Policing in America: Recruiting and Retaining Talent in a Volatile Profession

by MSG John W. Russell, US Army

A society without the rule of law is a society limited to the terms of anarchistic self-determination. Laws constitute the collective rationale of society regarding the mores upon which civilized conduct occurs. Through America’s elected body of legislators, these social mores become codified in statutes that duly sworn law enforcement officials enforce and support. As American society changes so too does the procedural landscape of law enforcement. Human resources and workforce management issues plague many policing agencies nationwide as the law enforcement landscape increases in volatility. These law enforcement-centric issues require creative problem-solving from police administrators to keep pace with staffing demands. Accordingly, law enforcement agencies nationwide suffer debilitating recruiting and retention challenges due to poor compensation and sweeping cultural changes in American society that emerged over the past decade.

A Literature Review of Contemporary Issues in Modern Policing

The body of work surrounding the recruiting and retention shortages in the law enforcement community suggests a causal relationship between a wide range of human resources and social issues and the low officer-per-capita ratio in major metropolitan agencies. Both Aubry and Wandrei (2021) and Thompson (2022) offer evidence that pay, benefits, and pension packages all contribute to an overabundance of difficulty in recruiting new officers from a pool of applicants that would otherwise be fully qualified for service. Applicants that have all the attributes to be successful in a career in law enforcement often choose a career in another field because they often cannot afford to live in the areas they patrol. In fact, the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics (U.S. BLS) median annual wage search by job field produces some startling statistics. For 2021, the U.S. BLS data shows that of the 52 U.S. states and territories, 42% pay their offices less than $60,000 per year, while only 36% pay their officers above $80,000 per year (U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics [BLS], 2021) (See Appendix A).

Although some police agencies across the United States have competitive pay and compensation packages, the research suggests that high-paying departments are the exception, not the norm. Rushin and Michalski (2020) discuss rural and metropolitan police salaries in Pennsylvania at some length and show that rural departments often employ part-time or reserve police officers that have an hourly salary less than that of local retail workers. Furthermore, Mourtgos and Adams (2021) corroborate the assertion that compensation is directly proportionate to agency turnover rates, even considering anti-police sentiments that began sweeping the country over the past decade. In the same vein, police pensions contribute to the compensation argument. Some advocates of reducing police pensions or introducing deferred retirement option plans seek to require police officers to endure longer careers in physically and emotionally demanding jobs to draw their full retirement (Aubry & Wandei, 2021). In all cases, the rising cost of living due to rapid inflation contributes to the issue.

Inflation costs between 2021 and 2022 have only compounded the concerns for officers in regions where pay falls on the lower end of the spectrum. Between January 2021 and January 2022, the average American family realized a net increase in subsistence expenditures of »13.8%, or »$747, per month (Joint Economic Committee Republicans [JECR], 2022) (See Appendix B). Overall, the most significant increase in inflation costs was transportation costs. The median increase in annual transportation costs per household ranged from $2,316 to $4, 152 as a cascading effect of increased fuel prices (JECR, 2022). These price increases come at a cost for those serving in police departments where officers have not seen an increase in salary and do not have agency-provided take-home patrol vehicles. Households with multiple vehicles further exacerbate the problem. Suffice it to say that compensation for police officers in the United States is long overdue for a workforce impact analysis to determine the impact on recruiting and retention.

While compensation is indeed a motivational attribute of police officer recruitment and retention, Haynes (2021) and Thompson (2022) suggest that issues such as job satisfaction and burn-out-reducing techniques also support longevity in the profession. Thompson (2022) discusses how a fundamental shift in the way police administrators manage their officers’ sustained trauma experiences through introspective and future-focused therapeutic techniques has shown an increase in officer decision-making and community connectedness. Furthermore, breaking from the rigid, paramilitary structure in favor of a flatter, more participative interaction between officers and their leaders has shown promise (Haynes, 2021). In fact, a preponderance of the body of research suggests that some of the issues that elicit negative, retention degrading responses among officers reside in counterproductive police administrations that practice overly rigid, hierarchical, paramilitary management techniques. Such leadership and management techniques often fare poorly amongst the newest generation of millennial police applicants.

