Harald Schweizer, California State University, Fresno

When discussing the suitability of persons to perform in a particular position, there logically needs to be a nexus between the demands and nature of the position and the qualifications sought in applicants. Applying this logic to police positions, the first task is to determine what police work is and what it is not. The results of this assessment should determine the personality, background, physical, and educational characteristics necessary for persons who are recruited and employed as police officers. Recruiting and employment information should then be disseminated in a manner that is likely to reach the greatest possible number of potentially qualified applicants

Examining the nature of policing, we find that it is often portrayed as primarily revolving around crime fighting, especially by the media, which has glamorized that role through movies, television shows, and news reports. Ironically, even though less than 20 percent of police work is crime related, many police officers see themselves as crime fighters (Community Relations Service, 1989). This image has been embraced and publicized by police for the last fifty years (Stojkovic, Klofas & Kalinich, 1999).

Part of this image is the belief that physical stamina and strength are essential to the position of police officer. In actuality, however, the core of police duties requires not so much physical stamina and strength, but the use of people skills and the ability to effectively deal with emotions (Bouza, 1990). Nevertheless, the recruiting process places a heavy emphasis on physical skills that are rarely needed, and are generally only tested during the selection process (Sullivan, 1989). Officers who are already employed with police agencies would most likely have difficulties if they were required to retake the physical agility tests given to new applicants (Bouza). Cox and Fitzgerald (1996), state that recruiters have a tendency to overlook persons who recognize that policing is about human relations, while seeking out those who fit the stereotypical role of a crime fighter. This stereotypical role of police is re-enforced through television and movies, and Bouza believes that those officers who unjustifiablz beat people are imitating the tough cops from their favorite movie or television programs. Once applicants fitting the crime fighter role are employed, they are shocked to find out that their role primarily involves the use of people skills not emphasized during the hiring process. This difference between expectations and reality may result in persons entering law enforcement for the wrong reasons (Bouza).

There is no debate on the need for emotional stability, and psychological screening is a necessary part of the process of becoming a police officer. What is debatable, however, is the degree of accuracy in identifying those who are psychologically unsuitable for police work. Psychological tests appear to be best at identifying only the more extreme cases (Fyfe, Greene, Walsh, Wilson, & McLaren, 1997). Educationally, the debate on the need to hire college educated police officers is still raging on. While some data suggests college educated officers have a lower incidence of brutality complaints, other data shows that they are not as likely to stay in policing as long as those without a college education (Bromley & Palmiotto, 1999). Definitional problems also exist. Bromley raises the question of what a "four year degree" really means and the problem of qualitative differences in degree programs (1999).

Arguments against the degree requirement appear to be more an indictment against the American educational system, than an outright rejection of a higher education requirement for police officers, even though this is not mentioned. What is also not highlighted is the reality that nearly all top police managers have to start as entry level police officers. Because of this, additional higher education requirements are not the norm for higher ranks. Consequently, on an international basis, American policing makes a poor showing when compared with the educational requirements for lieutenants or the equivalent rank in countries such as Chile, Ecuador, Argentina, Germany, Italy, France, Hong Kong and Singapore (Schweizer, 1995).

The minimum standard adhered to by all police agencies in the United States excludes convicted felons from serving as police officers. A new category, persons convicted of crimes involving domestic violence, has been added by virtue of federal legislation which prohibits the ownership and carrying of a firearm by persons convicted of such crimes. Since police officers are required to carry firearms, this legislation effectively prevents persons in the mentioned category from applying for sworn police employment. Additional background disqualifiers focus on the area of drug and alcohol use, and various misdemeanors including driving while intoxicated, but the threshold in acceptable use and types and number of misdemeanor violations varies greatly among individual agencies.

