college 

education; 29 percent of those big-city departments required at least a two-year college degree, and 

another 7 percent required some college education.

Higher education can be especially valuable for those officers who work in diverse, multi-cultural 

communities. Sean Smoot, a police labor official and task force member, said that the educational value 

of college comes not only from classroom instruction but also from exposure to new people and diverse 

ideas and opinions. “Folks who go to college tend to get exposed to other students and professors who 

come from various backgrounds that they weren’t exposed to in the town they grew up in,” Smoot said. 

Tucson, Arizona, Police Chief Chris Magnus noted that while online degree programs are increasingly 

popular, they do not provide the same level of exposure to new people and ideas that traditional 

colleges do.

The hiring forum included officials from two agencies that have recently gone in opposite directions 

when it comes to a college education requirement:

• The Miami Beach (Florida) Police Department recently added a four-year degree requirement for 

new officers. Major Wayne Jones explained the change this way: “We feel that if we’re going to be 

calling ourselves professionals, we need to have a well-educated group of candidates to choose

from.” The department has targeted its recruitment efforts at colleges and universities, and has 

been successful in meeting its numerical hiring goals and attracting high-quality candidates. Major 

Jones said that to bolster recruiting of female candidates, the department recruits heavily at 

universities with strong women’s athletic programs.

 

3 Brian Reaves, Local Police Departments, 2013: Personnel, Policies, and Practices (Washington, DC: Bureau of 

Justice Statistics, 2015), NCJ 248677, https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/lpd13ppp.pdf. 
10 Hiring for the 21st Century Law Enforcement Officer

• The New Orleans (Louisiana) Police Department (NOPD), on the other hand, in 2015 dropped its 

requirement that candidates have 60 college credits, and reverted to requiring only a high school 

diploma. The change was largely an effort to attract a larger and more diverse applicant pool, which 

has proven successful. Jonathan Wisbey, NOPD Deputy Chief of Staff, reported that after the change 

was made, the number of applicants increased five-fold, to 1,500 during a two-month period. The 

department discovered that 25 to 30 percent of the applicants they are currently processing would 

not have qualified under the previous requirements. Many had at least some college credits, just not 

the 60 credits required. NOPD also has brought in people with additional life experience and 

employment history, whose communications and human relations skills may be more developed 

than a 21-year-old who just graduated from college. 

While the NOPD no longer requires two years of college at the time of hiring, the department has 

sent a clear signal that it values higher education. For example, it offers access to free tuition 

programs and reimbursements for textbooks and other expenses. 

“We firmly agree that higher education is useful in policing and can help 

produce a better police officer, so we have incentive and support 

programs available to people once they’re on the force to obtain that 

level of education. It seemed wrong to disqualify candidates who may 

not have had the financial means or opportunities to go to college. The 

change was our way of getting additional folks in the door and then 

helping them get additional education, rather than making it a barrier 

to even applying.” 

– Jonathan Wisbey, Deputy Chief of Staff, 

New Orleans (Louisiana) Police Department

Physical fitness standards 

Requiring officer candidates to demonstrate a level of physical fitness is important to the agency and to 

the candidate, forum participants agreed. Being a police officer is a physically demanding job, and 

officers need to be prepared to engage in strenuous and potentially dangerous physical activity. That 

basic requirement has not changed for the 21st century police officer. 

However, forum participants noted that there is little consistency in the physical fitness standards from 

state to state and from agency to agency. With some exceptions, the basic standards that officer 

candidates must achieve today have not changed very much, they said. Importantly, forum participants 

also questioned whether the current standards were an appropriate measure of the tasks that officers 

really need to be able to do, and whether the standards are biased against certain candidates, especially 

women. 
1. Hiring Candidates Who Share the Values and Vision of the Community and the Department 11

For example, many states and agencies require candidates to complete a set number of push-ups during 

a one- or two-minute test. The push-up test is designed to assess upper-body strength and muscular 

endurance. But as COPS Office Director Ronald L. Davis pointed out, “What you really want to know is, 

do they have the strength to control somebody who resists? Why not test them on that? Test to see 

if they can take down a person and handcuff them. If they can do that, then why would I care about 

push-ups?”

Lenexa (Kansas) Police Major Dawn Layman, who serves as President of the National Association of 

Women Law Enforcement Executives (NAWLEE), said traditional standards that measure upper-body 

strength such as push-ups can have a disparate impact on female candidates. Major Layman said there is 

no comprehensive data on the number of otherwise qualified candidates who drop out of the hiring 

process because they failed to meet the physical fitness standards; most states and agencies do not 

collect or report such information. But she said that she and her colleagues at NAWLEE hear anecdotal 

evidence that physical fitness testing is having a disparate impact on women. 

The Madison (Wisconsin) Police Department is working to address the issue of high-quality candidates, 

including men as well as women, who drop out of the process because they fail to meet physical fitness 

requirements. The State of Wisconsin requires officer candidates to pass two physical fitness tests, one 

at the time they are hired and one at the time they complete academy training. Early in the recruiting 

and hiring process, Madison police do a basic physical screening for each candidate. As potential hires 

progress through the hiring process, the department’s training team provides them with hands-on 

guidance on how to prepare for the state-mandated entry level test. Madison Police Captain Mary 

Schauf said this approach is helping the agency maintain its standards and achieve it diversity goals. “We 

just had a class that started Monday, and it is 43 percent women and 30 percent racially diverse,” she 

reported.

Several forum participants also said that fitness should not be viewed as simply a one-time test that 

officers need to pass at the beginning of their careers. Rather, agencies should make fitness—physical, 

emotional, and even “financial fitness”—a priority throughout an officer’s career. Some agencies are 

taking this shift in thinking to heart. 

For example, the Lenexa Police Department conducts quarterly fitness tests that all personnel 

participate in. Officers who don’t pass the test are not penalized, but those who do pass receive 

incentives such as additional days off. Within its nine-hour workday schedule, the department carves 

out on-duty time for officers to engage in physical fitness activities. The department has also woven 

financial responsibility and other life skills into its “whole person” approach to employee fitness and life 

learning.

Finally, forum participants said there should be more research on how to evaluate physical fitness 

standards for police officers and ensure they are directly related to the tasks that officers must typically 

complete. Fitness standards should be evidence-based, not simply guided by tradition. 
12 Hiring for the 21st Century Law Enforcement Officer

Guarding against Disparate Impact on Women in Police Hiring

The Federal government has taken an increased interest in ensuring that police 

agency hiring practices are fair and comply with the civil rights requirements of the 

Safe Streets Act of 1968. Recently, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) within the U.S. 

Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, launched a series of compliance 

reviews of the hiring practices at state law enforcement agencies. One of the areas 

the OCR has focused on is whether hiring practices have a disparate impact on female 

applicants.

The OCR’s first report, published in January 2016, examined the Alabama Law 

Enforcement Agency (ALEA) and the Alabama Department of Public Safety (DPS) (in a 

restructuring, DPS became part of the ALEA in January 2015). * One of the areas that 

investigators focused on was officer selection practices, specifically whether any of 

the agencies’ screening devices had the impact of improperly excluding female 

applicants from the process. The review concluded that in three years—2009, 2011, 

and 2014—the DPS “used a pre-offer physical agility and ability test to screen 

trooper applicants that adversely impacted females and that was neither sufficiently 

related to the trooper position nor consistent with business necessity.”

While there were relatively few female applicants during those years, the OCR found 

they passed the pre-offer physical test at about half the rate that male applicants did 

in 2009 and 2011, and no female applicants passed the test in 2014. The ALEA 

provided the OCR with a study that showed a correlation between the screening 

devices it used and applicants’ ability on a simulated task to “apprehend and subdue 

an offender.” However, the OCR determined that the research design was flawed and 

inadequate to defend the business necessity of the screening measures. 

OCR also pointed out that the department has lower physical standards for troopers 

already employed with the agency than for applicants, which further demonstrated 

the lack of business necessity for the more stringent pre-employment 

test. Participants in the hiring forum emphasized that physical standards in the hiring 

process should be clearly job-related, and that physical fitness should be a focus not 

just at the beginning of an officers’ careers but throughout their employment. 

_______________________

* Office of Justice Programs, “OCR Issues Report, Finds Alabama Agency Failed to Properly Recruit, 

Hire and Retain Female Troopers,” press release, January 5, 2016, 

http://ojp.gov/newsroom/pressreleases/2016/ojp01052016.pdf. For the full report, see Office of 

Civil Rights, “Compliance Review of Ala. Law Enf’t Agency and Ala. Dep’t of Pub. Safety (14-OCR0444),” to Spender Collier (Alabama Law Enforcement Agency) and John E. Richardson (Alabama 

Department of Public Safety), January 4, 2016, http://ojp.gov/about/ocr/pdfs/14-OCR0444_01042016.pdf. 
1. Hiring Candidates Who Share the Values and Vision of the Community and the Department 13

“When we start establishing physical standards across the board, we 

need to explicitly ask, how is it job-related? What are the tasks that are 

required? I know many females who can handle a call and run circles 

around some of their brothers, but they can’t necessarily bench-press 

350 pounds. Fitness for officers should be inculcated into the 

organization to emphasize lifetime fitness as part of a holistic approach 

to officer well-being—not arbitrary standards or numbers.” 

– Major Dawn Layman, Lenexa (Kansas) Police Department; 

President, National Association of Women Law Enforcement Executives

Still need to “screen out the negative”

Forum participants said it is important for agencies to use the hiring process proactively—as a way to 

attract and retain those candidates who share the agency’s values and who possess the key character 

traits and capabilities that the agency is looking for. At the same time, it is essential that agencies use 

the process to identify and screen out those candidates who do not possess the needed values and 

character traits, as well as those who are unethical, explicitly biased, or otherwise unfit to serve. 

Traditionally, certain behaviors uncovered in the background investigation process have been almost 

automatic disqualifiers for many agencies: past drug use and financial problems, for example. But as the 

candidate pool has changed, and as social mores and even some drug laws have evolved over time, 

agencies have reconsidered some of their traditional thinking about candidates’ histories and prior 

activities. At the same time, agencies have also been forced to re-evaluate some of the tools, such as 

polygraph exams, voice stress analyzers, and psychological screenings, that they have relied on in the 

past. 

These changes are adding further complications to a hiring process that, in many cases, was already 

cumbersome to begin with. The hiring forum offered a variety of new perspectives on these issues.

Dealing with past drug use

Of all the hiring issues confronting police agencies today, one of the most complicated and vexing is the 

issue of past drug use among applicants—in particular, past marijuana use. 
14 Hiring for the 21st Century Law Enforcement Officer

Part of the complication stems from the fact that Americans’ attitudes toward marijuana have shifted 

dramatically in recent years. According to a 2015 Gallup Poll, 58 percent of Americans think marijuana 

use should be legal in the United States, compared to 36 percent in 2005.4 Eight states and the District 

of Columbia have legalized marijuana for recreational use, and another 21 states have legalized medical

marijuana.5 Today’s police officer candidates are entering the workforce at a time when marijuana use 

is becoming increasingly normalized, even legalized, in the United States.

Given this changing landscape, some police agencies are confronting the issue of how to address past 

marijuana use among their officer candidates. The Drug Enforcement Administration continues to 

classify marijuana as a Schedule I drug, and most agencies strictly prohibit its use by current officers and 

officer candidates. 

The challenge for police agencies is how to effectively screen out candidates whose performance would 

be impacted by past drug use, without pushing out otherwise strong candidates who may have used 

marijuana recreationally in the past but whose performance would not be affected. 

Traditionally, police agencies have addressed this issue by establishing numeric thresholds on past 

marijuana use for screening out their officer candidates. The thresholds typically cover either (1) the 

total number of times that a candidate used marijuana throughout his or her life, (2) how recently they 

used marijuana, or (3) a combination of the two. For example, in the State of Maryland, police 

applicants are automatically disqualified if they used marijuana more than 20 times throughout the 

course of their lives, more than 5 times since turning age 21, or any time in the last three years. 

Agencies can petition the Maryland Police and Correctional Training Commissions (PCTC) for an 

exemption on an individual candidate, but they cannot obtain a waiver of the entire rule.

Recently, Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis approached the PCTC about relaxing the current 

standards. The commissioner has said that past marijuana use is the number one disqualifier of police 

applicants in Baltimore and is undermining efforts to grow and diversify the department. He 

recommended that the state maintain its prohibition on marijuana use in the past three years, but that 

the state eliminate the automatic disqualifiers for any marijuana use before then. 

Speaking at the forum, Lieutenant Elliott Cohen of the Maryland State Police said his agency, too, 

supports the focus on the recency of marijuana use, as opposed to lifetime use. “We consider the fact 

that applicants may have used in the distant past but may have demonstrated a change in their behavior 

by not having used for a period significantly greater than the statutory time,” he said. Jennifer Beskid, 

Director of Grants and Special Projects at the Maryland PCTC, said another approach her agency is 

exploring is to establish a cutoff age past which applicants could not have used marijuana.

 

4 Jeffrey Jones, “In U.S., 58% Back Legal Marijuana Use,” Gallup Social Science Series, October 21, 2015, 

http://www.gallup.com/poll/186260/back-legal-marijuana.aspx. 

5

 “State Marijuana Laws in 2016 Map,” Governing.com, last modified November 11, 2016, 

http://www.governing.com/gov-data/state-marijuana-laws-map-medical-recreational.html. 
1. Hiring Candidates Who Share the Values and Vision of the Community and the Department 15

“In discussing drug use, we try to define an age at which you know that 

you’re headed toward a career in law enforcement. At some point, you 

make a commitment to become a law enforcement officer in the future, 

and you stop using marijuana.”

– Jennifer Beskid, Director of Grants and Special Projects, 

Maryland Police and Correctional Training Commissions

However, Director Oliver of Cedarville University argued that agencies should look at both recency and 

frequency of marijuana use. Noting that the best indicator of future behavior is past and current 

performance, he argued that a recency test may indicate if the behavior is still going on. A frequency 

test would suggest that the person may be unsuitable for a career in policing, in his view.

The impact of marijuana legalization on police hiring was also discussed at the forum. As more states 

make the recreational or medicinal use of marijuana legal, there is growing interest nationwide on how 

legalization may affect police hiring practices. Representatives of three jurisdictions where recreational 

use of marijuana is now legal—the District of Columbia, Colorado, and Seattle—described their 

experiences thus far. 

