Learn about modern police recruiting strategies your agency can use to attract qualified police candidates of the next generation.
Article Highlights
- What are the biggest police hiring challenges?
- Why is recruiting police officers harder today?
- What do next-gen police officer candidates want?
- Rebranding your agency for better next-gen recruitment
- Streamline the hiring process and make every hire count
Imagine: You hire a top-class recruit who’s inspired to serve and protect with excellence. They stay with your agency for 30 years, steadily climbing the ranks until retirement. In decades past, this wasn’t an uncommon reality. Today, it’s closer to fantasy. But it doesn’t have to be…
Most law enforcement agencies today are understaffed. A 2025 PERF survey showed that agencies are at least 5% below 2020 staffing levels. More officers are leaving than joining – often within the first five years – and this can quickly exacerbate other police hiring challenges.
Resignations aren’t exclusive to entry level jobs. It’s happening with specialized roles too, forcing agencies to promote prematurely. Combined, these factors strain and slow operations, forcing current employees to work longer hours to compensate for the workforce deficit.
Although hiring has partially rebounded since 2020, many agencies are now struggling to attract qualified police candidates. Many officers are switching industries altogether, leaving behind a dwindling (and overfished) talent pool. Those left behind are often scooped up by agencies offering more competitive pay and benefits.
All of these factors only make recruiting law enforcement officers more difficult in the modern landscape. That’s why it’s important for public safety agencies to understand why law enforcement candidates are scarce and how innovative, modern police recruitment ideas can help you turn the tide.
Why is Recruiting Police Officers Harder Today?
More and more public safety agencies are asking why candidate pools are shrinking, but the answer is complicated. Recruiting police officers has gotten harder for many reasons, but the simplest reason is because a change has occurred in the industry.
Half this change is a response to law enforcement challenges: heightened public scrutiny, burnout, mental unwellness, etc. The other half is due to a cultural and generational change. Increasingly, candidates value a healthy work-life balance – especially the younger Gen Z workforce.
That means what used to work for law enforcement is no longer enough. Next-gen candidates value different things than their predecessors, and your agency must adapt.
Next-gen candidates value different things than their predecessors, and your agency must adapt. |
What Do Next-Gen Police Officer Candidates Want?
You can’t keep trying the same things and expect different results. To reach the next generation of law enforcement, you have to understand what they want.
Next-gen candidates, including many millennials, expect flexibility and a real commitment to well-being – backed by wellness programs and professional development opportunities. In a profession marked by burnout and stress, mental health support and work-life balance matter.
Work-life balance now means honoring time off and providing it generously. Overtime used to be voluntary – many officers even requested it.
But today, many agencies have to enforce mandatory overtime to meet minimum staffing requirements. These extra-duty assignments are increasingly hard to fill because people protect their off-hours for family, fun, and rest.
While it’s not always easy to implement, offering some level of shift control helps, too. Your department never shuts down, but you can give officers predictability to help them establish a balance that works for them. Offering visibility into schedules, fair holiday rotations, shift bids, and even smaller measures such as providing advance notice and shift trading, signal respect.
All of this tells candidates they’re valued. The harder problem is perception. Many don’t see public safety as aligning with their expectations – and in many cases, they’re right.
Changing that belief requires more than tactics; it requires an agency rebrand. Branding – tied to new policies, scheduling tools, wellness programs, etc. – is the most effective way to influence perception and change the narrative.
| Branding is the most effective way to influence perception and change the narrative. |
Rebranding Your Agency for Better Next-Gen Recruitment
Many primarily view branding as a bridge to the community, but it impacts hiring and retention as well. Simply put, your brand is how customers perceive you, and you can influence that opinion. Citizens are one type of customer public safety agencies serve; qualified candidates are another.
In business, as in life, identity and values drive behavior. The way your department treats applicants and employees flows from those two things. What are your brand values? What differentiates your agency from others?
Every decision – updating policies, investing in software, recruiting tactics, etc. – should cascade from a reinspired brand identity. Make your brand values cultural, not a quick fix to fill a vacancy. When the values you present are built into your culture, you attract like-minded candidates who are more likely to stay with you long-term.
Once you’ve workshopped your brand identity and values with key stakeholders, it’s time to implement law enforcement recruitment ideas that put your rebrand front and center. You can start by implementing these practical rebranding strategies:
- Offer incentives to all officers, not just new hires: generous vacation, paid holidays, sick leave, personal days, parental leave, competitive pay for prior service, inflation-based raises, bilingual stipends, and shift/weekend differentials. Consider updating your internal policies to allow tattoos and relax residency rules.
- Use innovative GovTech to help your officers accomplish more with less, while also mitigating burnout and stress. With chronic understaffing, operational efficiency is more important than ever. Use modern software and AI solutions to process non-emergency calls, expedite background investigations, streamline action reporting, and deliver police reports for insurance claims.
- Develop a formal recruitment plan. Make it easy for candidates to apply on their phones, offer convenient testing cycles, and keep applicants informed at every step (ghosting candidates will only hurt your brand).
Although these recruitment tactics and police retention strategies are effective, simply implementing them isn’t enough. You need frequent, clear, and consistent communication to share your brand with the public. Whether on job boards, social media, webpages, press releases, or public forums, make sure your branded content reaches the community you serve.
Streamline the Hiring Process and Make Every Hire Count
Today, about 65% of public safety agencies are understaffed and struggling to attract qualified police candidates. But by implementing these brand strategies, you’ll positively influence candidate perception, gain an advantage with next-gen recruits, and improve your chances of retaining officers from hire to retirement.
It’s important to remember that every hire is a reflection of the profession and an ambassador of your new brand. Modern police recruiting strategies should give you greater confidence in your younger workforce and streamline the hiring process without creating risk to your agency or community.
Never lose trust in your process and always ensure your hiring decisions are legally-defensible with background investigation software like Vetted by PowerDMS. With Vetted, you can speed up the vetting process, decrease time-to-hire in public safety, and hire qualified candidates with confidence.