Discussions about the recruitment process for police officers typically focus on the importance of the process, the critical nature of what police do, and on various methods which can be utilized to reach persons who have an interest in becoming a police officer (Fyfe, et al, 1997)). The process as it is usually described is well structured and organized, and ostensibly appears to be effective in accomplishing what it is set out to do. It must be noted, however, that recruitment is different from selection. Recruitment serves to draw interested applicants who meet the minimum criteria for participation in the selection process. The selection process then identifies those who are unfit for the position, and the remaining candidates are classified as qualified for actual appointment (Wilson & McLaren, 1972). The selection process serves the dual purpose of recruiting those who are likely to be suitable for police officer positions, a task that is difficult at best, and screening out those persons who are clearly not suited for police work. The 1967 President's Commission of Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice concluded that the screening process is an effective method of preventing (future) misconduct, but this statement is too broad, since no screening process is likely to be absolute in its ability to prevent future misconduct.

Evidence has shown that some good applicants without a history of emotional and behavioral problems later become abusive, and it is their experiences as a police officer that most likely has negatively impacted their conduct (Bouza, 1990). The recruitment and selection process is nevertheless an important focus. It is vital that the right people are employed as police officers, and police managers recognize that a good screening process can have a beneficial impact on future police violence (Community Relations Service, 1989). Recruiting and selecting the right person is the most important step towards having a department free of brutality and corruption (Tyre, 1999).

The type of persons needed most in policing are those who like to help other people (Bouza, 1990). The core of policing is not crime fighting but the use of people skills and effectively dealing with emotions (Martin, 1989). This realization must be addressed in the recruiting and selection process. Target populations must be identified and the recruiting pitch must be customized to ensure that the target population is likely to see the information, and also finds the message appealing. The descriptive information concerning the position of police officer must make the occupation appealing to those who are well qualified but would not normally consider such employment. The recruiting process can benefit from the knowledge and insights obtained through some type of market research. Changing the content of the recruiting information, the manner in which it is disseminated and where, may be long overdue. There may also be some tangible benefits to reaching those who should enter policing but have not considered it, instead of only those who would most likely be interested in such employment.

Attracting greater numbers of qualified applicants in specific target groups who were not initially attracted to policing, could result in a decrease in the often large percentage of applicants that is rejected during the selection process. This would have a positive impact on expenditures for screening activities, such as background investigations, polygraph and psychological exams. The rejection rate can be substantial. Personal involvement in the testing/screening process of applicants for the Edmond, Oklahoma municipal police department serving a population of about 88,000 showed that, on average, it is not unusual for less than ten percent of the applicants to pass the entire screening process. It should be noted that the Edmond police department does not have the type of extensive background investigation that is conducted by large municipalities, such as Dallas, Houston, and Los Angeles. A more stringent screening process is likely to result in a larger rejection rate, all other factors remaining equal. In 1965 the Los Angeles Police Department accepted only 3% of the applicants, and in 1991 forty percent of applicants were rejected solely based on psychological screening and background investigation results (Independent Commission, 1991). Media glorification of policing has likely contributed to this problem, and is responsible for the high number of applicants currently experienced by police agencies (Thibault, Lynch, McBride, 1998). Perhaps the visible accoutrements of power that are part of uniformed policing may be particularly attractive to some applicants.

Considering conduct problems among police and the need to bring about lasting change, Gido states that agencies simply must become more effective in recruiting a different type of applicant than they are doing now (1996). It is clear that even when persons who have passed agency muster are hired, they are not what agencies ideally wanted. In spite of the stringent screening process, many others who are recruited and ultimately hired by a number of agencies, display questionable behavioral traits (Delattre, 1996). It should be noted that Delattre failed to point out the implications of this, but he did indicate that the problems of New York City, Miami, and Philadelphia (corruption and brutality) could be avoided by having a better screening process (1996).

