Articulating the dynamic police staffing challenge

Abstract

PurposeThis work aims to summarize literature on police recruitment and retention and how changing conditions may affect these. It uses a bucket metaphor to conceptualize and present visually how these can interact with each other and create a dynamic police staffing challenge.Design/methodology/approachThe literature review includes more than 150 works on police recruitment and retention, organized into discussions on the demand for police, the supply of police, and how systemic and episodic changes affect each.FindingsExisting research suggests police agencies face a threefold challenge in meeting the demand for officers: attrition is likely to increase, sources of new recruits might be decreasing, and police responsibilities are expanding. Attrition might increase because of baby‐boom generation retirements, military call‐ups, changing generational expectations of careers, budget crises, and organizational characteristics. Sources of new recruits might be decreasing because of a decrease in the qualified applicant pool, changing generational preferences in selecting careers, increased competition for persons who might qualify as police officers, expanded skill requirements for police officers, uncompetitive benefits, and many of the organizational characteristics causing attrition. Policing responsibilities are expanding because of new roles in community policing, homeland security, and emerging crimes.Originality/valueThis work summarizes, as no other has previously, the extant research on police recruitment and retention. Many holes remain in the literature, but identifying the extant literature can help identify these and possible means to fill them. Reviewing the extant literature can also help agencies identify the proper lessons to face their own recruitment and retention challenges.

Crime Clearance and Temporal Variation in Police Investigative Workload: Evidence from National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) Data

“…Police forces may be more challenged than ever due to increasing police responsibilities being accompanied by decreasing manpower and resources in the recent economic recession (Liederbach et al 2011;Wilson 2012). In this environment, police workload and its consequences gain greater salience, and even small and possibly temporary changes in police investigative workload may have important ramifications.…”

Police Productivity and Performance Over the Career Course: A Latent Class Growth Analysis of the First 10 Years of Law Enforcement

“…Indeed, the modern policing mandate expects officers to engage in community processes and activities, provide victimization services, and work with community service agencies, in addition to more traditional crime fighting activities (Alpert & Moore, 1993). Wilson (2012), in his review of the challenges to staffing, noted that the police role now includes, in addition to community-based activities, tasks associated with maintaining homeland security and investigating emerging crimes. Davis et al (2015) noted that the job has become increasingly complex requiring officers to engage in behaviors focused on procedural justice and fair treatment, community partnerships, and handling mentally impaired citizensall of these behaviors are unaccounted for in traditional performance measures.…”

Los procesos de formación de futuros policías, ¿mejoran su salud mental? || Do processes for training future police officers improve their mental health?

“…In general, in terms of police officer selection, psychologists are usually asked to perform screenings that will rule out individuals with mental health problems from access to the job (Metchik, 1999;Henson et al, 2010;Hughes & Andre, 2007;Wilson, 2012). However, the main problem of such behavior, as authors such as Burkhart (1980) and Lough and Von Treuer (2013) discuss, is that the psychological tests used usually have limited validity.…”