Welcome to the Police Recruitment and Retention Clearinghouse

Welcome to the RAND Police Recruitment and Retention Clearinghouse. Part of the RAND Center on Quality Policing, the clearinghouse is a web-based resource that serves as a "one-stop-shop" for information about recruitment and retention specifically designed for the law enforcement community. Its purpose is to promote evidence-based personnel planning by making information on police staffing readily available for police decisionmakers in an easy to use, searchable form.

Featured Resources

Interview with Catherine Haggerty of the Austin Police Department

Lt. Haggerty talks to the Clearinghouse about recruiting from the community, recruitment incentives, supporting new recruits, and letting go of officers who may be better in other positions.

COPS Hiring Recovery Program (CHRP)

On July 28, 2009, the COPS Office awarded $1B in Recovery Act funding through its COPS Hiring Recovery Program (CHRP) to law enforcement agencies to create and/or preserve nearly 5,000 law enforcement positions. It has provided the final award list, CHRP applicant rankings by state, state summary sheets on requests and awards, frequently asked questions and the methods used to develop and evaluate CHRP applications.

Interview with Ron DeLord of the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas

Mr. DeLord discusses the "perfect storm" of recruitment and retention problems facing law enforcement agencies, how the recession is (and isn't) affecting law enforcement, and how the responsibilities and quality-of-life of a career in justice is affecting recruitment and retention with younger generations.

Recruiting and Retaining a Diverse, High Quality Police Force

Recruitment and retention of officers is an increasing challenge for police agencies, and many urban police agencies report particular difficulty in recruiting minority and female officers. The RAND Center on Quality Policing convened a national summit in June 2008. Speakers discussed police workforce issues, strategies, lessons that could be learned from other organizations, and in-depth analyses of police recruiting and retention in selected cities.

Conference Proceedings Read the Briefings at www.cops.usdoj.gov

Helping the Los Angeles Police Department Recruit Efficiently

To help the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) achieve its recruiting and diversity goals, RAND researchers offered ways to improve productivity and efficiency in the recruiting process. They identified potential untapped recruiting markets, provided a model of viable candidates to target recruitment and prioritize applicants while still reaching diversity hiring goals, and recommended ways to improve background-investigation processes.

Full Document

Office of Community Oriented Policing Services—Hiring and Retention Resources

The Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) website promotes community policing nationwide. COPS provides many resources, including funding, knowledge resource products, and training. This COPS resource is a listing of hiring and retention resources available on the web.

Interview with Captain Josh Ederheimer of the Metropolitan Police Department of Washington, D.C.

Captain Ederheimer talks about his department's aggressive hiring, reaching out to technologically savvy recruits, and forming a tighter working relationship between policing researchers and practitioners.

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