In Washington, D.C., the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) adjusted its thresholds on marijuana 

use following legalization in February 2015. Now, police officer candidates may not have used marijuana 

in the two years prior to the time of application; the previous threshold had been three years. For 

applicants to the MPD’s Police Cadet program, which is an important part of the department’s overall 

recruitment and hiring strategy, the threshold was reduced from three years to one year. MPD Assistant 

Chief Robert Contee III said that, because of their age and maturity levels, holding 17- or 18-year-old 

cadet applicants to the same standard as candidates for full-time sworn officer positions did not seem 

reasonable. Since the change, the MPD has seen more young people entering the cadet program and 

more people making it through the application process. 

In Colorado, which legalized marijuana for recreational purposes in 2012, there has been minimal 

impact on hiring practices or outcomes, according to Cory Amend, Director of the Colorado POST Board. 

He indicated that for hiring purposes, police agencies in the state continue to follow federal law 

regarding marijuana. Most agencies have disqualification thresholds for marijuana use of between one 

and three years, and those have not changed dramatically since 2012. He further stated that the number 

of candidates being disqualified for marijuana use remains very low and has not increased. 

In Seattle, Washington, legalization of marijuana has not dramatically altered the police department’s 

approach to background investigations and hiring, according Brian Maxey, the Seattle Police 

Department’s Chief Operating Officer. Seattle disqualifies applicants for marijuana use within one year 

of application, although Mr. Maxey described that as a “maybe disqualifier, not an absolute 

disqualifier.” He acknowledged that Seattle, like many other agencies, has never clearly articulated the 
16 Hiring for the 21st Century Law Enforcement Officer

precise reason for making past marijuana use a disqualifier: is it a moral issue, a criminal law issue, a 

health issue, a predictor of future drug dependency problems? Maxey said that his focus is on the 

predictive value of past use, which is why he thinks agencies should also be concerned about any history 

of alcohol abuse by an applicant. 

Finally, in addition to marijuana use, some forum participants raised the issue of Adderall, a prescription 

drug used to treat narcolepsy and attention deficit hyperactivity disorders (ADHD). Barbara West, Chief 

of Support Services for the Chicago Police Department, noted that Adderall use has recently increased in 

popularity among college students who use the drug without a prescription to remain awake and 

focused, especially during exam periods. Agencies, especially those that have a higher education 

requirement for applicants, should monitor this issue and possibly adjust their policies accordingly.

Dealing with bias—explicit and implicit

Another issue explored in the hiring forum was the presence of racial or other bias among applicants 

and whether bias can be accurately singled out and measured. Forum participants agreed that explicit 

bias – attitudes and beliefs that exist on a conscious level and that control one’s judgment and behavior 

toward certain people – must be an automatic disqualifier. However, the issue gets more complex when 

implicit bias becomes part of the equation.

Implicit bias refers to bias in judgment or behavior that results from subtle attitudes and stereotypes 

that usually exist below the level of conscious awareness and which the individual does not intentionally 

control.6

 Most social scientists agree that every person harbors various types of implicit bias, so finding 

officer candidates who are 100 percent bias-free is an unrealistic expectation. Rather, forum participants 

agreed, the key to effective hiring is to weed out candidates who display explicit bias and work to 

acknowledge and provide training for implicit bias.

“Everybody has implicit biases. So you have to look at the collective 

body of information from the hiring process—the integrity tests, the 

psychological tests, the interview questions—and look at that as a 

predictor of whether or not the candidate has the ability to perform the 

job that way we’re being asked to by our community.” 

– Commander David Robinson, Dearborn (Michigan) Police Department

 

6 For additional background on implicit bias and research on the topic, see “Implicit Bias,” Stanford Encyclopedia of 

Philosophy, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/implicit-bias/. For background on the impact of implicit bias on 

policing, see Lorie Fridell, “Psychological Research Has Changed How We Approach the Issue of Biased Policing,” 

Subject to Debate: A Newsletter of the Police Executive Research Forum 28, no. 3 (2014), 

http://www.policeforum.org/assets/docs/Subject_to_Debate/Debate2014/debate_2014_mayjun.pdf.
1. Hiring Candidates Who Share the Values and Vision of the Community and the Department 17

Mark Kirschner of Behavioral Health Consultants said there is no accurate, validated test for measuring 

bias. He noted that the California Psychological Inventory (CPI) has a tolerance scale that provides one 

measure of an individual’s acceptance of different attitudes and viewpoints. However, neither the CPI 

nor other commonly used psychological tests provide a definitive measure of bias that police agencies 

can rely on.

Forum participants said that background investigators need to look to other sources of information that 

may uncover bias. For example, a candidate’s biases often emerge through their social media posts, and 

many agencies are taking a closer look at applicants’ Facebook, Twitter, and other social media accounts 

for signs of explicit bias or other conduct that might call into question their suitability to be a police 

officer. 

Other participants noted that the search for biased attitudes and behavior should not stop at the initial 

hiring process. David Rodgers, CEO of Tribal Public Safety Innovations, said all agencies should closely 

monitor the field training and probationary periods for any signs of bias among new officers. Sean 

Smoot of the Illinois Police Benevolent and Protective Association said there should be specific criteria 

or metrics that field training officers should use in evaluating bias among their trainees.

While explicit bias can sometimes be relatively easy to detect through social media, interview questions, 

and the candidate’s own behavior, measuring implicit bias is far less clear-cut. In Morrisville, North 

Carolina, police try to gauge whether candidates have even considered the issue of bias in their own 

lives or in policing in general. Chief Patrice Andrews said, “One of those questions that I ask candidates 

is, ‘What are your biases?’ And that throws many of them off. I've had some candidates say that they 

don’t have any bias at all. And then I'll ask them very simply, ‘What are your thoughts on 21st century 

policing, bias, and the role of the police with the community?’”

However, acknowledging their implicit bias can put candidates in a difficult position if an investigator 

were simply to note “admitted to bias” on a background report. That’s why forum participants 

emphasized that when considering possible bias among candidates, agencies need to take a deeper look 

than simply checking off a box on a form. “You have to understand the whole person, and you have to 

ask the right questions to determine that,” said Assistant Chief Michael Grinstead of the Newport News 

(Virginia) Police Department. “If you do have a bias, what is it and can you deal with it? Is it going to 

affect your job performance?”

Although all people have implicit biases, these attitudes are not rigid or inflexible. That’s why forum 

participants also stressed the importance of providing training to police officers on how to recognize and 

manage implicit bias, starting with recruits in the academy. 
18 Hiring for the 21st Century Law Enforcement Officer

“We have to accept the idea that everybody has biases. So don’t make 

implicit bias a part of your screening process; train people to 

understand it and manage it. When people become police officers, 

include that in their training. The focus on bias in the screening process 

ought to be on explicit bias.”

– Darrel Stephens, Executive Director, Major Cities Chiefs Association

Providing context for financial responsibility issues

Until a few years ago, candidates who filed for personal bankruptcy, defaulted on a loan, or had other 

serious financial problems were often automatically disqualified from the hiring process. At the time, it 

was thought that personal financial difficulties represented a failure to follow through on one’s 

obligations and even posed a major integrity issue by making candidates susceptible to bribery.

However, following the Great Recession of 2007-09, which was the longest recession since World War II 

and was considered particularly severe,7 the number of people in the workforce or entering the 

workforce with a history of financial problems has grown markedly. Faced with these economic realities, 

some police agencies have adjusted their thinking on how personal financial problems should affect 

eligibility for hiring. Rather than treating these types of situations as automatic disqualifiers, agencies 

are now taking a more detailed look at the underlying issues and their context. Forum participants said 

that in the new economy, agencies need to be able to distinguish between unfortunate circumstances 

and grossly negligent or criminal activity when it comes to job applicants’ personal finances. 

7 See Robert Rich, “The Great Recession of 2007–09,” Federal Reserve History, last modified November 22, 2013, 

http://www.federalreservehistory.org/Events/DetailView/58. 

A new look at some traditional tools

Forum participants discussed the efficacy of some of the tools that police agencies have traditionally 

used to screen candidates. In particular, they examined the role that polygraph examinations and 

psychological tests should play in the hiring process. 

Polygraphs 

Among agencies represented at the hiring forum, approximately half said they use a polygraph exam as 

part of their hiring process. Some states, including Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan, prohibit 

polygraph use in police hiring, while other states such as Arizona and Washington mandate it. Some 

forum participants expressed concern that use of the polygraph may be inappropriate because 

 
1. Hiring Candidates Who Share the Values and Vision of the Community and the Department 19

applicants may be offended by having to go through such a procedure, particularly for a position that 

increasingly is seen as requiring high-level skills and professionalism. Others defended the polygraph as 

an effective way to uncover issues with honesty and integrity, two of the key qualities the public 

demands of its police officers. 

Among major cities, Chicago and Los Angeles have adopted the polygraph within past decade. Other 

agencies, such as Morrisville, North Carolina, have opted for the voice stress analyzer (VSA) as an 

alternative to the polygraph; some have suggested the VSA has a better track record in detecting 

dishonesty.

Most agencies that use the polygraph do so in conjunction with a pre-polygraph personal information 

booklet. It establishes a baseline against which the truthfulness of a candidate’s answers can be 

measured.

“I’ve hired and fired people who passed polygraph tests and then went 

on to be involved in some really dishonest and extremely bad behavior 

that the test was no accurate indicator for. It’s a very small segment of 

the population, but there are certainly sociopaths who can pass a 

polygraph with a straight face, and some of them want to be police 

officers. I hope that we can put behind us the notion that the polygraph 

is some protective shield for agencies. If we continue to use it, it should 

be a qualified tool.” 

– Chris Magnus, Chief of Police, Tucson (Arizona) Police Department 

Although the polygraph continues to be widely used in police hiring, Hiring Forum participants discussed 

a number of issues and concerns that agencies should consider when using the polygraph. One key issue 

is the science of the polygraph itself. Noting that polygraphs cannot be used in most criminal court 

cases, Tucson Police Chief Magnus expressed concern that candidates were being disqualified on the 

basis of science that has not been well defended or universally accepted. 

Other participants questioned whether the ability to pass a polygraph during the hiring process is an 

accurate predictor of integrity and honesty later on. They pointed to cases such as Christopher Dorner, a 

former Los Angeles police officer who passed a polygraph exam but killed five people in 2013. Forum 

participants said that agencies should not be lulled into a false sense that the polygraph immunizes 

agencies from misconduct or criminal behavior by officers later in their careers.

Another issue discussed at the forum was where to put the polygraph exam in the hiring process. Some 

agencies have candidates take the polygraph at the beginning of the process. The theory is that 

identifying and, if necessary, disqualifying an untrustworthy applicant early on will save the agency time 

and resources on latter stages of the process. Some participants, however, indicated that this approach 
20 Hiring for the 21st Century Law Enforcement Officer

can produce unintended consequences. For example, by inserting the polygraph exam at the front of the 

process, agencies may forego the opportunity to probe matters that come up later in the background 

investigation among candidates who passed the initial polygraph. 

Some forum participants also questioned whether the use of polygraphs, in conjunction with lifetime 

restrictions on past marijuana use, may be keeping otherwise qualified candidates from even 

considering applying to become police officers. For example, a candidate who may have used marijuana 

recreationally in the past and, therefore exceeded an agency’s lifetime threshold on marijuana use, 

would face the choice of telling the truth on the polygraph and being disqualified for past marijuana use, 

or lying and being disqualified on the polygraph exam. Some forum participants suggested that agencies, 

especially those that use polygraph exams, may need to be more flexible and consider a candidate’s 

entire background, as opposed to simply relying on single disqualifiers such as lifetime marijuana use.

For the most part, forum participants agreed that when the polygraph is employed, it should be used as 

an investigative tool that highlights issues for additional follow-up by background investigators. In 

general, participants questioned the use of the polygraph as a sole-source disqualifier. 

“The polygraph holds an important purpose for us in determining 

honesty and integrity. Members of the public want to have public 

service workers who are honest throughout their careers and especially 

in the initial hiring process. If an applicant is deceitful during the hiring 

phase, then how could we be confident in their ability to testify in 

court, write their reports, and generally be trusted by the public?”

– Lieutenant Eliott Cohen, Maryland State Police

Psychological tests 

Forum participants also discussed the role of psychological exams in the police hiring process. Experts at 

the forum emphasized the importance of ensuring that exams are standardized, validated, and normed 

for the particular population being tested (in this case, police officer candidates). Dr. Evan Axelrod, 

Director of Psychological Preemployment Evaluations at Nicoletti-Flater Associates, said that in recent 

years a growing body of research on tests such as the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory

and the California Psychological Inventory is helping to ensure the tests are empirically based and 

validated specifically for police and other public safety personnel. 
1. Hiring Candidates Who Share the Values and Vision of the Community and the Department 21

Dr. Axelrod said the bigger concern is ensuring that psychologists who conduct tests for police agencies 

are adequately trained and qualified. He said there are psychologists who “hang up a shingle and say 

they can do psychological testing,” but often those psychologists are not specifically trained in police 

and public safety psychology. He urged agencies to scrutinize their psychologists carefully and ensure 

that they have the appropriate skills and training.

“It’s not just the tests themselves that have to be validated. It’s also 

the practitioners who are using those tools and who are trained to use 

those tools.”

– Dr. Evan Axelrod, Director of Psychological Preemployment 

Evaluations, Nicoletti-Flater Associates 

Reviewing candidates from other agencies

For agencies that hire experienced officers who previously worked in other departments, there is a 

special concern: ensuring that the officer did not leave the first agency under allegations or findings of 

misconduct. The situation is not uncommon. An officer facing misconduct charges in one agency may be

allowed to resign, and the investigation closed. This arrangement enables the officer to maintain state 

certification as he or she begins looking for other positions. Agencies that are eager to hire experienced, 

trained, and certified officers—and thus avoid the time and expense of conducting a complete 

background investigation and providing a full training program—may hire the officer, not knowing about 

the investigation or misconduct. In parts of St. Louis County, Missouri, for example, the practice is 

common enough that it has earned its own name: the “muni shuffle.”8

To combat this problem, forum participants emphasized that agencies need to thoroughly vet all

candidates, including licensed or certified officers who come from other agencies. This means doing 

more than relying on a phone call to the original agency to verify employment dates and other basic 

information. Instead, agencies should conduct a thorough follow-up investigation with the original 

agency to include, whenever possible, a site visit, a review of documentation, and face-to-face meetings 

with personnel who are knowledgeable about the candidate’s work history. 