The millennial generation responds best in collaborative, decentralized environments where they have a voice in day-to-day operations (Cain, 2020). A supporting theme of this paper will be examining the reality of decentralization and collaboration in a career field where a centralized, hierarchical command structure is necessary to ensure the constitutionally guaranteed rights of the protected population. In the aftermath of the 2020 George Floyd riots, issues such as inadequate police training on critical skills, such as the use of force continuum, became a fundamental friction point regarding police recruiting, retention, and training (Rushin & Michalski, 2020; Mourtgos et al., 2021). Close, direct supervision is a common mitigation theme throughout the body of research. The collective conclusion is that officers are bound to infringe upon the rights of the citizens they swear to protect without comprehensive training and continuous performance monitoring under the tutelage of their field training officer following academy graduation. In a field where new employees must deal with a sweeping array of operational variables spurred by human emotion; direct oversight is an operational imperative when the goal is the avoidance of constitutional infringement in individualistic societies.

Further exacerbating the challenges before police administrators is the notion that American society has become markedly more individualistic over time (Hofstede, 2021). Hofstede (2021) describes individualism as the condition where societies value the individual more than the collective, and the value of relationships ranks lower than the value of oneself. On the global stage, the United States was number one with the highest overall score for individualism, with zero being the lowest and one hundred being the highest (Hofstede, 2021) (See Appendix C). In light of Hofstede’s work, it should not be a shock that public scrutiny of law enforcement, hostility toward officers, and a lack of interest in entering the profession have risen in recent years. While societal shifts undoubtedly account for a fair share of the unrest in the law enforcement community and the degraded interest of new applicants, one cannot dismiss the fact that law enforcement misconduct complicates the issue. This notion gives rise to concerns over ethics in the profession.

Ethical Considerations in Law Enforcement

Ethics in policing have become a source of public scrutiny in recent years. Volatile reactions to events surrounding high-profile cases, such as the George Floyd murder and the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, MO, served as evidence of public perceptions regarding police corruption and misconduct, including administrators’ responses to allegations of misconduct. The corpus of current research shows that hostile rhetoric following these two events sparked a mass exodus of officers nationwide (Mourtgos, et al., 2021). In fact, one hundred officers left the Minneapolis Police Department (PD) following the George Floyd case. In comparison, Chicago reported a 15% increase in retirements, and the Seattle PD lost two hundred officers by the end of 2020 (Mourtgos, et al., 2021).

Much of the consternation regarding ethical considerations in police recruitment and retention has less to do with hiring practices and more to do with the public’s perception of systemic corruption and abuse of power. The ethical considerations do not end with the patrol officer. An outright lack of support from departmental leadership contributes to the commitment, burnout, and positional satisfaction officers report in their respective agencies (Mourtgos, et al., 2021). Similarly, a lack of support directly influences officer proactivity and the public’s perceptions regarding the competence of their local law enforcement community. As officers feel abandoned by their police leadership and challenged by an increasingly hostile working environment, one may argue that it is logical that they become less inclined to engage in proactive community policing due to poor public perceptions.

The police force exists to protect and serve the public; therefore, administrators and officers must consider the value and weight of public perceptions when shaping policy. The ethical lenses through which administrators must view these problems include the rules-based, outcomes-based, and values-based lenses (Kem, 2023). The problem itself is an ill-defined problem because of the dizzying array of societal implications that compound the issue; however, these lenses can help analyze any proposed solutions to determine if the solution satisfies the professional police ethic. The rules-based lens must examine the approach through federal, local, and state statutes to satisfy regulatory and constitutional requirements and ensure officers work within the confines of the law they swear to uphold. The values-based lens will determine if the proposed solution meets the stipulations of societal and organizational mores. Finally, the outcomes-based lens will examine if the solution produces a more professional police force that increases the intrinsic value of law enforcement in terms of public perception.

