Police Recruitment and Selection: Resources and Lessons for Workforce Building

By Jeremy M. Wilson, Clifford A. Grammich

Police officer recruitment and selection are challenging, yet vitally important contributors to police accountability and establishing a trusted relationship with the community. To help police leaders make informed decisions, researchers at Michigan State University reviewed existing literature and compiled this guide to current resources on law enforcement staffing. The guide presents summaries of publications describing innovative strategies and rigorously tested recruitment and selection tactics in a format that is concise and accessible. All information is cross tabulated on an easy-to-read table that allows readers to easily identify resources (and the specific page numbers within the resource) that address fourteen relevant themes such as mentorship, outreach to schools, and focus on various underrepresented groups. This work supports a comprehensive commitment by the U.S. Department of Justice to provide resources for the field to help police leaders meet the challenges of recruitment and staffing, as indicated by the 2023 publication of Recruitment and Retention for the Modern Law Enforcement Agency

Washington, DC: Office of Community Oriented Policing Services., 2023. 32p.