Patrol Officers with questionable behavioral traits later become eligible for supervisory and management level positions. Time in service, i.e. experience in the field, is the most important qualifier for promotion, and it is difficult to believe that patrol officers with questionable character traits who are later promoted, would subsequently correct or discipline lower ranking officers for those same shortcomings. The inflexible time in service requirement, and generally no differences in formal education requirements between patrol officer and command ranks, causes higher ranking officers to overly identify with patrol officers. The response to behavioral problems among police officers is therefore likely to be dictated by the police subculture, instead of official department policy (Schweizer, 1995).

Delattre indicated that the origin of problematic characteristics, particularly being undisciplined, having poor reading skills, an unwillingness to work rotating shifts, and a primary focus on income instead of the more noble goals of helping others, is considered generational in nature (1996). This raises the question of whether these problems of a generation are disproportionately distributed among those who find police work attractive, and the source of their perceptions about police work. Perhaps students of social work or psychology would not display such characteristics. An additional focus of future study should be the reason for a disproportionately large number of ultimately unqualified persons seeking entry into policing.

Large rejection rates are explained by police officials as the result of stringent and tough hiring standards, but in reality could be the result of recruiting the wrong people (Community Relations Service, 1989). Some agencies, such as the New York City Police Department, are also geographically limited in their recruitment by the rigid residency requirement for employment. The Mollen Commission investigating corruption in the NYC police department recommended another look at these requirements, in an effort to reduce corruption and brutality among New York City police officers. The implication of this recommendation is that a greater number of qualified persons could be found by looking outside of the New York City area ("Interim Report and Principle Recommendations," 1993). Enlarging the pool of possible qualified applicants by removing the residency requirement may also make it easier to attract greater numbers of qualified minority applicants. Having a minority ratio of officers that is similar to that of the community, is an important consideration according to a federal report on policing (Community Relations Service, 1989).

The Christopher Commission downplayed the effectiveness of psychological screening in identifying violence prone applicants, and suggested more elaborate background investigations as a solution to this problem (Independent Commission, 1991). The implication is that persons with a penchant for brutality cannot be readily identified through typical testing mechanisms. The adequacy of police recruitment policies may become a focus of a national commission to study the problem of police brutality, if legislation to that end being drafted by U.S. Rep. Jose Serrano (D-N.Y.) is adopted. The legislation is in response to recent incidents across the United States, highlighting acts of brutality against minorities by police (Colon, 1999).

Since police agencies do not share information about everything they do with the public, it is probable that perceptions about their activities and the nature of their work are, for the most part, the result of information from non-official or less knowledgeable sources, fueled by a person's imagination. The degree to which every person's perception about police is influenced by the media and other external factors, is unknown.

The formal part of the police recruiting process generally begins with efforts to reach (hopefully) a large pool of potential applicants using one or more of the following approaches:

• Web sites
• Classified ads
• Television and Radio
• Recruiting booths/officers at various functions such as high school and college
  career days, and at locations most likely frequented by persons meeting the
  minimum age/education criteria necessary for police officer positions.

The Internet and its web sites, is the latest innovation of the information age, and nearly every large police agency is represented on the World Wide Web (WWW). The WWW represents a very versatile tool not only for image making, i.e. public relations, and for educating the public about the activities of a particular law enforcement agency, but also for attracting eligible persons to police employment. The advantage of the WWW is the ability to advertise and recruit much more cost effectively and to reach a greater number of potential applicants. The ability to conveniently publicize information about your agency, including its organizational mission, history, minimum requirements for employment, and expectations of employees/officers, can be used as a mechanism to both attract qualified/desired applicants and to dissuade others from the application process.

General misperceptions about police work and agency requirements can be dispelled, when a wealth of related information is readily available. In today's image oriented society, pictures are more likely to attract immediate interest before the written word and, consequently, should be carefully chosen, if the intent is to attract suitable applicants.

The question of who will apply based on an agency's Internet presence, is partly determined by the type of persons who will find the web based information and pictures from a particular agency appealing. The likelihood of that access, however, is in turn dependent on a person being sufficiently interested in policing to access this information on the Web. Police agencies have direct control of the content of their web site, but are less able to ensure that the best and brightest are interested in exploring police employment in the first place.