Access to the candidate’s personnel files should not be an issue; in most instances, candidates who have 

an application pending sign a waiver that allows the employing agency to access the applicant’s 

personnel files. The problem, according to many forum participants, is that agencies don’t take the time 

to avail themselves of those records. 

 

8 Overcoming the Challenges and Creating a Regional Approach to Policing in St. Louis City and County

(Washington, DC: Police Executive Research Forum, 2015), http://www.policeforum.org/assets/stlouis.pdf. 
22 Hiring for the 21st Century Law Enforcement Officer

However, forum participants noted that there are cases in which the original agency destroys the 

records of its investigation or refuses to disclose the investigation to another agency. In some cases 

involving employment disputes, the agency may be prohibited under terms of a legal settlement from 

discussing any investigation it may have conducted.

To address these issues, the State of Illinois maintains a registry that includes the names of officers who 

were terminated for misconduct or who resigned while under investigation. The list is maintained by the 

state’s POST agency, the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board, and is available to law 

enforcement agencies throughout Illinois. The list does not provide details about individual cases, but it 

does alert hiring agencies to individuals who may warrant a more thorough investigation. 

Even when officers have been terminated from one agency, it is not always easy for another agency to 

access information about the termination. In Missouri, agencies are supposed to report all terminations 

to the state POST board. But experience shows that not every agency complies with the requirement, 

and some do not share personnel records with other agencies that are considering hiring the individual. 

In these cases, according to Lieutenant Colonel Jeff Bader of the St. Louis County Police Department, the 

department initiates a new, complete background investigation of its own, as if the candidate had never 

previously been certified.

To help combat the problem on a national level, the International Association of Directors of Law 

Enforcement Standards and Training (IADLEST) developed the National Decertification Index (NDI).9 The 

NDI serves as a national registry of administrative actions by the nation’s POST agencies related to 

officer misconduct. Original grant funding for the development and the operation of the NDI was 

provided by the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance. Currently, IADLEST funds the 

NDI from its own limited resources as a service for the law enforcement profession.

9 For more information, see “National Decertification Index – FAQ,” IADLEST, accessed December 22, 2016, 

https://www.iadlest.org/Portals/0/Files/NDI/FAQ/ndi_faq.html. 

While the NDI provides a valuable resource for agencies looking to hire experienced officers from other 

agencies, especially from other states, the system does have some shortcomings: 

• Only 40 states currently contribute to the NDI, and because the system is voluntary, there is no 

mechanism to compel the others to join. In Virginia, for example, police chiefs often support the 

NDI, but city attorneys and human resources personnel have resisted, largely because Virginia

already has a state-level decertification system, according to Deputy Chief Patrick Gallagher of the 

Virginia Beach Police Department. 

• The minimum standard criterion for reporting an action against an officer to the NDI is revocation. 

Each state POST board determines independently what will be reported and how access to its 

records will be granted. Agencies can report more than the minimum standard. 

 
1. Hiring Candidates Who Share the Values and Vision of the Community and the Department 23

Consequently, the information can vary from only instances in which an officer’s license or 

certificate was actually revoked to instances in which officers resigned while under investigation or 

received lesser disciplinary sanctions and maintained their license or certificate. 

• The NDI is not widely known or used. In a show of hands at the forum, only a small percentage of 

agencies indicated that they regularly used the NDI. 

Brian Grisham, Director of the Tennessee Law Enforcement Training Academy and President of IADLEST, 

noted that the task force recommended that the NDI be expanded to include coverage in all states and 

territories, and that reporting be more standardized nationally.10 COPS Office Director Davis stressed 

that IADLEST, not the federal government, operates and maintains the NDI. The NDI must continue to be 

a “profession-wide database in which we can help 18,000 agencies make informed decisions when 

they’re hiring and hold the profession accountable,” Davis said.

10 President’s Task Force, Final Report, 29 (see note 1).

Ensuring the process is fair

Ensuring that agencies have access to the range of information they need to make informed hiring 

decisions is critical. But as some forum participants stressed, it is also important to ensure that the 

processes by which individual officers end up on registries such as the NDI are fair and unbiased.

Patrick Callahan, public information officer for the Transgender Community of Police and Sheriffs, said 

this issue is especially important to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community. He cited 

examples of LGBT officers who had never disclosed their orientation or gender identify and were 

subsequently outed. In some communities, especially in the 27 states that do not have workplace 

protections for LGBT individuals, these officers can be disciplined, put on the Brady list, and potentially 

discharged.11 

11 “Brady” refers to the landmark 1963 U.S. Supreme Court decision Brady v. Maryland that requires prosecutors to 

disclose evidence or information that might support the innocence of the defendant or that might help the 

defense challenge the credibility of government witnesses. Police officers who have been involved in disciplinary 

matters may be placed on a “Brady list” of officers, meaning they generally cannot testify at criminal trials because 

of credibility issues in their backgrounds. Being on a “Brady list” can severely undermine the ability of an officer to 

obtain employment in another agency.

Sean Smoot of the Illinois Police Benevolent and Protective Association said that while many police 

agencies are emphasizing the concept of “procedural justice” in their interactions with the community, 

they also need to practice “internal procedural justice” with their employees. That means treating 

officers in a fair, just, and transparent manner, especially during any disciplinary matters. 

Tim Richardson, Senior Legislative Liaison for the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), said labor 

organizations such as the FOP regularly receive reports of officers who feel they are retaliated against 

for a variety of personal or political reasons. Some are disciplined or terminated, while others simply 

walk away, hoping to find a job in another agency. He emphasized the importance of providing officers 

 
24 Hiring for the 21st Century Law Enforcement Officer

with their due-process rights during internal investigations. He also said it would be a mistake for 

management to rely on a single list or registry, as opposed to a thorough background investigation with 

multiple data points, when making hiring decisions about an experienced officer who worked in another 

agency.

Forum participants said that agencies need to be especially careful when considering candidates who 

did not successfully complete the field training officer (FTO) program in another agency. Some officers 

are rejected from FTO programs because of misconduct or gross negligence. In other cases, however, 

the FTO program itself may have been substandard, or the officer simply was not a good fit with the 

hiring agency. In these cases, “failure” to pass the FTO program should not be held against an applicant 

in the same way that misconduct would be. Said Mr. Smoot, “I have seen situations where officers didn’t 

make it through one department’s FTO program, went to another department, and had illustrious 

careers there.”

“What we’re talking about are agencies that can put an [LGBT] officer 

on a list for a Brady violation and essentially make them ineligible to 

work anywhere else in their careers, when they have literally done 

nothing wrong except finally be who they are.” 

– Patrick Callahan, Public Information Officer, 

Transgender Community of Police and Sheriffs

Retaining the Officers You Hire

Recruiting and hiring well-qualified police officer candidates is a time- and resourceintensive process for most agencies. And as several hiring forum participants noted, 

the challenges don’t stop once an officer is hired. Retaining high-quality officers has 

to be a priority, not just to grow and develop an agency, but also to avoid the costs 

and waste of time in having to repeat the process of filling the vacancies when 

officers leave. 

Michael Ferrence Jr., Executive Director of the Major County Sheriffs’ Association, 

said that the retention issue will become more urgent as more Millennials and now 

members of Generation Z enter the workforce. Anecdotally, it appears these 

individuals are less likely than members of older generations to stay with one 

organization, or even one profession, throughout their careers. 
1. Hiring Candidates Who Share the Values and Vision of the Community and the Department 25

Retaining the Officers You Hire (cont’d)

“So while we’re looking at what we’re bringing in on the front end, we’ve got to 

figure out how to deal with those issues that cause people to leave prematurely 

without running through an entire career—things like supervision, incentives, 

working conditions, and policies. If we don’t address those issues, we’ll get new 

officers and retain them for three to five years, and then they’ll be gone,” he said.

Of particular concern to some agencies is the practice of a candidate being recruited, 

screened, hired, and trained by one department, only to move to another agency a 

short time later. Mark Kirschner of Behavioral Health Consultants, which conducts 

psychological screenings of public safety personnel, said the State of Connecticut 

used to have a minimum service requirement that officers stay with an agency for at 

least two years after academy graduation or be forced to repay some of the costs 

associated with their hiring and training. When Connecticut did away with that 

requirement, he said, some agencies effectively halted their traditional recruiting 

efforts and focused instead on attracting recently hired officers from other agencies.

“They’re sending scouts to the state academy and cherry-picking people who’ve 

already been vetted, already gone through the background. People are literally 

switching patches in the academy from the department they were hired by and are 

working for,” Mr. Kirschner said. 

Other jurisdictions are facing the same problem. Deputy Chief Travis Glampe of the 

Minneapolis (Minnesota) Police Department said “cherry-picking” is happening in his 

agency as well: “A lot of the small agencies are telling their applicants, ‘Wait until 

Minneapolis gets your background done, and then bring it to us.’ And by state law, 

we have to provide it to them. So we’re doing all the work for some of these agencies 

and getting cherry-picked on a four-month background investigation.”

Some states, such as California, are trying to curtail this practice by requiring every 

agency to conduct its own background investigation on any new hire, even if another 

agency has recently conducted a background investigation on the same individual. 

While the issue of officer retention was not examined in depth at the forum, 

participants agreed that agencies need to focus not only on getting the right people 

in the door, but also on keeping them there. Otherwise, agencies will spend time, 

money, and other resources on a process that does not benefit them.
26 Hiring for the 21st Century Law Enforcement Officer

Recommendations and promising practices: Hiring candidates who share the values and 

vision of the community and the department 

(Agencies listed in parentheses have implemented the promising practice that is identified.) 

• Agencies should use the hiring process not just as a way to disqualify candidates who fail to meet 

certain minimum standards; agencies should also use the process to proactively identify and bring 

on board candidates who possess the values, character traits, and capabilities that agencies are 

seeking. 

• Agencies should consult with the community when identifying the desired traits, characteristics, and 

capabilities they are seeking in their newly hired officers.

• To better measure and evaluate the full range of candidates’ characteristics and capabilities, 

agencies should invest in face-to-face interviews that include scenario-based questions (Dallas 

Police Department). Agencies should also consider having candidates go on ride-alongs with officers 

and involve them in community engagement activities (Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety).

• Whether or not agencies have a higher education requirement at the time of hire, they should offer 

tuition reimbursement and other programs that encourage officers to continue their educations 

once they are on the force (New Orleans Police Department). 

• States and individual agencies should adopt physical fitness standards that are job-related and 

research- and evidence-based. Agencies should also embrace physical fitness as a priority 

throughout officers’ careers, and not simply a one-time test they need to pass in order to be hired

(Lenexa Police Department).

• While policies and thresholds on past marijuana use vary by agency and may be affected by state 

and local factors, including laws on marijuana use, the focus should be on candidates’ recent use, as 

opposed to lifetime use, as a predictor of future problems with substance abuse.

• Agencies should check candidates’ social media accounts for any indicators or warning signs of 

explicit bias (Baltimore Police Department). 

• If a polygraph exam is used, it should be treated as an investigative tool for identifying issues for 

additional follow-up by background investigators. 

• Agencies should ensure that psychologists who conduct examinations of applicants are trained and 

qualified in the specialty area of public safety psychology. 
1. Hiring Candidates Who Share the Values and Vision of the Community and the Department 27

• When considering hiring experienced personnel who previously worked in another department, the 

hiring agency should conduct a thorough investigation that includes, whenever possible, a site visit, 

a review of documentation, and face-to-face meetings with personnel knowledgeable about the 

candidate’s work history, as well as checks of the National Decertification Index and any state-level 

registries. To support this process, state POST Boards should maintain registries of officers who 

resigned while under investigation or who were terminated for misconduct (State of Illinois, Illinois 

Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board).

• As recommended by the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, all states and territories 

should participate in the National Decertification Index, and there should be national, standardized 

reporting practices that support the hiring needs of local and state agencies. 

29

2. Making the Hiring Process More 

Efficient

“When we talk about the ‘time to hire,’ we have to remember that this 

is the generation of instant gratification. If the recruitment and hiring 

process doesn’t happen fast enough, we lose that entire group.”

– Jennifer Beskid, Director of Grants and Special Projects, 

Maryland Police and Correctional Training Commissions 

There was broad agreement among participants at the Hiring Forum that the process for hiring police 

officers in the United States is often plagued by inefficiency and a lack of urgency. Compared with most 

other professions, the police hiring process is slow, cumbersome, overly bureaucratic, and not very userfriendly for the applicant. In some jurisdictions, it can be a year or more from the time an individual 

submits an application to when a successful candidate begins police academy training. 

For decades, police agencies have used largely the same process, and there has been little incentive to 

change, because traditionally, there were more applicants than there were vacant officer positions. 

Many of the people entering the policing profession came from families of officers who went through 

the same process themselves, so there was little expectation that things would be done any differently. 

Agencies were able to fill their ranks using protocols that had served them well for years.

Recently, however, those dynamics have shifted dramatically. Police officer vacancies have risen, with 

some large departments suddenly looking to fill several hundred positions. At the same time, the 

candidate pool has diversified beyond the core group of applicants who joined the profession over

generations. Fewer candidates are coming from traditional “police families.” More are coming with 

college degrees that provide them with greater flexibility to consider other careers, especially if those 

professions can complete the hiring process more efficiently and get recent graduates on the payroll 

more quickly.

Perhaps the biggest change has been generational. Candidates entering the workforce today are largely 

Millennials and, now, members of Generation Z as well. These individuals grew up with technology that 

allows them to obtain information on almost any subject in seconds, or to purchase goods and obtain 
30 Hiring for the 21st Century Law Enforcement Officer

them overnight, rather than waiting days or weeks for delivery. Participants at the hiring forum said that 

these younger generations can be impatient, making them less likely to tolerate a police hiring process 

that can last months, is largely paper-driven, and can be frustratingly opaque to the applicant.12

In addition, police agencies are no longer competing just with other professions. As police vacancies 

have increased and the applicant pool has shifted, agencies are now competing more fiercely with one 

another for the top candidates. Becoming more efficient and more user-friendly can provide agencies 

with a competitive advantage. All these factors give agencies a strong incentive to improve. 

Forum participants explored the current state of police hiring and how agencies are working to make 

their processes faster, more nimble, and more user-friendly to better match these new realities. At the 

same time they are trying to reduce the time to hire, agencies are also looking for ways to improve the 

quality and thoroughness of their background investigations. 

As some of the participants at the forum demonstrated, agencies can speed up the process and improve 

quality at the same time.