Contributing Factors of Poor Public Perceptions

How the public views its policing organizations directly influences their desire to pursue a career in law enforcement. Police misconduct incidents regularly appear in media reporting across the nation. Although these reports do not necessarily depict the character of all police officers, they do tend to sensationalize misconduct and degrade police credibility in the eyes of the communities the officers serve (Cain, 2020). Furthermore, policing occurs in increasingly dangerous environments under severe scrutiny and flaccid public backing (Cain, 2020). These factors collectively contribute to fewer qualified applicants and increased strain on officers who remain on the force. As the applicant pool diminishes and current officers leave the force, factors such as work stress and lower numbers of officers per capita further exacerbate the staffing crisis that plagues police agencies nationwide.

Although the severity of the staffing crisis varies from one jurisdiction to the next, one must examine the rate of police accessions compared to America’s population growth rate. For example, the U.S. population grew nearly 21% between 1997 and 2016; however, the population of new police officers only increased by 8% (Cain, 2020). Moreover, out of 411 police agencies surveyed in 2018, 63% indicated that their number of applicants decreased by 36% during the previous five years, while 29% of the officers that resigned voluntarily were on the job for less than one year (Cain, 2020). Additionally, officer resignation rates increased by nearly 279% nationally following the George Floyd case in 2020 (Mourtgos, et al., 2021). The numbers above indicate the possibility of incongruence between the community’s values and those of their police agencies. This notion is the foundation of the procedural justice (PJ) theory. The PJ theory states that the nature of interactions between police and the general public is a predictive factor in citizen cooperation and that pursuing a career in law enforcement is a distinctive form of citizen cooperation (Aiello, 2022). Further examination of the impacts of the PJ theory on recruitment may yield explanatory data that shapes police diversity.

Diversity in Policing and Recruitment Demographics

Cursory assessments of diversity in police recruitment indicate that police applicants are disproportionately white males (Aiello, 2022). This finding carries an underlying, albeit fallacious, inference that white males are the target demographic for police organizations in the United States. In reality, the lack of diversity amongst police agencies is not a function of targeted recruitment. Research indicates that the apparent lack of diversity in recruiting results from a flaccid desire to pursue a career in policing among minority and female applicants (Linos, 2018). To illustrate this dynamic, researchers in a 2019 study presented two sets of recruitment material for a fictitious police department—the Brenton PD— to 993 prospective applicants (Linos, 2018). One set of materials contained positive PJ material, and the other contained none (Linos, 2018).

The PJ-positive material contained language that highlighted a culture of neutrality and respect. Respondents indicated their likelihood to pursue a career with the Brenton PD and the degree of congruence between their values and the agency’s espoused values (Linos, 2018). The data analysis revealed that black respondents were less likely to pursue a career with the Brenton PD than white respondents, and females were less likely than males to pursue a career with the Brenton PD (Linos, 2018). Despite the consistency in ethnic and gender disparities across the control group and the test group, PJ positive recruitment material significantly affected the outcome of interest in pursuing a law enforcement career. Some of the remaining outliers that expressed an aversion to careers in policing may ascribe to deeply held beliefs regarding applicant-role mismatch.

For the purpose of this work, applicant-role mismatch refers to how well a potential applicant feels they will assimilate into their new role as a police officer. To elucidate applicant-role mismatch, one must examine two bodies of literature and how they pertain to minorities and women in policing. The first body of literature is the stereotype-threat model. The stereotype-threat model posits that individuals may avoid certain jobs if they experience anxiety over confirming a negative stereotype concerning their competence (Linos, 2018). For example, women may not feel compelled to apply for a job as a police officer if they believe their coworkers will view them as timid, emotionally tender, or lacking the physical prowess to excel in such a position. Similarly, some inner-city minorities may not feel compelled to apply for a position that requires engaging in an academically stringent police academy. While both scenarios seem ludicrous in the modern age, one must not dismiss the validity of individual perceptions during recruitment initiatives.