The initial homepage can turn the Internet surfer on or off, depending on the nature of that homepage. Catchy phrases and slogans can be designed to arouse the curiosity of those you want and to dissuade those you do not want to attract as an applicant. At the moment there does not appear to be any empirical research into the actual impact of various types of particular slogans or logos on a person's desire to apply for a police position. It is questionable, however, whether the bright, page-wide logo of the Blain County Sheriff's Office in Oklahoma would make police work appealing to the kind, considerate, compassionate, outgoing and non-power oriented person we would like to see in policing. The Blain County web site sports the slogan, "In God we Trust, all others we run NCIC" (2000). It should be noted that the mentioned slogan replaced an earlier logo on the same website that read: "In God we Trust, all others we book."

The Farmington, New Mexico police department's web site contains two photos. One of a motorcycle officer wearing dark sunglasses, and a helmeted SWAT officer with his laser guided shotgun in a shooting position, wearing a black military type combat uniform, heavy duty protective vest, a low slung pistol, face goggles, and carrying a gas mask (2000). Such photos do not reflect the central nature of what police work is about, and are likely to send the wrong message about what it takes to be a successful police officer. This reinforces the paradox of screening new applicants for a crime fighting role with an emphasis on aggressiveness and physical prowess, while the actual duties require the skills of a peace maker (Cox & Fitzgerald, 1996).

The rationale for rejecting applicants is not uniform across different law enforcement agencies, and may even defy logic. A former student of the author who has currently been a police officer with a Kansas municipality for more than two years, indicated that before his present employment, he was rejected by the Dallas Police Department on the basis of the selection process. He was informed that he was not aggressive enough. A second former student has currently been with the Oklahoma City Police Department for more than eight years, and he indicated that just before his employment in Oklahoma, he had also applied for the Dallas police department. He was rejected by Dallas for not being sufficiently aggressive.

The Boulder Police Department in Colorado is an example of one agency that takes a very concerted step to attract persons with people skills by requiring life or work experiences and skills involving at least two of the following:

• Demonstrated community involvement and experience working with youth,
  the disabled community, the elderly, or with drug/alcohol intervention issues.
• Interviewing, public speaking, and conflict resolution skills.
• Demonstrated ability to solve problems using creative methods to resolve issues.
• Positive multi-cultural work and life experiences. (Boulder Police Department web site, 2000)

An interesting foreign example, is the Basel, Switzerland Police Department. It recruits applicants who enjoy to interact with other people, and makes this a specific requirement listed in the recruitment brochure "Polizeibeamter…ein sicherer Beruf für die Sicherheit," (Stadtpolizei Basel, n.d.).

In addition to being a recruiting tool, the World Wide Web (WWW) can also be a passive or indirect screening mechanism. The Portland, Oregon Police Bureau posts its police officer requirements on the WWW, and states that it will only accept applications via the Internet ("Community Police Officers," 2000). This may indirectly test an applicant's resourcefulness and familiarity with the WWW, but it is unknown whether that was the intent of the requirement. It could be that this manner of submitting an application consumes fewer physical and manpower resources than the typical submission and storage of paper based applications.

The Portland Police Bureau classifies all police officers as "community policing officers," and the degree to which that the term may sound less glamorous and downplay the crime fighter designation, it may subtly dissuade some power oriented persons from applying. Images displayed on police agency web sites can be a form of advertisement, and depending on the nature of those images, they may attract or discourage applicants based on their own predilections.