12 For example, research has shown that Millennials, more so than older generations, overwhelmingly prefer a 

technology-based, mobile job search process. “Three Generations of Talent: Who’s Searching for Jobs Today,” 

Indeed Hiring Lab, last modified December 1, 2014, http://www.indeed.com/hire/hiring-lab/Dec-2014. 

Different processes, different timelines

Almost any objective observer would conclude that the process to hire police officers takes far too long 

in most agencies. Participants at the hiring forum were asked how long the hiring process takes in their 

agencies, from date of application until the first day in the training academy. Their responses ranged 

from five weeks (in Morrisville, North Carolina) to 12 months (in Chicago). For federal agencies, the 

process can be even more daunting and lengthy. Catherine Sanz, Executive Director of Women in 

Federal Law Enforcement, said that when she worked for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the 

hiring process took 18 months or longer from the establishment of a list. And once agents were hired, 

there could be a further delay while the agency waited for training slots to become available at the 

Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Georgia or the loss of funding due to lack of appropriations 

and continuing resolutions. 

In addition, many larger agencies offer an entry-level written exam to thousands of applicants at one 

time. Those who pass the exam are put on a list that can be kept open for up to three years. So an 

applicant can be on the list for several months, or even a year or two, before the hiring process (that is, 

the background investigation) officially begins.

Not surprisingly, smaller agencies have the flexibility (and the relatively small numbers of applicants) to 

be able to complete the process much more quickly than larger agencies. Most mid- to large-size 

agencies reported that the process took between 6 and 9 months.

 
2. Making the Hiring Process More Efficient 31

There are a number of factors that can affect the length of the hiring process and why it can vary so 

dramatically from agency to agency and from state to state. These include some issues that are largely 

outside the control of individual agencies, such as state POST standards and state and local civil service 

systems. 

Patricia Marsolais said she has seen first-hand in two states how state requirements can constrain and 

slow down the hiring process. As city personnel director in Albany, New York, she saw how hiring was 

controlled tightly by the New York State Civil Service System. Now, as Director of Dallas Civil Service, she 

has seen how a Texas state regulation known as Rule 143, which spells out civil service provisions for 

police officers and firefighters, can slow down hiring of officers. However, because Dallas is a “homerule city” that is not governed by Rule 143, “we have much more flexibility in how we hire and the 

process we use to do so,” she said.

Some of the labor representatives at the forum pointed out that what some people view as “obstacles” 

in the hiring process are actually reforms that were enacted to combat egregiously unjust hiring 

practices, not just in policing but in all of public service. For example, many civil service application and

testing protocols were created to promote fairness and objectivity in the hiring process and to guard 

against political influence. The labor representatives cautioned against rolling back these types of

protections in the interest of speeding up the hiring process.

Differences in state laws can also affect both the length and the thoroughness of the background 

investigation process. Sean Smoot of the Police Benevolent and Protective Association of Illinois noted 

that in Illinois, as in most states, there is no legal requirement that hiring agencies conduct a criminal 

background check or a psychological evaluation. Agencies that choose to take these steps are 

necessarily slowing down the process for their applicants, and perhaps putting their agencies at a 

competitive disadvantage to quickly hire a new officer. But these steps are also helping to ensure that 

officers with questionable backgrounds are kept out of the profession. Mr. Smoot said that labor leaders 

in Illinois have pushed for a minimum standard for police background checks that would raise the overall 

quality of pre-hire investigations and help to level the playing field in terms of the length of time it takes 

to hire an officer.

Finally, some departments, including large agencies such as the Los Angeles Police Department, do not 

have independent hiring authority. Rather, they must rely on a municipal personnel department to set 

and oversee the process.

Procedural inefficiencies 

Some delays are locked into hiring processes. For example, many agencies have a rigid schedule of steps 

that applicants must complete in a prescribed sequence. There is little or no flexibility to conduct steps 

out of order or complete multiple steps at a time. Often, applicants are required to visit multiple 

locations within the police or municipal bureaucracy to conduct multiple steps in the process, or to pick 

up or drop off different forms—almost all of them paper-based. (In Maryland, state law requires that 
32 Hiring for the 21st Century Law Enforcement Officer

paperwork associated with police hiring be sent through the United States Postal Service.) Assembling 

all of that information and making sure it gets passed along to the appropriate people—that is, the “next 

step” in the process—can dramatically slow down the system as well. 

Hiring forum participants, including the police psychologists, brought up other procedural inefficiencies 

that not only slow down the hiring process, but also can impact the thoroughness of background 

investigations:

• Psychological evaluations typically come toward the end of the process, but police psychologists 

often do not have access to the information collected earlier on, including the background 

investigation and the polygraph. As a result, the psychologist cannot always tell if the applicant is 

being truthful or if there may be other integrity issues. 

• Inconsistencies in how background investigations are conducted within a department can hamper 

efficiency and affect outcomes. Police psychologists at the forum reported that especially within 

large agencies, there are multiple people, often with different backgrounds (internal affairs, street 

detectives, etc.), conducting background investigations. Investigators do not always ask the same 

questions of every candidate, and some of their investigative reports go beyond the facts that were 

collected and instead venture into opinions of the candidates. 

• Some agencies may be reluctant to eliminate candidates at earlier stages in the process, before they 

reach the psychological evaluation, even when there are clear indicators that an applicant is 

unqualified. This not only prolongs the process for these candidates, but also puts police 

psychologists in the position of having an outsized influence on whether a candidate is hired. 

Psychologists at the forum reported instances in which a candidate passed the psychological exam, 

only to have the department come back and insist that the person be disqualified because of items 

uncovered in the background. “I can’t disqualify people purely because of background issues. That’s 

what the background investigation is for,” said Mark Kirschner, Membership Chair of the Police 

Psychological Services Section of the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

“In an ideal world, I would have the background investigation materials 

and the polygraph results in front of me when I’m doing the 

psychological evaluation. It allows me to see what’s been said. I’ve had 

people who have gotten through the background investigation, they’ve 

gotten through the polygraph, and they’ve gotten through me, but 

they’ve told three different stories. So technically they pass each 

section, but there was a major integrity issue. Somebody needs to be 

putting it altogether.”

– Dr. Mark Kirschner, Membership Chair, 

IACP Police Psychological Services Section
2. Making the Hiring Process More Efficient 33

Promising approaches to accelerate the hiring process

The hiring forum also revealed a number of promising approaches that agencies are taking to speed up 

the hiring process and make it more efficient and user-friendly. In many cases, these changes are also 

enhancing the overall quality of the investigative process.

More frequent and regular testing 

Some agencies reported that instead of offering one entry-level test to a large number of applicants at 

the same time, they are now testing small numbers of applicants on a more frequent and regular basis. 

The Lenexa Police Department offers written and physical tests every month. While the monthly tests 

sometimes attract only 20 applicants, the schedule keeps a steady flow of potential new hires in the 

pipeline, without overwhelming the process with large number of applications coming in at once. The 

Los Angeles Police Department is also offering monthly entry tests, attracting between 600 and 800 

applicants a month.

Tighter, more flexible sequencing of hiring components

Agencies are also becoming more flexible and creative in how they schedule candidates for the 

different component parts that make up their hiring process. In Los Angeles, the police department, 

working with the city personnel office, recently enacted changes that allow applicants to schedule 

multiple components concurrently and in no fixed order. As a result, candidates can schedule their 

physical exam, polygraph, and oral interview at or about the same time. Also, if there are highly 

attractive candidates who appear to be wavering, the city can move them to the front of the line to 

speed up the process. The Metropolitan Police Department of Washington, D.C., has also streamlined its 

process, allowing candidates to complete several steps at once and in the same location. Lenexa still has 

applicants follow a set order of exams, but tightly sequences them so that candidates are moving from 

one phase to the next within a matter of days, not weeks.

More background investigators

Because background investigations are often a choke-point in the hiring process, several agencies are 

increasing the number of background investigators on staff. And they are being creative in how they are 

ramping up this critical function quickly and efficiently. The Miami Beach Police Department doubled the 

size of its background investigation unit by hiring retired officers to work on a part-time basis. The Los 

Angeles Police Department has taken up to 20 officers from field duty and detailed them to the city 

personnel office to assist with background investigations. As a result, the background investigation

process has been reduced from 12 months to 6-9 months.
34 Hiring for the 21st Century Law Enforcement Officer

Continuous hiring

Agencies are also exploring a continuous approach to hiring. Rather than waiting for a full class of 

recruits to form before making offers to individual candidates, agencies are making offers and even 

hiring highly qualified candidates in a civilian capacity. In New Orleans, applicants who pass the initial 

criminal background screening are offered a temporary civilian job within the department. This 

approach not only gets highly qualified candidates into the department (thus reducing the chances they 

will go to another agency), but also allows New Orleans police to observe and evaluate the candidate’s 

work habits and performance as the background process is completed. 

The Los Angeles Police Department makes an offer to qualified candidates before the next full academy 

class is formed, as a way to place a “hold” on the candidates and let them know that they will be hired 

soon. Smaller agencies, including many sheriffs’ departments, are able to hire on a rolling basis, 

meaning, for example, that if three officers or deputies leave, the agency can hire three candidates in a 

civilian capacity until the next three slots open in the state or regional Police Academy. 

Technology-based solutions

Agencies are looking to streamline the entire hiring process by reducing paper forms and automating 

the process as much as possible. The D.C. Metropolitan Police Department has instituted a paperless 

system that ensures all staff involved in the hiring process have access to the latest information about 

an applicant. The new technology, combined with a streamlining of the steps in the process, has 

reduced the overall time-to-hire from 12–18 months to just 3–4 months. (See the sidebar “How the D.C. 

Metropolitan Police Department Dramatically Reduced the Time to Hire Police Officers” on page 38.)

Recognizing that many applicants—in particular Millennials and members of Generation Z—expect and 

value assistance during the hiring process, some agencies have initiated or expanded their “help lines.” 

The Los Angeles Police Department implemented a mentor program that makes staff members available 

to answer questions and guide candidates through the application process. The D.C. Metropolitan Police 

Department offers online “live chats” with recruiters to assist applicants throughout the recruiting and 

hiring process. 

“The hiring process should not stop once a person is hired. Probably the 

least-used tool by many agencies is the probationary period. That’s the 

time when you actually start to see behaviors in the field. In many 

cases, that’s the last opportunity for law enforcement executives to 

remove someone from service without getting into the whole process of 

civil service and discipline.”

– Ronald L. Davis, Director, COPS Office
2. Making the Hiring Process More Efficient 35

“It all comes down to a thorough background investigation. As much as 

we want to produce numbers with a quick test or a polygraph, it comes 

down to the commitment for more consistent, deep background 

investigations so that the hiring authority can make an informed 

decision. I don’t know why any agency would want to give less attention 

to the background component that is arguably the most important piece 

in the overall hiring process.” 

– Nathan Gove, Executive Director, 

Minnesota Board of Peace Officer Standards and Training

Other strategies to promote efficiency and quality

In considering ways to bolster efficiency and quality in the hiring process, hiring forum participants 

raised several additional issues for agencies to consider: 

• Don’t cut corners to hire large numbers of officers quickly

With many agencies looking to fill a large number of officer vacancies—and with public and political 

pressure to put more officers on the street—there may be a temptation for agencies to cut corners 

in the hiring process. However, history shows that skipping steps in the process may yield shortterm gains in terms of numbers, but it can carry long-term consequences that undermine an 

agency’s credibility.

In 1989 and 1990, the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department hired hundreds of officers 

while skipping or cutting short key steps in the hiring process. “There was no polygraph in place at 

the time. There was no psychological screening that took place. Basically, if you wanted a job at that 

time, the process was so loose and the requirements were so loose that a lot of people came in that 

caused us problems,” said MPD Assistant Chief Robert Contee III, who himself joined the 

department as a cadet in 1989. 

A 1994 analysis by the Washington Post revealed that more than half of the 201 MPD officers 

arrested on criminal charges since 1989 were hired in those two years, as were more than half of 

the officers involved in departmental disciplinary proceedings.13 The fallout from the hiring spree 

was felt for years. The department had to invest considerable resources in investigating problem 

officers, backfilling the responsibilities of many of the officers the department had rushed to hire, 

and upgrading its recruiting, hiring, and training systems. 

 

13 Keith A. Harriston and Mary Pat Flaherty, “D.C. Police Paying for Hiring Binge,” Washington Post, August 28, 

1994, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/longterm/library/dc/dcpolice/94series/trainingday1.htm. 
36 Hiring for the 21st Century Law Enforcement Officer

• Include civilian hiring in your strategies 

Professor Susan Hilal of Metropolitan State University in St. Paul, Minnesota, said that police 

agencies should devote resources and attention on the civilian hiring process, because some 

agencies have had success hiring some of their sworn officers from among their civilian ranks. She 

noted, “If we’re going to use civilians as a recruitment ground, then we should take a look at how 

we are going to recruit people to work in a civilian role in policing. What would be the 

transferability, and how do we vet that process?”

In addition, to get more officers on the street, rather than having officers do work that can be done 

by civilians, agencies are looking to hire and retain qualified civilian personnel in technology, 

communications, forensics, and other areas that do not require the academy training or experience 

of a sworn officer. A thorough hiring process for civilians can ease pressure on sworn hiring and 

support the overall goals of the agency.14

14 For additional background on this issue, see Police Executive Research Forum, Civilian Staff in Policing: An 

Assessment of the 2009 Byrne Civilian Hiring Program (Washington, DC: National Institute of Justice, 2013), 

https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/246952.pdf; Police Executive Research Forum, Labor-Management 

Relations in Policing: Looking to the Future and Finding Common Ground (Washington, DC: Office of Community 

Oriented Policing Services, 2011), http://www.policeforum.org/assets/docs/Critical_Issues_Series/labormanagement%20relations%20in%20policing%20-%20looking%20to%20the%20future%20and%20finding%

20common%20ground%202011.pdf. 

• Pay attention to academy and field training periods

Several forum participants noted that the hiring process does not stop once a candidate enters the 

training academy. Agencies need to closely monitor performance, attitudes, and capabilities during 

both academy and field training, as well as the entire probationary period. 

To give themselves more time and experiences for evaluating new officers, some agencies are 

increasing the length of their probationary period. Several years ago, for example, the Lenexa Police 

Department extended its probationary period for new hires to 18 months and for lateral hires to 12 

months. 

Recommendations and promising practices: Making the hiring process more efficient

(Agencies listed in parentheses have implemented the promising practice that is identified.) 

• Agencies should consider offering entry-level testing on a regular and frequent basis, in order to 

ensure a steady, manageable flow of candidates in the applicant pipeline (Lenexa Police 

Department; Los Angeles Police Department).