The second body of literature is the belonging-uncertainty model. The belonging-uncertainty model posits that groups that experience social stigmatization may assume that they will not fit into the culture of a given organization and will therefore be more sensitive to signals of inclusiveness and belonging (Linos, 2018). A wide range of underlying presumptions and perceptions influence how potential applicants view these signals of belonging. In terms of police recruiting, applicants may have experienced negative police interactions, they may know someone that served as an officer that supported their confirmation bias, or they may have formed their opinion based on media reports. In any case, police agencies can mitigate the impacts of the belonging-uncertainty by shaping how the organization presents itself (Linos, 2018). Shaping job advertisements that illustrate how critical attributes of the organization fit with an applicant’s values, identity, skills, and goals can significantly affect how a person views their level of belonging in an organization.

Research Synthesis and Proposed Solution

Overcoming the perceived differentiation between organizational values and the citizenry’s values is necessary to promote the notion that potential applicants will feel a sense of belonging in their new careers. To do so, police agencies must involve the community in their recruiting initiatives. Police administrators should develop a community relations board for hiring that relates the values most dearly held by the community and scope their hiring announcements to match their target demographic. As the community’s values shift, police administrators can determine when they must adjust their recruiting methodology to match the cultural tide of the area they patrol. Additionally, agencies must overtly voice the potential for a successful career in law enforcement regardless of gender or racial demographic to overcome the stereotype-threat model and belonging-uncertainty model.

The next step in this solution is arguably the most challenging. Police agencies must address officer compensation if communities intend to retain their best officers. Admittedly, every jurisdiction must consider the fiduciary fallout of increasing salary across the board because monetary resources are always finite. Nonetheless, the finite nature of funding does not dismiss the notion that the job is inherently dangerous and those that work in the law enforcement field often struggle to meet their financial needs. To address this, departments should institute competitive pay scales with step increases based on performance evaluations, community complaints, and the amount of time an officer spends in service. Dias (2022) discusses officer pay and states that dangerous or unpleasant jobs and jobs requiring a higher degree of skill or education earn higher wages in most other industries. For example, an entry-level truck driver at Walmart earns over $100,000 annually (Dias, 2022). This pay scale is far from the salary of a police officer in a low-salary state such as Tennessee.

A police officer in Tennessee earns approximately $52,580 per year, or $4,381.67 per month (See Appendix A). With the average home sale in the state approaching $177,600, the average mortgage at the current interest rate on a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage is approximately $1,454 per month (World Population Review, 2023) (See Appendix D). As indicated in the Forbes Advisor, shelter costs should not exceed 28% of net monthly income (Zinn & Young, 2022). At the rate of 28%, the previously cited mortgage estimation exceeds the threshold by $232 per month and potentially prevents offices from being able to live in the municipality where they work. The proposed solution requires an examination of other municipal occupations that do not have the same degree of hostility or danger as those in the first responder community and potentially adjusting the pay scales to support the restructuring effort. The final step of this solution is to address the culture in the policing profession.

The culture of the law enforcement community inadvertently pushes officers with psychological trauma into a feeling of isolation. Some of this culture is due to individual officer perceptions regarding a culture of stoicism in the face of extreme stress. Furthermore, officers feel obligated to endure these stresses silently, yet do not realize that prolonged trauma exposure can lead to on-duty injuries, an overworked workforce, and increased citizen complaints (Cain, 2020). This aspect of the proposed solution must account for these issues and implement progressive officer care programs that create an environment where officers can receive the needed support to overcome job fatigue and trauma response. Many agencies require mandatory psychological assessments for officer-involved shootings. However, none of the research for this work uncovered any such counseling for child abuse, child neglect, domestic violence, suicides, homicides, or sexual assaults. All these violent crimes take a psychological toll on the first responders that process these crime scenes. The solution involves mandatory counseling for all officers that experience sustained trauma over prolonged periods, with special counseling services for homicide detectives, child protective services, and violent crime detectives. Changing the culture is a social imperative if law enforcement agencies are to overcome the staffing shortages that plague the industry.

Conclusion

Law enforcement agencies nationwide are suffering debilitating recruiting and retention challenges due to poor compensation and sweeping cultural changes in American society that emerged over the last decade. As the research shows, low pay is not the sole driver of police staffing shortages, but it creates a barrier to entry and retention due to the relative danger of the profession. As members of an increasingly individualistic society, Americans no longer desire to enter a profession where selfless service is a hallmark of success. The profession’s culture of stoicism does little to reduce officer burnout or resignations, and the proclivity for officers to engage in conduct that damages the profession in the eyes of the public due to burnout affects recruitment across the nation. If the United States intends to staff police agencies with the number of officers needed to protect their communities adequately, significant reform is on the horizon.