Recruitment via the Web, while having some substantial advantages, may be less likely to attract minority applicants, simply based on differences in Internet access. According to a Department of Commerce Report, 27 percent of white and 9 percent of black and Hispanic households had access to the Internet in 1998. While these percentages increase with greater income and/or formal education, the disparity between minorities and non-minorities remains ("1999 Digital Divide Widens," 2000). The Department of Commerce data is contrasted by a survey conducted by Forrester Research Inc., involving 96,000 American households. Based on the 1998 data, Forrester Research projects that about 40 percent of Black households would have Internet access by the year 1999 (Minorities Online, 2000).

While advertisement in newspapers is more limited in scope than the Internet, and reaches fewer persons at a greater cost to the agency, it does address one important advantage. The Internet user is only likely to find recruiting information if the user is already interested in the possibility of police employment and therefore seeks out information concerning such employment. This differs from a full page newspaper or magazine advertisement, which a reader simply comes upon, and if the information that immediately meets the eye is sufficiently appealing, the reader may continue reading the advertisement and consequently develop an interest in the position. The advertisement should stimulate the reader at first glance, but not make the position appealing to those seeking power by focusing on the coercive aspects of policing. Since the use of force and coercive authority should be a last resort response by police, when all other options fail, those tasks and symbols representing those tasks, should not be what first comes to mind when viewing a recruiting announcement. Personal communication skills, creativity, the ability to solve problems and deal with critical challenges, along with compassion for a diverse group of people are a more proper focus of a recruiting announcement. Such an advertisement should ideally be placed in a magazine or newspaper where most persons already interested in a career in policing would not look, but which is read by a target population most likely to seek out or be interested in positions requiring the enumerated people skills.

The effectiveness of a recruitment drive for police applicants is determined by both the medium and methods used to reach potential/needed applicants, and by the nature and quality of the message reaching those applicants. Recognizing the tangible benefits seen in hiring more females as police officers, for example, a recruiting campaign should ensure that the hiring information is distributed in a manner designed to reach the largest number of eligible women. Women are still underrepresented in policing, and only in the last decade were able to obtain the type of street assignments typical for male officers. Empirical studies have furthermore shown that female officers are as effective as their male counterpart (Martin,1989). In spite of this, the typical police recruit is male, young, and athletic, and is likely to lift weights (Skolnick &Fyfe, (1993). One logical method of reaching potential female and other minority applicants, is the placement of advertisement in periodicals or magazines with a large readership of females and minorities.

Magazine advertisement

The London Metropolitan Police and the West Midlands Police (UK) are two law enforcement agencies following the above logic. The section labeled "Recruiting" in the October 1998 issue of the British Cosmopolitan magazine, a publication directed at women, contained a full page advertisement from the Metropolitan Police (London) for police officers. The advertisement showed one white female, one black male, and one white male, from the chest up. They were all dressed in a formal police uniform which included a tie (the female wore a scarf), and which looked more like a business suit than a uniform. All three officers sported a smile. The caption read:

"They didn't want to be diplomats, lawyers or psychologists. They wanted to be all three."

The photos in the advertisement did not depict overt symbols of authority and power, such as firearms, police in combat gear, or marked police vehicles with activated emergency lights. The information below the full page photo made no mention of physical stamina, danger, or even crime. The advertisement appears to be very carefully worded to attract the kind of applicant who is interested in helping people, and not focused on exercising power. The position openings listed on the reverse side of the recruitment page with the police advertisement were for airline flight attendants and resort representatives. Positions on both sides of the page involved positions requiring individuals with a people orientation.

The June 2000 issue of the British edition of Cosmopolitan contained a half page advertisement for the West Midland Police. The advertisement features a large photo depicting the face and head of a black female teenager with the caption: "Dad believes we should all fight for just causes." "He's a Police Officer." The narrative of the advertisement describes the duties of a police officer as one of tackling injustice and prejudice, and never mentions crime. The other half of the page contains an advertisement for GAP store managers.

To obtain some feedback on the earlier Metropolitan Police advertisement from a group of criminal justice students who were seeking primarily police employment, the advertisement was shown to a police community relations class at the University of Central Oklahoma in Fall of 1998. About half of the class consisted of females. When suggesting that police could place an advertisement in Cosmopolitan magazine to attract more females, the response from males in the class was a collective snicker, and when shown the actual advertisement, they reacted with disbelief.