• Rather than follow a rigid schedule of exams, agencies should consider more streamlined and 

flexible scheduling of the different component parts of their hiring process. These approaches have 

the potential to save time and resources (Los Angeles Police Department; Metropolitan Police 

Department of Washington, D.C.).

 
2. Making the Hiring Process More Efficient 37

• When conducting psychological evaluations, police psychologists should have access to information 

collected earlier in the process, including the background investigation and any polygraph or voice 

stress analyzer results. Having this information helps the psychologists better identify possible 

integrity issues.

• Agencies should strive for consistency in how they conduct background investigations and write 

reports. Investigators (who may come from different bureaus within the department) should receive 

consistent training, ask the same basic questions, and refrain from offering opinions or observations 

about candidates that are not fact-based. 

• To speed up the process and ensure that complete and up-to-date information is available to hiring 

staff members at each step it the process, agencies should look to implement automated systems 

for managing their hiring process (Metropolitan Police Department of Washington, D.C.).

• As a way to demonstrate interest and keep quality candidates on track, agencies should offer “help 

lines” and other forms of direct service to applicants throughout the hiring process (Los Angeles 

Police Department; Metropolitan Police Department of Washington, D.C.).

• In order to attract and keep high-quality applicants, agencies should consider “continuous hiring” 

programs in which candidates can be hired in a civilian capacity while the department waits for full 

academy classes to form or slots to open in state or regional academies (New Orleans Police 

Department).

• To ease pressure on the sworn hiring process and support the overall goals of the agency, 

departments should devote attention and resources to hiring qualified civilian employees for skilled 

positions that may be currently filled by sworn officers.

“I commend D.C. because you worked on two of the biggest criticisms I 

hear from applicants. Number one is that the process is too long. 

Number two is that there’s nobody to talk to about where they stand in 

the process. When you make people wait too long, the best people 

move on, because you have their lives on hold the whole time they’re in 

the process. They get very frustrated. If you say that people are your 

most important resource, but you can’t plan and organize this most 

important function, you have inadvertently told potential applicants 

something about how your agency values people.”

– Dr. Patrick Oliver, Director of Criminal Justice Program, 

Cedarville University and retired police chief
38 Hiring for the 21st Century Law Enforcement Officer

How the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department 

Dramatically Reduced the Time to Hire Police Officers

One of the more remarkable case studies to emerge from the hiring forum was the 

success of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) of Washington, D.C. in making 

its hiring process dramatically faster and more efficient, while also improving its 

quality. Through a combination of streamlined processes and new technology, the 

MPD has reduced the time needed to hire a new officer from 12–18 months in the 

past to just 3–4 months today—and this for a large agency hiring 300 or more officers 

per year. The MPD has achieved these efficiencies and quality improvements without 

having to hire additional background investigators or other human resources staff.

Assistant Chief Robert Contee III and Ben Haiman, Chief of Staff for the Technical 

Services Division, outlined the keys to MPD’s success: 

Streamline steps in the process 

In 2012, the MPD conducted a comprehensive review and evaluation of its hiring 

process. The major finding: the process was rigidly linear, requiring each step in the 

process to be completed before the next step could begin. This bogged down the 

process from the start. For example, it took as long as several months for applicants 

to submit their applications, pass the written examination, and be assigned to a 

background investigator. As applicants progressed through the process, they had to 

complete one step at time, often at different MPD facilities with different logistical 

requirements.

To speed the process, the MPD combined many of these steps. For example, the 

written examination, physical ability test, preliminary background screening, 

fingerprinting, and photograph can now be completed in a single “mass processing” 

event. “This has assisted us greatly with speeding up our hiring process and 

improving the applicant experience,” said Mr. Haiman. Additionally, after a 

conditional offer of employment has been made, candidates are scheduled for 

polygraph tests, medical and psychological exams, and background investigations 

simultaneously. Due to scheduling needs, most candidates still go through the 

process in the same order; however, lead time for appointments has been 

dramatically reduced.

Automate the process 

To support these operational changes, the MPD acquired new technology to automate 

the process. Under the old system, applicants typically had to submit paperwork at 

each step in the process, and that paper file would “follow” the applicant throughout 
2. Making the Hiring Process More Efficient 39

the process. That meant that MPD staff at each step in the process would have to 

wait until the paperwork from the previous step was delivered to them before 

scheduling and processing the candidate. Then, once that step was completed, the 

employee would attach the new paperwork to the file and send it along to the staff 

members overseeing the next step. This paper-based system not only slowed down 

the process; it also increased the chances of paperwork getting misplaced. 

In its place, the MPD acquired an automated system that places all forms and 

information about each candidate in a secure, computerized system. Employees and 

units are granted access to the information they need, and it is available as soon as 

new information is entered. As a result, MPD staff members do not have to wait for 

paperwork to “catch up with” the applicant. “Previously, we’d be shipping reports 

from one division to another, which always has a potential for a report not to make it 

and for critical information to be lost,” Assistant Chief Contee said. “With our new 

process, all information is seamlessly made available to whoever needs it.”

Support the applicant 

One of the biggest frustrations for MPD applicants was the need to make visits to 

multiple locations to complete steps in the process. This was inconvenient and timeconsuming for the applicant. It also sent the message that the police department was

old-fashioned and inefficient, which is not a good message to send to young people 

who are accustomed to systems that work extremely quickly and easily. It is 

important to realize that job applicants evaluate potential employers even as they 

undergo the process of applying for employment. A cumbersome application process 

can cause applicants to question whether the job they are applying for might prove 

to be a frustrating experience, rather than a fulfilling career they can take pride in.

Under the new system, the MPD is able to offer more of a “one-stop shopping” 

approach. Multiple steps can be completed at the same time and location, making 

the process more convenient for the applicant and more efficient for the department 

as well.

Also, in July 2016, the MPD’s Recruiting Division implemented a “live chat” option on 

the department’s website. This allows any interested applicant to chat with a 

member of the Recruiting Division team in near real-time. The software provides MPD 

staff members with pre-defined content for commonly asked questions to help 

ensure that messages are consistently communicated to different applicants. “Staff 

can usually answer an applicant’s questions in five minutes or less and direct them to 

the next step in the process,” said Mr. Haiman. “This has been a tremendously 

beneficial engagement tool and allows staff to be more responsive than traditional 

email or phone responses.” 

41

3. Advancing Diversity and Inclusiveness 

in the Hiring Process

“We expanded our police cadet program in order to get D.C. kids from 

the community to join our ranks. We want to hire from this core group 

of young people who are from the community, who recognize the issues, 

and who can go into some of these communities and really relate to the 

problems that people are experiencing.” 

– Robert Contee III, Assistant Chief, Metropolitan Police Department, 

Washington, D.C.

Police agencies are facing renewed pressure to hire and train more officers, and to get them on the beat 

quickly. Ensuring quality and efficiency in the hiring process is critical to meeting the needs and 

expectations of the community.

At the same time they are improving efficiency, agencies must work to ensure their hiring systems are 

advancing the goals of fairness, diversity, and inclusiveness as well. These ideals are especially important 

as communities grow more diverse, and as relationships between police and residents remain strained 

in many cities. Residents want their police agencies’ demographics to resemble the community’s. They 

also expect their police officers to be able to relate to their community, to understand its strengths and 

its challenges, and to solve community problems.

Participants at the hiring forum explored ways to advance diversity and inclusiveness within the police 

hiring process. They also discussed how to ensure that elements of the hiring process itself—in 

particular, the selection and actions of background investigators—are compatible with an agency’s 

hiring goals and priorities. 

“Grow your own”

Much of this discussion at the Hiring Forum centered on the notion of agencies “growing their own” 

talent. In other words, agencies looking to promote diversity and cultural competency within their ranks 

should focus on recruiting and developing officers from the communities that the agency serves. 
42 Hiring for the 21st Century Law Enforcement Officer

“‘Growing your own’ is the most effective method for hiring people, 

especially minorities, but it is a long-term investment and commitment. 

Starting with young people who are 12, 13, and 14 years old in precadet or Explorer programs, you want to take people into your 

organization, coach them, mentor them, train them, support their 

education, and develop them.” 

– Dr. Patrick Oliver, Director of Criminal Justice Program, 

Cedarville University and retired police chief

Being from a community does not necessarily guarantee that an individual can become an effective 

police officer in that community. And there is nothing to preclude someone who is recruited from 

outside a community from becoming an effective, community-oriented, culturally competent police 

officer. 

Still, hiring forum participants emphasized the value of “growing your own.” Officers who are from the 

community often will have more insights and perspectives about the community. And hiring from the 

community strengthens the community by providing opportunities for professional growth among 

residents, in particular young people. Both of these benefits can strengthen critical bonds of trust 

between police and residents.

Following are some of the initiatives that agencies have implemented to promote hiring from within 

their communities.

Police Cadets

Police cadet programs are designed to prepare young people, typically in their late teens and early 

twenties, to become police officers of the future. Cadets usually work in a paid civilian capacity for the 

agency, undergo training, and may be eligible to earn college credits or receive tuition reimbursement 

while in the program. 

Police cadets have a long history in many U.S. cities, and cadet programs count among their graduates 

some top leaders in the profession. Boston Police Commissioner William Evans and former Philadelphia 

Police Commissioner and Washington, D.C. Police Chief Charles Ramsey, among others, started their 

policing careers as cadets. 
3. Advancing Diversity and Inclusiveness in the Hiring Process 43

Faced with budget pressures and other priorities, many departments allowed their cadet programs to 

dwindle in recent decades or discontinued them. In the last few years, however, some agencies have 

begun refocusing attention and resources on their cadet programs. The forum heard from several 

agencies that are making cadet programs an important part of their overall hiring strategies, especially 

for attracting local residents. 

In Boston, for example, the police department recently restarted its program with approximately 42

cadets. Cadets, who are ages 18 to 25, are civilian employees who perform administrative tasks in 

uniform. Boston Police Superintendent Frank Mancini said the program benefits both the cadets and the 

department. In addition to being employed, the cadets who complete the two-year program in good 

standing are given preference for entering the police academy. At the same time, the program is 

advancing the department’s goals of hiring more city residents, including more minority residents. 

Minneapolis, Minnesota, operates a Community Service Officer program. The police department recruits 

young people while they are still in high school, with the offer of a part-time civilian job upon 

graduation, higher education assistance (Community Service Officers must be enrolled in an approved 

law enforcement program), and the possibility of a promotion to a full-time police officer position. In 

addition to being able to develop its future officers, the police department also can evaluate potential 

officers for an extended period of time while they are in the program. Minneapolis Deputy Police Chief 

Travis Glampe explained it this way: “You get up to two years to see this person as your employee, not 

just in an academy setting, but working with members of the police department. You don’t get that in 

the normal police officer hiring process, when you’re grabbing them cold and relying more on other 

peoples’ recommendations.” 

In Washington, D.C., the Metropolitan Police Department’s cadet program emphasizes both education

and civilian work. Cadets, who earn a full-time salary of $30,000 a year, split their time between 

attending college classes paid for by the department and working in various units throughout the 

department. (Successful cadets leave the program with an associate’s degree to meet the MPD’s 

minimum educational requirement.) One aspect of the cadet program that the MPD emphasizes is 

mentoring. A sergeant and a police officer (a former cadet who was born, raised, and graduated public 

high school in Washington, D.C.) are responsible not just for program administration, but also for 

coaching and mentoring the cadets while they are in the program. 

MPD Assistant Chief Robert Contee III remarked, “The mentoring piece with our cadets is huge, because 

these are kids, and they’re still growing up. They make mistakes, and we want to mentor them through 

that and try to make them better police officers in the long run through education.”

The Los Angeles Police Department operates a tiered cadet/reserve program that includes Junior Cadets 

(ages 11–13), Cadets (ages 14–17), and Reserves (ages 18–21), at which point successful program 

participants can enter the police academy. 
44 Hiring for the 21st Century Law Enforcement Officer

“Even if cadets don’t go on to become police officers, we feel that it’s a 

great investment for the community because now they’ve learned about 

the police department. They can go out there and recruit for us and 

provide other benefits, even if they don’t necessarily go on to a career 

in law enforcement.” 

– Gloria Grube, Commanding Officer, Administrative Services Bureau, 

Los Angeles Police Department

Given their modest size—even major cities such as Boston and Washington, D.C. can currently 

accommodate only about 30 cadets at a time—police cadet programs will not necessarily help an agency 

achieve its numerical goals for hiring. One option agencies might consider is to increase the capacity of 

their cadet programs to bring more home-grown talent into their organizations. Even at current levels, 

however, cadet programs do help agencies achieve greater diversity in their recruit officer ranks. Over 

the long term, the programs also help to build greater connections between the police and residents, 

including the cadets and their families, friends, and neighbors.

High school public safety academies

Some police agencies are also partnering with their local public schools to support specialized public 

safety academies at the high school level. These academies are often run in conjunction with the police 

agencies’ cadet programs. 

For example, Los Angeles offers a special police officer preparation program at one of its magnet high 

schools. Students graduate in five years with a high school diploma and an associate’s degree. They feed 

into the department’s reserve program until age 21, when they are eligible to enter the police academy. 

Similarly, the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department in 2016 partnered with the Public Safety Academy at 

the city’s only public high school that offers a specialized criminal justice curriculum. Graduates can 

transition into the MPD’s cadet program, where they are automatically enrolled at the University of the 

District of Columbia Community College.

Collegiate intern programs

Some agencies also operate robust internship programs that bring current college students into their 

agencies for a semester or over the summer. For example, the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department has 

up to 50 interns at a time working in a variety of units within the agency. Many of the interns are from 

D.C.-area colleges and universities and colleges. Department officials report that the internship program 

has been a fertile recruiting ground for both sworn and civilian positions.
3. Advancing Diversity and Inclusiveness in the Hiring Process 45

While forum participants generally endorsed these and other recruiting and career development 

programs, they did offer some caveats. For one thing, only a relatively small number of the 18,000 police 

departments in the United States have the size and infrastructure to support programs such as police 

cadets. Individual agencies that don’t have the resources to support such programs might consider 

partnering with nearby agencies for a joint cadet program. 

Some participants cautioned that programs such as police cadets must be designed not simply to 

reinforce the existing culture within the organization. These types of programs are most beneficial when 

they bring in new energy and different perspectives that reflect the new generation of officers entering 

the profession.