References

Aiello, M. F. (2022). Procedural justice and demographic diversity: A quasi-experimental study of police recruitment. Police Quarterly, 25(3), 387–411. https://doi.org/10.1177/10986111211043473

Aubry, J.P. & Wandrei, K. (2021). An introduction to police and fire pensions. Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. https://crr.bc.edu/briefs/an-introduction-topolice-and-fire-pensions/

Cain, N. (2020). The present and future law enforcement workforce: A generational comparison of motivators for entering and remaining in the profession (Publication number 2396184008) [Doctoral dissertation, Southeastern University]. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. http://ezproxy.apus.edu/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.proquest.com%2Fdissertations-theses%2Fpresent-future-law-enforcement-workforce%2Fdocview%2F2396184008%2Fse-2%3Faccountid%3D8289

Dias, K. (2022). A letter to the American public: 3 common misconceptions about pay and rural policing. https://www.police1.com/rural-law-enforcement/articles/a-letter-to-the-american-public-3-common-misconceptions-about-pay-and-rural-policing-ijphadk3Pn8jtn64/

Haynes, M.L. (2020). It starts at home: Internal actions police agencies can take to improve staffing [Unpublished master’s thesis]. Naval Postgraduate School.  https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/AD1126924

Hofstede, G. (2021). The 6-D model of national culture. The 6 dimensions model of national culture by Geert Hofstede. https://geerthofstede.com/culture-geert-hofstede-gert-jan-hofstede/6d-model-of-national-culture/

Joint Economic Committee Republicans. (2022). State inflation tracker: November 2022. https://www.jec.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/republicans/2022/12/state-inflation-tracker-november-2022

Kem, J. D. (2016). Ethical decision making: Using the “Ethical Triangle”. CGSCFoundation.org. https://cgscfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Kem-UseoftheEthicalTriangle.pdf

Linos, E. (2018). More than public service: A field experiment on job advertisements and diversity in the police. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 67(85). https://doi.org.10.1093/jopart/mux032

Mourtgos, S.M., Adams, I.T., & Nix, J. (2021). Elevated police turnover following the summer of George Floyd protests: A synthetic control study. Criminology & Public Policy, 21(1), 1-19. https://ianadamsresearch.com/pdfs/officer-turnover-floyd.pdf

Rushin, S. & Michalski, R. (2020). Police funding. Florida Law Review, 72(2), 1-54. https://scholarship.law.ufl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1592&context=flr

Thompson, J. (2022). Awe: Helping leaders address modern policing problems. Journal of

Community Safety and Well-Being, 7(2), 53–58. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Awe%3A-Helping-leaders-address-modern-policing-Thompson/160fd95e659893f0e525be4dec292912d86871d5   

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2021). Annual mean wage of law enforcement workers. https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/occGeo/One%20occupation%20for%20multiple%20geographical%20areas

World Population Review. (2023). Median home price by state. https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/median-home-price-by-state

Zinn, D. and Young, J. (2022). What percentage of my income should go to mortgage? Forbes Advisor. https://www.forbes.com/advisor/mortgages/mortgage-to-income-ratio/

______________________________

Master Sergeant John W. Russell is a Military Police Senior Noncommissioned Officer. He has served in every leadership position, from Patrolman to First Sergeant. He recently completed the Sergeants Major Course (Resident) Class 73 at the US Army Noncommissioned Officer Leadership Center of Excellence. His civilian education includes a Bachelor of Arts in Homeland Security and a Master of Professional Studies with a concentration in Security and Safety Leadership from George Washington University.

As the Voice of the Veteran Community, The Havok Journal seeks to publish a variety of perspectives on a number of sensitive subjects. Unless specifically noted otherwise, nothing we publish is an official point of view of The Havok Journal or any part of the U.S. government.