Students could not articulate the reason for their feelings. Is it that the content is perceived to be read by females who are concerned with looking attractive, wearing nice clothes, and having successful relationships? While having "femininity" already represented in policing, is this reality something that should be downplayed, and certainly not catered to? Or is the image of women who read the magazine one of passivity and physical weakness? If this is the issue, perhaps a women oriented publication read by females focusing on physical strength and fitness, i.e. traits more associated with males, would be a better prospect.

A content review of three year 2000 fitness oriented women's magazines (Oxygen, Shape, and Fit) showed not one police related employment notice. A content review of Men's Health with a similar publication date, however, led to a half page advertisement for the U.S. Border Patrol, entitled "Federal Law Enforcement that's outside the ordinary" (2000). It must be noted that this advertisement is two pages after a full page article entitled "The Naked Power of a Nude Woman" (p.108), and five pages away from a half page drawing of an electric chair with the caption "Wipe out First Degree Murderers with a Fourth Degree Burn" (p.105). Is the nature of the articles and the placement of the Border Patrol advertisement more likely to attract the stereo-typical macho male, or could it be an attempt to achieve diversity in recruiting? Men's Health magazine is read by large numbers of gay males according to an article by a gay San Francisco Bay area journalist (Haines, 1998). Ben Stump, its editor, mentioned that the magazine has a "ton of female readers" ("Chat transcript: Men's health," 1999). If this is true, perhaps the employment pitch in the Border Patrol advertisement is accurate when it describes the agency as being "out of the ordinary" (p.110).

A content review of Ebony, a publication directed primarily at the black population in the United States, and with a similar issue date as the Men's Health magazine, did not disclose any advertisement for police positions. This is at a time when black minorities are sorely needed within the Immigration and Naturalization Service ranks. The author then reviewed "Latina," a publication directed at Hispanic females, and other women's magazines, such as the American Cosmopolitan, Mademoiselle, Vogue, Jane, Elle, New Woman, Harper's Bazaar, Woman's Journal, and McCall's for the first two months of the new Millennium. None contained any advertisement for law enforcement positions or the U.S. Border Patrol.

Advertisement in a nation-wide publication is likely to be very costly, which then has direct implications on its use, considering that the costs associated with the hiring of each new officer is an important focus of management (Thibault, Lynch & McBride).

A one page four color advertisement in Ebony magazine alone costs $44,009 ("Top Titles in the USA," 2000). Consequently, this medium may be more appropriate for federal agencies or large state and local police departments with a continuous hiring need. The cost issue is also confounded by the fragmentation of law enforcement agencies. Since there is no one entity that is responsible for and funds all law enforcement agencies in the United States, each individual agency must bear the cost of advertising police openings, and advertisement therefore has to be agency and jurisdiction specific. A police department does not advertise for persons to become police officers anywhere, but to be a Police Officer with that agency. This results in "necessary" duplication and competition for applicants between agencies.

Recruiting posters, another method of reaching potential applicants, are used infrequently. Existing posters examined by the author, however, show that they may well have a positive or negative influence on a potential applicant, depending on its design and image. In 1997, the author displayed police recruiting posters from Dallas, TX, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Berlin, Germany, and the National Police of Finland, in a police community relations class at the University of Central Oklahoma, and asked students to comment which of the posters they liked, and which they did not like. The class consisted of about 34 students, of nearly half were females. All of the male students preferred the Houston and Tulsa police recruiting posters, while all but two females preferred the posters from Berlin and Finland.