Watch out for guardians of the existing culture

“A lot of the recruits that are making it through the background process 

tend to be reflective of either the background investigators or the 

command staff. Who you’re recruiting is still very reflective of the 

culture and people in the department.” 

– Patrick Callahan, Public Information Officer, 

Transgender Community of Police and Sheriffs

In their efforts to advance diversity within their agencies, leaders should be aware of what some hiring 

forum participants labeled “culture guardians” within their organizations. In some cases, these 

“guardians” are the background investigators who play a critical role in evaluating candidates, as well as 

the field training officers who help shape new recruits’ habits and attitudes in the field. Ensuring that 

the background investigation process is thorough and fair, and that the attitudes and implicit biases of 

background investigators do not unduly influence the process, were issues discussed at the forum.

Tucson Police Chief Chris Magnus reported that he has witnessed this phenomenon in the agencies he 

has worked for. He said that background investigations are typically assigned to a core group of 

people—often field training officers or detectives—who are exclusively entrusted to do this important 

work. 

“I think that many background investigators see themselves as culture keepers in the organization,” 

Magnus said. “When I was in Richmond, California, this became a huge challenge for us. We were doing 

an amazing amount of community outreach to bring the right people in, but on the other side of the 

funnel, it seemed like the people that made it through looked a lot like the background investigators.”
46 Hiring for the 21st Century Law Enforcement Officer

“One of the areas we could advance as a profession would be to figure 

out some background processes that allow us to elicit more useful and 

fair information about what a candidate’s total life experience has 

been, as opposed to some of the templates that I’ve seen. The 

templates might get you a lot of information, but they actually tell you 

very little about who you’re dealing with and whether the person could 

fit into your organization.”

– Chris Magnus, Chief of Police, Tucson (Arizona) Police Department 

To better understand what was occurring, Chief Magnus started reviewing the investigation reports of 

candidates who were disqualified. He found that many of the reports contained similar observations, 

such as, “the candidate does not appear to bring command presence” or “the candidate does not come 

across as assertive enough for the job.” He interpreted those types of phrases as code words for 

excluding candidates who might have different backgrounds and demeanors from the person doing the 

investigation. To guard against this “culture keeper” tendency among background investigators, Chief 

Magnus said agency leaders should carefully select their background investigators, make sure they 

understand and are aligned with the hiring goals of the agency, and then closely monitor their work. 

Other forum participants suggested there should be some type of certification process for background 

investigators. Patrick Callahan, Public Information Officer for Transgender Community of Police and 

Sheriffs, noted that some agencies, such as the Los Angeles Police Department, require 40 or more 

hours of training to become a background investigator. He suggested that training and certification 

could help agencies not only address issues of explicit or implicit bias among background investigators, 

but also ensure that the investigators know what an agency is looking for and are advancing those goals.

Forum participants noted that these types of issues can be exacerbated when agencies use contract 

personnel to conduct their background investigations. Many of the contract firms use the same basic 

template to conduct investigations in different agencies. As a result, the generic templates may not 

reflect the hiring priorities of the agency or match the inclusionary or disqualifying factors that individual 

agencies want to focus on. 

Agencies also should consider potential bias among contract background investigators themselves. Mr. 

Callahan, of Transgender Community of Police and Sheriffs, has seen instances in which contractors have 

displayed overtly religious symbols or phrases on their business cards or other marketing materials. Such 

symbolism can make candidates of other religious backgrounds uncomfortable and suspicious that they 

will be treated differently. 

In addition, forum participants noted that an agency’s field training officers (FTOs) can sometimes 

exhibit similar tendencies as background investigators—that is, seeing themselves as informal guardians 

of the agency’s culture. Michael Ferrence Jr., Executive Director of the Major County Sheriffs’ 
3. Advancing Diversity and Inclusiveness in the Hiring Process 47

Association, observed, “If you go into an agency and interview the FTOs, you could then probably go 

through the rank and file and identify every officer or deputy who was trained by which FTO, because 

they have a tendency to create mini-me’s.” As with background investigators, the selection, training, 

and monitoring of FTOs are critical for agencies trying to build a high-quality and diverse workforce.

The fallout from “zero tolerance” policing

For many agencies looking to increase diversity within their ranks, recruiting and hiring more officers 

from within their own communities have become top priorities. In particular, agencies are looking to 

hire officers who have first-hand knowledge and appreciation of the underlying issues facing many of 

their communities.

However, participants at the hiring forum said that agencies are encountering two significant obstacles 

to attracting and hiring more local residents. 

One obstacle is a general lack of trust in the police among many young African-Americans and members 

of other minority populations. Gallup surveys in 2015 and 2016 found that 39 percent of non-white 

Americans have a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in the police; by comparison, 62 percent of 

whites expressed that level of confidence in the police in 2016.15 In cities that have experienced highprofile use-of-force incidents, especially those involving white officers and African-American subjects, 

the level of confidence in the police is likely even lower in certain communities. Forum participants said 

that mistrust of the police is making it difficult for agencies to recruit and hire local residents. 

A second obstacle is more tangible. Agencies are also discovering that some potential hires are ineligible 

to be considered because of prior arrests and convictions on minor criminal charges, such as possessing 

an open container of alcohol in public. This situation is especially prevalent in agencies that have 

practiced strict “zero tolerance” policing in the past.

15 Frank Newport, “U.S. Confidence in Police Recovers from Last Year’s Low,” Gallup, Inc., last modified June 14, 

2016, http://www.gallup.com/poll/192701/confidence-police-recovers-last-year-low.aspx. 

“Let’s say that an agency has engaged in a crime-reduction strategy like 

stop and frisk. Now, you have a young man growing up in that 

neighborhood who has been stopped five or ten times. When he applies 

to become a police officer and gets to the background, the investigator 

finds that stop form and ends up disqualifying this person for literally 

living in a low-income, high-crime area. You lose candidates and you 

lose the will of future candidates to apply.” 

– Ronald L. Davis, Director, COPS Office 

 
48 Hiring for the 21st Century Law Enforcement Officer

The Baltimore City Police Department has undertaken a unique approach to help overcome this 

obstacle. The department is working with residents to get minor criminal violations expunged from their 

criminal history records, thus making them eligible to enter the hiring process. Baltimore Police Major 

James Handley said the effort goes beyond helping individuals qualify for a job—either in the police 

department or with another employer where a criminal record might be a disqualifying factor. The effort 

is also about building trust and respect within the community, among the individuals themselves and 

also with their family members, friends, and neighbors. 

“We’re working with residents to get expungements of minor criminal 

records that may have been the result of ‘zero tolerance’ policing. There’s 

a two-pronged effect here. You’re showing the community that you care, so 

you’re building relationships. You’re also giving opportunities to people 

who may have been arrested for a minor criminal charge.” 

– Major James Handley, Baltimore Police Department

Looking Beyond the Background Investigation Template: A Case Study

At the hiring forum, Tucson Police Chief Chris Magnus related a story from a previous 

agency where he worked, which illustrates how strict adherence to a background 

investigation template can end up disqualifying the very type of candidate the agency 

is looking to hire: 

In one case, there was a young woman who was working as a parking enforcement 

officer in a nearby city. It turns out that both of her parents had been or were 

currently in prison. Drug use was rampant among her family members, and there 

were gang ties. 

Yet she was essentially raising her younger sisters because both parents were in 

prison, and she was managing to get herself through school without help. It was this 

incredible story. And yet, following a template, the background investigators said, 

“Oh, heck no. The parents are criminals, her brother’s in a gang, absolutely not.” 

How crazy is that? This is exactly the type of person I wanted to hire. She was a 

model of maturity for someone of her age and her circumstances, and I only learned 

about it because somebody came to me and said, “Are you aware that this is going 

on? We could lose this person.” 

These are real issues. These are the types of things we have to think about more.
3. Advancing Diversity and Inclusiveness in the Hiring Process 49

Recommendations and promising practices: Advancing diversity and inclusiveness in hiring

(Agencies listed in parentheses have implemented the promising practice that is identified.) 

• Agencies should consider establishing or expanding police cadet programs as a way to bring greater 

numbers of local residents into their organizations and to promote diversity and community 

knowledge within the recruit officer ranks. 

• Especially in agencies that have minimum educational requirements for officers, police cadets 

should have an opportunity to take college courses paid for or reimbursed by the police department 

(Minneapolis Police Department; Metropolitan Police Department of Washington, D.C.).

• Agencies that operate police cadet programs should consider a mentoring component, using sworn 

members who direct, assist, and coach program participants (Metropolitan Police Department of 

Washington, D.C.).

• Where such programs exist, agencies should partner with high school public safety academies as a 

way to recruit local residents into their police cadet and officer hiring programs (Los Angeles Police 

Department; Metropolitan Police Department of Washington, D.C.).

• Police executives should regularly review background investigation practices and procedures to 

ensure that traditions or implicit biases on the part of investigators are not disqualifying candidates 

who might bring fresh ideas to the agency and help achieve diversity goals. 

• To guard against bias among background investigators and to ensure they understand and are 

supporting agency hiring goals, agencies should carefully screen and select background investigators

and provide them with specialized training.

• Agencies that use independent contractors to conduct background investigations should ensure that 

the contractors are reflecting the agency’s standards and policies, and not their own. This may 

require that the contractor’s generic investigation template be customized to match the needs and 

priorities of the agency.

• Agencies should examine whether potential applicants are being disqualified because of minor 

arrests or previous contacts resulting from indiscriminate “zero tolerance” policing practices in the 

past. Where this is occurring, agencies should consider innovative approaches to overcoming this 

type of obstacle, such as working with residents to get minor incidents expunged from their criminal 

history records (Baltimore City Police Department). 

51

4. Other Issues to Consider

In addition to the wide-ranging issues discussed at the hiring forum and summarized in the previous 

sections of this report, forum participants also explored some narrow, specific matters. Three of those 

issues are presented in this chapter: the increasingly thorny question of whether police should hire 

applicants who have tattoos; whether police agencies should raise the minimum age for officers; and 

“civilianization” in policing.

Changing standards on tattoos

For decades, many police agencies in the United States had policies strictly regulating the wearing of 

tattoos among their officers. Most agencies either prohibited tattoos altogether or, at a minimum, 

placed restrictions on their size and required that they be covered at all times. The prevailing attitude 

was that tattoos were unprofessional and might be perceived as intimidating or inappropriate by 

members of the community. 

Such restrictions seemed to have had a limited impact on police hiring—until recently. A surge in the 

popularity of tattoos, especially among young people, has forced police agencies to reconsider their 

traditional thinking on the issue.

Much of the debate over tattoos boils down to basic math: as more Americans are getting and 

displaying tattoos, the pool of job applicants who are tattoo-free or who can easily cover them is 

shrinking quickly. According to a 2016 Harris Poll, 29 percent of Americans have at least one tattoo, up 

from 21 percent just four years earlier. And among those who have tattoos, 69 percent have two or 

more.

16

The generational trend with tattoos is stark. Whereas just 13 percent of Baby Boomers (defined as age 

51 to 69) and 10 percent of “Matures” (age 70 or more) report having at least one tattoo, 36 percent of 

Gen Xers (age 36 to 50) and 47 percent of Millennials (age 18 to 35) have tattoos, and 37 percent of 

Millennials report having more than one.17 

 

16 Larry Shannon-Missal, “Tattoo Takeover: Three in Ten Americans Have Tattoos, and Most Don’t Stop at Just 

One,” The Harris Poll, last modified February 10, 2016, http://www.theharrispoll.com/health-andlife/Tattoo_Takeover.html. 

17 Ibid.
52 Hiring for the 21st Century Law Enforcement Officer

“With tattoos, you have to ask, what does the community think? If 

community members look at tattoos and think less of the department, 

then you have a problem. If they look at it and think that’s just the way 

this generation or society is, then you have to ask yourself if you’re 

imposing something on officers that doesn’t have value.” 

– Ronald L. Davis, Director, COPS Office

For police agencies, the new reality is that a sizeable percentage—now approaching half—of all 

potential new hires have tattoos. And the tattoo trend is likely to continue as the next generation enters 

the workforce: according to the same Harris Poll, already 35 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds have at least 

one tattoo.18

18 Ibid.

The hiring forum explored how different agencies are responding to these shifts regarding tattoos. 

Specific issues that agencies are grappling with include the following:

• Content: Ensuring that tattoos do not contain messages that are racist, sexist, obscene, or otherwise 

offensive, or that represent affiliation with gangs or other criminal enterprises. 

• Size: Is a full-arm tattoo appropriate? Where should the line be drawn in terms of size?

• Location: Should any tattoos be visible, or should they always be covered while on duty? Should 

tattoos be permitted on the face, neck, and hands?

• Application: Should newly enacted policies apply only to new hires, or to current members who 

were hired under different standards? In other words, should current employees be allowed to get 

and display new tattoos? 

In most cases, agencies are attempting to balance the desire to promote a professional image with the 

need to ensure they are not excluding a large and growing body of entry-level job-seekers who see 

tattoos as a matter of self-expression. Following are examples of what a few of the agencies represented 

at the hiring forum are doing:

• Milwaukee Police Department: Seeking consensus

The Milwaukee (Wisconsin) Police Department developed its tattoo policy within the last two years. 

The department is currently in arbitration with its police union over the application of the new 

policy to veteran officers. The policy generally permits tattoos that are not visible when members 

are in uniform. “If we can’t see it, we don’t care about it. That’s our attitude,” explained Milwaukee 

 
4. Other Issues to Consider 53

Assistant Chief Carianne Yerkes. With respect to tattoos that would be visible when members are in 

uniform, the policy prohibits new hires from having tattoos on their face, neck, or hands; those must 

be removed within six months of hiring. Other visible tattoos, depending on size, go before a 

Performance Appearance Committee composed of officers, supervisors, and a member of the 

executive team. The committee reviews the tattoo in question and tries to come to consensus on 

whether or not it needs to be covered. In practice, Assistant Chief Yerkes said that a single arm 

tattoo that is not obscene or offensive could likely be displayed, while a full sleeve tattoo would 

probably need to be covered. 

• Los Angeles Police Department: Guarding against bias, gang affiliations

The Los Angeles Police Department has a tattoo policy that covers both current officers and new 

hires. Candidates are given a copy of the policy and must sign an acknowledgment when they apply 

to be a police officer. The policy prohibits any tattoos that are visible, while covered tattoos cannot 

exceed a 3-inch-square skin patch. As part of the medical examination during the hiring process, 

applicants are asked to show all tattoos. The tattoos are then photographed or diagrammed, and 

become part of the background investigation file. Any questionable tattoos are referred to gang and 

narcotics detectives, who investigate the meaning and significance of the tattoos, looking in 

particular for possible gang references and explicit biases. “We have had to disqualify people based 

on gang affiliation, white supremacy messages, and other objectionable things the tattoos may refer 

to,” said Gloria Grube, Commanding Officer of the LAPD’s Administrative Services Bureau. 