What is the nature of these recruiting posters that could have elicited such a different response? The Berlin poster depicted a large smiling elephant wearing a police hat and gently holding a small mouse with his trunk. The caption stated "Jeder fängt klein an" (Everyone starts small). The poster for the National Police of Finland depicted three hand drawn smiling caricatures of police officers holding hands, with the logo suggesting that police is a good occupation ("Poliisi-varmuuden vuoski"). The Tulsa and Houston posters did not depict smiling police officers, but marked police vehicles with activated emergency lights. The Houston poster also showed an oversized photo of a badge in the its center with the caption "The Badge of Dreams."

It must be mentioned that, when surveyed, female criminal justice students overwhelmingly desired to enter what they perceived to be a more helping oriented profession after their graduation, and did not desire to enter policing. Most of the occupational fields they indicated were those of counseling juveniles, juvenile and adult probation/parole, victim assistance, and similar areas of work. Male students predominantly desired to enter law enforcement, and held a recurrent but unrealistic expectation of entering policing as a homicide detective and/or drug enforcement agent, after graduation. Such expectations were not fueled by academic instruction at the university level, or through the recruiting pitches of law enforcement agencies. The source of these misconceptions can likely be found in movies and television shows, focusing more on the glamorous and exciting, combined with a vivid imagination and the naiveté of a person in their late teens or early twenties.

Police recruiting videos are another method of reaching potential applicants, but it is important for the content to be realistic and not solely focused on the glamorous and exciting parts of police work. Two vides at opposite ends of the spectrum are a four minute recruiting video of the Fort Worth Police Department (1996), and the 1991 recruiting video "Guten Tag,…>>was wirklich dahinter steckt!<<" of the Baden-Württemberg Police in Germany. The Ft. Worth video primarily focuses on crime fighting activities. One scene is of a team of officers, dressed in battle dress uniforms with helmets and a battering ram, forcing their way into a house. The sound track consists of rap music, and the video ends with police on motorcycles wearing dark sunglasses. Less than 20 seconds of the video show an officer in a helping role.

The German police recruiting video is just over 15 minutes in length. It describes in detail academy training such as typing, learning computer skills, practicing on a communications console, swimming, self-defense, and learning technical aspects of vehicle operation, etc. The remainder, nearly half of the video, is almost exclusively focused on helping people in accidents, walking in a shopping area with a smile, the use of boats, horses, dogs, helicopters, and the investigation of offenses against the environment. Watching both videos, the message from Ft. Worth is quite different from the message conveyed by the Berlin Police video.

Even when police agencies have very rigorous selection and screening processes, serious problems still occur with those recruited and hired. Part of the problem is the divergence between what the typical applicant seeks in police work and what police work is actually about. Police agencies are partly at fault by utilizing a recruiting process that emphasizes the part of police work that is most glamorous, but least engaged in. Various commissions and others who have studied problems with police, see the cause in the flawed recruiting and hiring process, in spite of large numbers of applicants being rejected for police employment. When a large number of applicants is ultimately rejected, this may indicate rigorous screening but also poor recruiting, since the wrong people are applying. This in turn may reflect that police agencies are looking for the right applicants in all the wrong places, and a squandering of resources.

Compounding the problem is the current glut of applicants for police positions, which makes it easy to become complacent about the ability to find suitable applicants to fill existing openings. The current labor pool for police officer positions is brimming with applicants, but this is not expected to be the case for the twenty first century (Gido, 1996). A refinement of current recruiting practices could help overcome some of the expected difficulties in making police work attractive in a competitive labor market with a shrinking pool of suitable applicants and a private sector that offers better pay and benefits. Such refinements are also necessary to attract a better applicant at a lower cost.

Police agencies have difficulties attracting qualified minorites, including women. Sullivan writes that one explanation for problems in attracting racial minorities has been the poor image of police in minority communties, and women have had great diffulties due to existing physical agility tests for police applicants (1989). More creativity in the recruiting process, particularly the use of the Internet, a more efficient utilization of the print media, and a change in hiring standards that are of no or little relevance to police work could help improve the situation.

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