• Lenexa Police Department: Adjusting to the new reality

Major Dawn Layman reported that the Lenexa Police Department recently revisited its strict policy 

prohibiting tattoos that are visible when an officer is in uniform. Supervisors and command 

members worked together on a compromise policy that permits arm tattoos that are not obscene or 

offensive, but still requires that they be covered with sleeves. Major Layman said the impetus 

behind the policy change is practical: “We saw that we were actually missing a lot of good 

candidates, including a lot from the military, who came through our process only to hear us say, ‘If 

we hire you, you need to remove your tattoo if it’s below sleeve line.’” 

Several participants in the hiring forum brought up what may be the most important factor in the 

debate over tattoos: What does the community think? Participants suggested that all segments of the 

community ought to be consulted about their views on officers displaying tattoos, and that the public’s 

input ought to be given great weight in formulating agency policy.

The Newport News Police Department followed this template in conducting a wide-ranging public 

comment process about tattoos. With several military bases and other installations nearby, Newport 

News has a high concentration of military families and is heavily influenced by military culture. When 

the department began seeing a large number of applicants with tattoos coming through the hiring 

process, the agency began to rethink the no-tattoo policy it had had in place for the past three decades. 
54 Hiring for the 21st Century Law Enforcement Officer

“We went out and asked our community. We put it out on social media, 

and the response was overwhelmingly positive that, yes, as long as the 

police officers are treating us right, we don’t care what their tattoos 

look like. We also took the question to neighborhood watches and the 

same thing occurred. Residents didn’t care which officer responded, or 

what their tattoo looked like, as long as they were treated 

professionally.”

– Michael Grinstead, Assistant Chief of Police, 

Newport News (Virginia) Police Department

One of its first steps was to seek community input. The police department put the question out on social 

media, and quickly learned that residents who use social media were indifferent or even positive about 

tattoos, as long as officers are diligent and respectful. To ensure they also reached residents who are not 

on social media, the department also brought the question to neighborhood watch and other public 

meetings. The response was similar: residents were far more concerned about professional behavior 

and being treated with respect than they were about seeing a tattoo. Based on the community’s input, 

Newport News Police changed its policy on tattoos, but the chief still reserves the right to prohibit 

tattoos that are vulgar or offensive. 

Raising the minimum age for police officers

Although not a major topic of discussion, Hiring Forum participants discussed the issue of maturity and 

life experience levels among today’s police officer candidates. Professor Susan Hilal of Metropolitan 

State University in St. Paul, Minnesota raised the issue of whether agencies should consider raising the 

minimum age to become a police officer. While many agencies require candidates to be age 21 by the 

time they complete their training academy, some might benefit by raising the entry level age to capture 

candidates with a greater degree of experience and maturity. 

Some forum participants questioned whether police candidates, even at age 21, possess the maturity, 

judgment, and life experience that are important elements of being an effective police officer. As 

Commanding Officer Grube of the LAPD noted, “Let’s say you have a 20- or 21-year-old who does not 

tell you that he used marijuana when he was in high school or college, and later it’s discovered as part of 

the investigation that he did. Is that really a lack of integrity that he wasn’t honest about it, or is it a lack 

of judgment or maturity?” 

Other forum participants pointed out that even seemingly mature young people, including many who 

have attended college, may lack significant life experience outside of school. Raising the minimum age 

essentially would require young people to gain experience and become more well-rounded before they 

enter the policing profession. 
4. Other Issues to Consider 55

“We have to recognize that we are dealing in many cases with 

applicants who are, in effect, still adolescents. Their brain development 

is not even complete as they enter their early twenties.”

– Chris Magnus, Chief of Police, Tucson (Arizona) Police Department 

While none of the law enforcement representatives at the hiring forum specifically endorsed the idea of 

raising the minimum age, there was general agreement on the need to acknowledge that maturity and 

judgment levels of young police applicants may be issues that need to be considered during the hiring 

process. 

Recruiting and hiring qualified civilian professionals

Throughout the Hiring Forum, participants noted that to effectively manage the hiring function, agencies 

need to consider the full spectrum of their needs, including civilian personnel as well as officers. 

Agencies must work to ensure that they are putting the most qualified people in the right positions. 

Sometimes, that means placing a civilian professional in a position long held by a sworn member of the 

agency. 

For example, the Seattle Police Department recently hired civilian professionals to serve as the Human 

Resources and Information Technology directors. In the past, these positions were held by high-level 

sworn personnel. Chief Operating Officer Brian Maxey said the department is now looking to civilianize 

other functions, including crime analysis and data analytics. 

Focusing attention and resources on the civilian hiring process serves two primary objectives. First, it 

supports the overall mission and goals of the agency by promoting a diverse and qualified workforce. 

Second, it can ease some of the pressure to hire additional officers, as certain positions can be filled by 

civilian personnel, meaning that more sworn officers are returned to functions that require their 

specialized skills and training. 

“As a profession, we need to look at the whole spectrum of our hiring 

needs and figure out what type of people we need to accomplish the 

overall mission, because I think the sworn side actually has a very 

specific skill set, but a police department requires other skills as well.”

– Brian Maxey, Chief Operating Officer, 

Seattle (Washington) Police Department
56 Hiring for the 21st Century Law Enforcement Officer

Mental Health Issues in the Hiring Process and on the Job

As part of the hiring forum, Ronald S. Honberg, National Director of Policy and Legal 

Affairs for the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), delivered remarks on 

exposure to trauma and its impact on officers’ mental health and discussed mental 

health issues in the context of the police hiring process. 

Following are excerpts of Mr. Honberg’s remarks.

Exposure to trauma should be the expectation, rather than viewed as something 

unusual among police officers. I think that we have failed to recognize that over the 

years. I think that officers are very much like soldiers in that the tendency is to say, 

“Suck it up.” There’s a reluctance to admit that they’re struggling with emotions and 

that they need help.

The consequences of suppressing the effects of trauma can be calamitous—alcohol 

and drug abuse, domestic violence, suicides. Suicide rates among police officers are 

slightly higher than the general population, which is something that doesn’t get 

talked about a lot. But it is probably something that most police chiefs are very 

aware of.

At our recent NAMI convention, I heard a presentation by Sergeant A.J. DeAndrea, 

who’s a SWAT team leader with the Arvada (Colorado) Police Department. He and his 

team were frontline responders at the Columbine High school massacre in 1999, and 

again a few years later at another shooting at a different local high school. A.J. is a 

big, tough-looking guy, and he was a mesmerizing speaker. He spoke about the 

contrast in the responses to the first and second tragedies in his community. 

After the first tragedy, there were debriefings, and officers were encouraged to get 

help if they needed it, but there were no real proactive efforts to reach out to the 

officers. The fallout, he said, was significant—alcohol and drug abuse, high rates of 

absenteeism, people taking leave, and fights among officers. 

After the second tragedy, a formal counseling program was put in place, and 

outreach was conducted to officers who were involved. As a result, the problems that 

he described occurring among officers after Columbine were significantly reduced.

The anniversary of a mass tragedy is something that strikes home for the whole 

community, including the first responders. Sergeant DeAndrea said that when they 

commemorated the first anniversary of Columbine, several officers who were 
4. Other Issues to Consider 57

involved did so by basically drinking alone. Again, lessons were learned, and for the 

second tragedy, the commemoration was a 38-mile relay, which members of the 

SWAT team trained for over six months. He said the camaraderie and the mutual 

support made a big difference. They didn’t hide from it. They didn’t try to pretend 

there wasn’t anything wrong. Instead, they supported each other. 

So what steps can be taken to create a supportive environment for officers who have 

been exposed to trauma, whether it’s due to a mass casualty event or another 

experience during the course of their jobs? The most important thing is to create 

an environment that encourages officers to step forward and get help when they 

need it. 

I think most chiefs understand that, but it doesn’t always translate down to the dayto-day job. It’s the same thing that active duty soldiers have told me. The generals 

may be saying, “We need to encourage officers to seek mental health help when they 

need it,” but the unspoken rule is “Don’t acknowledge you're struggling,” because 

the perception is that it can have negative consequences with your fellow soldiers as 

well as your career.

Trauma is a normal response to very difficult experiences. In order for officers to feel 

comfortable coming forward to deal with such trauma, agencies must make 

assurances that seeking help through mental health counseling or substance abuse 

treatment will not automatically lead to the loss of one’s job. Otherwise people are 

going to hide it, and it’s going to negatively impact not only the individual, but also 

that person’s ability to perform the job. Officers worry a lot. I don’t need to tell you 

that they worry about having their guns taken away. It’s the same with soldiers, and 

it’s a big, big issue.

In situations involving mass casualties, the focus is always on the victims and 

families, and rarely on the officers themselves. Chiefs and supervisors can set 

positive examples by talking about their own experiences with traumatic events, by 

offering flexible scheduling to officers following an incident, and with other forms of 

support. Officer peer support programs are very important for officers, just as they 

are with the military. People who’ve walked the walk are best able to talk the talk. If 

an officer needs assistance or seeks it out, you need to have it available. Ideally, you 

have a trusted police psychologist or a mental health professional who has 

experience and trust among officers. That’s a little bit more difficult, particularly in 

rural communities, but it’s important to provide it, if at all possible. 
58 Hiring for the 21st Century Law Enforcement Officer

Mental Health Issues in the Hiring Process and on the Job (cont’d)

In the context of hiring, a past history of mental health treatment should not 

automatically be a disqualifier from employment. We are hopefully at a time in our 

history where we recognize that the brain is part of the body, too. Even if the 

person’s condition doesn’t rise to the level of being a serious illness, there’s no 

crime or harm in seeking help when we need it. In fact, officers who have received 

assistance can really make us stronger and more effective in dealing with the kind of 

difficult, unpredictable situations that police officers have to deal with. 

Long-term recovery is quite common, and personal experiences with mental health 

treatment or experience involving a loved one can be an asset for an officer on the 

job in terms of strengthening sensitivity, people skills, and empathy. This is 

particularly relevant when officers serve in specialized roles such as a Crisis 

Intervention Team, or when they’re in a program being trained on de-escalation 

skills.

_______________________

Note: In May 2016, the COPS Office and NAMI released a report titled “Preparing for the 

Unimaginable: How Chiefs Can Safeguard Officer Mental Health Before and After Mass Casualty 

Events, ” https://ric -zai-inc.com/Publications/cops-p347-pub.pdf. 

Recommendations and promising practices: other issues to consider

(Agencies listed in parentheses have implemented the promising practice that is identified.) 

• Agencies should consider using formal “appearance committees” as a way to review and evaluate 

the appropriateness of particular tattoos. These committees should include representatives of frontline officers, supervisors, and executive-level personnel (Milwaukee Police Department). 

• In evaluating their policies on tattoos, agencies should seek out and give consideration to the views 

of all segments of the community. This opinion outreach should be done through a variety of 

approaches, including social media, newsletters, and public meetings (Newport News Police 

Department). 

• Irrespective of their specific minimum age requirements, agencies should consider including a 

critical thinking assessment component in their hiring processes to measure a candidate’s maturity 

and judgment. 

• To support their overall mission and to ease pressure on the need to hire additional sworn 

personnel, agencies should continuously examine which functions must be performed by officers 

and which ones can be filled by a civilian professional. Agencies should be rigorous in their recruiting 

and hiring processes for civilian personnel (Seattle Police Department).
59

Conclusion: Promising Practices for 

Moving the Profession Forward

“We’re hiring. . . . Get off that protest line and put an application in, 

and we’ll put you in your neighborhood, and we will help you resolve 

some of the problems you’re protesting about.”

– David Brown, Chief of Police, 

Dallas (Texas) Police Department, July 11, 2016 

Dallas Police Chief David Brown issued that challenge four days after a gunman shot and killed five 

police officers in a premeditated ambush attack at the conclusion of an otherwise peaceful Black Lives 

Matter rally in downtown Dallas. Applications to the Dallas Police Department soon quadrupled, 

according to Patricia Marsolais, Director of Dallas Civil Service. “People are very enthusiastic and eager 

to move along in the process,” she told the hiring forum.

Encouraging people to submit applications is only one part of the hiring process, however. As 

participants at the forum discussed, enhanced recruiting efforts are wasted if agencies cannot 

effectively screen and identify the highest quality candidates, get them through the hiring process in a 

quick and efficient manner, and then closely monitor their performance in the academy and on the 

street during field training. 

The hiring forum examined the challenges and opportunities facing police agencies today as they work 

to improve hiring processes and increase the size and the quality of their workforces. The consensus 

among participants was that continuing to do things the way they have always been done is not a viable 

option for agencies looking to build organizations that can meet the challenges of 21st century policing. 

The generational shifts taking place in the American workplace are unrelenting. Millennials, and now the 

first members of Generation Z, dominate the entry-level applicant pool. They represent the bulk of the 

individuals that police agencies must recruit and hire for years to come. Police departments must 

understand how these new generations differ from past generations and adjust their systems 

accordingly.

Some of the differences between the young and older generations are deep and fundamental. Many of 

today’s young people do not envision spending their entire lives in a single career, much less a single 

job. Today’s young people are accustomed to getting what they want within seconds or hours, whether 

it is information they want or goods and services. They are not favorably impressed by police agency 

hiring systems that seem to be overly bureaucratic, complicated, and opaque, and which require many 
60 Hiring for the 21st Century Law Enforcement Officer

months to come to a decision. Other issues are smaller but not necessarily less important. Nearly half of 

the members of the Millennial generation have at least one tattoo. Police agencies will find it 

increasingly difficult to maintain strict bans on tattoos as a condition of employment.

For many tradition-bound police organizations, these changes are difficult. But agencies that don’t adapt 

will be left behind, struggling to maintain a sufficient number of officer candidates and to develop a 

high-quality workforce. 

As daunting as the challenges are, the hiring forum highlighted numerous examples of agencies that are 

adapting to change and successfully re-engineering their hiring processes: 

• Through a combination of streamlining a slow and archaic process and adding new technology, the 

Metropolitan Police Department of Washington, D.C. reduced the time it takes to hire a new officer 

from 12-18 months to just 3-4 months.

• To keep a steady, manageable flow of candidates in the hiring pipeline, agencies such as the Los 

Angeles Police Department are offering entry-level testing on a regular basis, as opposed to 

administering “mega-exams” every year or two. And to make sure they are retaining their highestquality candidates, agencies such as the New Orleans Police Department are offering continuous 

hiring programs in which individuals are hired in a civilian capacity until an academy class can be 

formed. 

• In Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., police agencies have created new customer service 

resources—both online and in person—to assist candidates through the process. This is considered 

especially important for the new generation of job seekers. 

• To get a better read on the full range of candidates’ traits and characteristics, the Dallas Police 

Department is focusing on face-to-face interviews with applicants, which include scenario-based 

questioning. In Kalamazoo, Michigan, candidates go on ride-alongs with officers and get involved in 

community engagement activities to evaluate their interpersonal skills.

• Agencies are looking to develop physical fitness standards that are evidence-based and job-related. 

And some agencies, such as the Lenexa (Kansas) Police Department, are emphasizing physical fitness 

throughout an officer’s career, not just at the beginning.

• Illinois created a statewide registry of officers who were terminated for misconduct or who resigned 

while under investigation, to make it easier for hiring agencies to learn about a candidate’s previous 

law enforcement history. In addition, the National Decertification Index includes more than 21,400 

certificate or license revocation actions reported by agencies in 40 participating states. It provides 

hiring agencies with a national resource for investigating possible certificate or license revocations 

of potential candidates.
Conclusion: Promising Practices for Moving the Profession Forward 61

• Several cities, including Boston and Minneapolis, are revitalizing or expanding their police cadet 

programs as a way to attract and groom more “home-grown” talent. Los Angeles and Washington, 

D.C., are partnering their cadet programs with public high schools that offer specialized criminal 

justice curricula, as a direct pathway into the agency. 

• The Baltimore Police Department is helping city residents expunge very minor offenses—for 

violations such as carrying an open container of alcohol in public—from their criminal history 

records so that more city residents can qualify for jobs, not just in the police department but with 

other employers as well. 

• To gain the community’s perspective on officers who display tattoos, the Newport News (Virginia)

Police Department conducted an extensive public outreach campaign. The outreach revealed that 

residents were far more interested in the professionalism of officers than their appearance. The 

department adjusted its tattoo policy accordingly.

• The Seattle Police Department is emphasizing the recruiting and hiring of civilian personnel, as a way 

to support the overall mission of the agency and to ease some of the pressure on hiring officers. 

This report highlights these and other promising practices that are making the police hiring process 

more efficient, effective, fair, and inclusive. The report provides more than two dozen recommendations 

for how agencies of all sizes can better navigate the highly competitive and turbulent hiring landscape of 

today. For many agencies, implementing the types of best practices described in this report will be 

necessary to keep up with other professions that are vying for the same pool of applicants, and to 

maintain competitiveness with other police agencies. 

Not all agencies will be able to adopt every recommendation or promising practice outlined in this 

report. But every agency would be well served to take a close look at its hiring practices and outcomes 

—that is, how successful it is at recruiting, hiring, and retaining the caliber of talent the agency wants 

and the community demands. 

Agencies that don’t recognize the changes taking place in police hiring today, and don’t adapt to those 

changes, will face more officer vacancies in the future, continued pressures to hire quickly, and, perhaps 

most importantly, a talent gap in their organizations. 

But agencies that recognize and embrace change will be on track to maintain their numbers while also 

filling their ranks with the types of officers that are best suited for the challenges of 21st century 

policing. Recruiting, hiring, and retaining the right people are the critical first steps to achieving the 

larger goals of reducing crime and building relationships of trust with the community. 
62

List of Forum Participants

Law enforcement, academic, and organizational participants

Cory Amend

Director

Colorado Peace Officer Standards and Training

Patrice Andrews

Chief

Morrisville (North Carolina) Police Department

Rachael Arietti

Research Associate

Police Executive Research Forum

Evan Axelrod

Director of Psychological Preemployment 

Evaluations

Nicoletti-Flater Associates

Jeff Bader

Lieutenant Colonel

St. Louis County (Missouri) Police Department

Marisa Beam

Legislative Liaison

Fraternal Order of Police

Jennifer Beskid

Director of Grants and Special Projects

Maryland Police and Correctional Training 

Commissions

Margaret Brunner

Research Associate

Police Executive Research Forum

Patrick Callahan

Public Information Officer

Transgender Community of Police and Sheriffs

Eliott Cohen

Lieutenant

Maryland State Police

Robert Contee III

Assistant Chief

Washington (D.C.) Metropolitan Police 

Department

Laura Cooper

Director of Government Affairs

Major County Sheriffs’ Association

Jessica Drake

Vice President of Program Management and 

Development

Strategic Applications International

James Fenner Jr.

Captain

Montgomery County (Maryland) Police 

Department

Michael Ferrence Jr.

Executive Director

Major County Sheriffs Association

Patrick Gallagher

Deputy Chief

Virginia Beach (Virginia) Police Department

Travis Glampe

Deputy Chief

Minneapolis (Minnesota) Police Department

Nathan Gove

Executive Director

Minnesota Board of Peace Officer Standards 

and Training

Michael Grinstead

Assistant Chief

Newport News (Virginia) Police Department
List of Forum Participants 63

Brian Grisham

President 

IADLEST

Director 

Tennessee Law Enforcement Training Academy

Gloria Grube

Commanding Officer, Administrative Services 

Bureau

Los Angeles (California) Police Department

Marvin (Ben) Haiman

Director, Office of Volunteer Coordination

Chief of Staff, Technical Services Division

Washington (D.C.) Metropolitan Police 

Department

James Handley

Major

Baltimore (Maryland) Police Department

Rhea Harris

Special Assistant to the Superintendent

Maryland State Police

Susan Hilal

Professor

School of Law Enforcement and Criminal 

Justice, Metropolitan State University

Ronald S. Honberg

National Director, Policy and Legal Affairs

National Alliance on Mental Illness

Wayne Jones

Major

Miami Beach (Florida) Police Department

Adam Kemerer

Research Assistant

Police Executive Research Forum

Mark Kirschner

Membership Chair, IACP Police Psychological 

Services Section

Behavioral Health Consultants, LLC

Dawn Layman

President

National Association of Women Law 

Enforcement Executives

Major

Lenexa (Kansas) Police Department

Chris Magnus

Chief

Tucson (Arizona) Police Department

Frank Mancini

Superintendent

Boston (Massachusetts) Police Department

Patricia Marsolais

Director

Dallas (Texas) Civil Service

Brian Maxey

Chief Operating Officer

Seattle (Washington) Police Department

Elizabeth Miller

Research Associate

Police Executive Research Forum

Kevin Morison

Director of Program Management

Police Executive Research Forum

Patrick Oliver

Director, Criminal Justice Program

Cedarville University

Tim Richardson

Senior Legislative Liaison

Fraternal Order of Police

David Robinson

Commander

Dearborn (Michigan) Police Department

David Rogers

Chief Executive Officer

Tribal Public Safety Innovations, LLC
64 Hiring for the 21st Century Law Enforcement Officer

Catherine Sanz

President

Women in Federal Law Enforcement

Mary Schauf

Captain

Madison (Wisconsin) Police Department

Brian Sherota

Fellow

International Association of Chiefs of Police

Special Agent

ICE-HSI

Sean Smoot

Director and Chief Counsel

Police Benevolent & Protective Association of 

Illinois

Principal Consultant

21CP Solutions, LLC

Darrel Stephens

Executive Director

Major Cities Chiefs Association

Shelly Stolp

Recruitment Administrator

New Orleans (Louisiana) Civil Service 

Department

Karianne Thomas

Deputy Chief

Kalamazoo (Michigan) Department of Public

Safety

Jonathan Thompson

Executive Director

National Sheriffs’ Association

Don Tijerina

Past National President

Hispanic American Police Command Officers 

Association

Jessica Toliver

Director of Technical Assistance

Police Executive Research Forum

Laura Waxman

Director of Public Safety

U.S. Conference of Mayors

Barbara West

Chief of Support Services

Chicago (Illinois) Police Department

Chuck Wexler

Executive Director

Police Executive Research Forum

Jonathan Wisbey

Deputy Chief of Staff

New Orleans (Louisiana) Police Department

Carianne Yerkes

Assistant Chief

Milwaukee (Wisconsin) Police Department
List of Forum Participants 65

Federal participants

Brenda Auterman

Policy Analyst

COPS Office

Helene Brody-Bushwick

Supervisory Policy Analyst

COPS Office 

Rob Chapman

Deputy Director

COPS Office

Jason Cullum

Law Enforcement Fellow

COPS Office

Ronald L. Davis

Director

COPS Office 

Sarah Estill

Social Science Analyst

COPS Office

Susan Gerson

Legislative and Policy Counsel

Civil Rights Division, U.S. Department of Justice

Ben Hernandez-Stern

Attorney Advisor

Office of Civil Rights, Office of Justice Programs, 

U.S. Department of Justice

Patrice Howard

Social Science Analyst

COPS Office

Michelle Jones Coles

Legislative and Policy Counsel

Civil Rights Division, U.S. Department of Justice

Lexer Q. Mayers

Senior Attorney Advisor

Office of Commissioner Charlotte A. Burrows, 

U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity 

Commission

Natika Miller

Grant Monitoring Specialist

COPS Office 

Jon Ostrowsky

Special Assistant to the Assistant Attorney 

General for Civil Rights

Civil Rights Division, U.S. Department of Justice

Elizabeth Simpson

Social Science Analyst

COPS Office

Greg Smiley

Grant Monitoring Specialist

COPS Office

Johnathan Smith

Senior Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General 

for Civil Rights

Civil Rights Division, U.S. Department of Justice

Cornelia Sorensen-Sigworth

Associate Deputy Director

Bureau of Justice Assistance, Office of Justice 

Programs, U.S. Department of Justice

Deborah Spence

Assistant Director

COPS Office 

Christopher Zubowicz

Attorney Advisor

Office of Civil Rights, Office of Justice Programs, 

U.S. Department of Justice
66

About PERF

The Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) is an independent research organization that focuses on 

critical issues in policing. Since its founding in 1976, PERF has identified best practices on fundamental 

issues such as reducing police use of force, developing community policing and problem-oriented 

policing, using technologies to deliver police services to the community, and evaluating crime reduction 

strategies.

PERF strives to advance professionalism in policing and to improve the delivery of police services 

through the exercise of strong national leadership, public debate of police and criminal justice issues, 

and research and policy development.

In addition to conducting research and publishing reports on our findings, PERF conducts management 

studies of individual law enforcement agencies, educates hundreds of police officials each year in a 

three-week executive development program, and provides executive search services to governments 

that wish to conduct national searches for their next police chief.

All of PERF’s work benefits from PERF’s status as a membership organization of police officials, 

academics, federal government leaders, and others with an interest in policing and criminal justice.

All PERF members must have a four-year college degree and must subscribe to a set of founding 

principles, emphasizing the importance of research and public debate in policing, adherence to the 

Constitution and the highest standards of ethics and integrity, and accountability to the communities 

that police agencies serve.

PERF is governed by a member-elected president and board of directors and a board-appointed 

executive director. A staff of approximately 30 full-time professionals is based in Washington, D.C. 

To learn more, visit PERF online at www.policeforum.org. 
67

About the COPS Office

The Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) is the component of the U.S. 

Department of Justice responsible for advancing the practice of community policing by the nation’s 

state, local, territorial, and tribal law enforcement agencies through information and grant resources.

Community policing begins with a commitment to building trust and mutual respect between police and 

communities. It supports public safety by encouraging all stakeholders to work together to address our 

nation’s crime challenges. When police and communities collaborate, they more effectively address 

underlying issues, change negative behavioral patterns, and allocate resources. 

Rather than simply responding to crime, community policing focuses on preventing it through strategic 

problem solving approaches based on collaboration. The COPS Office awards grants to hire community 

police and support the development and testing of innovative policing strategies. COPS Office funding 

also provides training and technical assistance to community members and local government leaders, as 

well as all levels of law enforcement. 

Another source of COPS Office assistance is the Collaborative Reform Initiative for Technical Assistance 

(CRI-TA). Developed to advance community policing and ensure constitutional practices, CRI-TA is an 

independent, objective process for organizational transformation. It provides recommendations based 

on expert analysis of policies, practices, training, tactics, and accountability methods related to issues of 

concern.

Since 1994, the COPS Office has invested more than $14 billion to add community policing officers to the 

nation’s streets, enhance crime fighting technology, support crime prevention initiatives, and provide 

training and technical assistance to help advance community policing.

• To date, the COPS Office has funded the hiring of approximately 127,000 additional officers by more 

than 13,000 of the nation’s 18,000 law enforcement agencies in both small and large jurisdictions.

• Nearly 700,000 law enforcement personnel, community members, and government leaders have 

been trained through COPS Office-funded training organizations. 

• To date, the COPS Office has distributed more than eight million topic-specific publications, training 

curricula, white papers, and resource CDs.

• The COPS Office also sponsors conferences, roundtables, and other forums focused on issues critical 

to law enforcement.

The COPS Office information resources, covering a wide range of community policing topics—from 

school and campus safety to gang violence—can be downloaded at www.cops.usdoj.gov. This website is 

also the grant application portal, providing access to online application forms.
The Final Report of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing noted that the quality 

of American policing depends upon the quality of its officers and stressed the importance of 

hiring individuals who reflect the diversity and values of the community—and also have the 

character and social skills to positively engage with it. This was emphasized in a later task 

force meeting with President Obama, who asked the COPS Office to explore promising 

practices and policies for hiring and retaining officers who meet these requirements. In 

response, the COPS Office and the Police Executive Research Forum hosted the Hiring for the 

21st Century Law Enforcement Officer forum. This report details the discussions and 

recommendations of the forum, which included experts in police standards, screening, and 

hiring. Their insights and recommendations in areas such as psychological screening, 

educational requirements, promotion policies, and methods for retaining the best officers 

can be of great value to Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) commissions, HR, and 

agency executives.

U.S. Department of Justice

Office of Community Oriented Policing Services

145 N Street NE

Washington, DC 20530

To obtain details about COPS Office programs, call 

the COPS Office Response Center at 800-421-6770. 

Visit the COPS Office online at www.cops.usdoj.gov.

Police Executive Research Forum

1120 Connecticut Avenue NW

Suite 930

Washington, DC 20036

For more information, visit PERF online at

www.policeforum.org. 

e121619804 

Published 2017