It’s time to reinvent police recruitment

The call for strict accountability of police and the recruitment of officers are undeniably related. Some public safety experts across the nation attribute recent recruitment challenges, in part, to new mandates. But the essence of recruiting and accountability is the same: to ensure the best and brightest are protecting our communities.

Connecticut’s 2020 Police Accountability Act is routinely cited as one of the reasons fewer applications are being submitted two years later. Of course, something else has happened in those two years, a pandemic that strained virtually every profession.

Police work isn’t like other jobs. You might wait a little longer when your favorite restaurant is shortstaffed, but similar delays in police response in an emergency can have dire consequences.

“Recruiting new officers is very difficult these days,” observed Danbury Police Chief Patrick Ridenhour, who is president of the Connecticut Police Chiefs Associations, “probably the most difficult I’ve seen in my 33-plus year career.”

The 2020 Act remains polarizing. It means officers are required to intervene and report excessive use of force by colleagues, requires probable cause to search vehicles during traffic stops and means incidents involving fatal force by police face an independent review. It also makes it easier for officers to be fired, and no longer allows officers who have been decertified from working as security guards.

If such standards scare off some potential candidates, perhaps that’s for the better.

The pandemic changed the rules of the workplace. A taste of working from home has proven attractive to many employers and employees, leading to career changes in some cases. Quality of life issues such as flexible work schedules have moved up on the checklist for job-seekers.

But when it comes to a police career, the hours will never be great, and the work can’t be done from the home office.

It also remains among the most important work done in every town. Recruiting officers should never be easy.

Major cities across the United States are pivoting on requirements. After Chicago announced a few weeks ago that it would waive a college credit requirement under some conditions, there was a spike in applications. It recognizes the value of experiences in several fields, notably in the military.

Philadelphia and New Orleans dropped a similar college mandate six years ago, and New York City Mayor Eric Adams is reportedly planning to follow Chicago’s model.

Additionally, there are overdue discussions about dropping other standards, including rejection due to a record of minor drug offenses.

The result could draw some older candidates with valuable life experience, some of whom just couldn’t afford college. It should also lead to nuanced discussions about offering more secondary education opportunities to officers.

Some Connecticut departments have been progressive in trying to attract recruits that mirror their communities. Eight years ago, we wrote about Stamford initiatives to make pitches at churches and collaborate with the NAACP.

Recruiting standards need to be reinvented in

2022. If done right, police departments can be even more reflective of the communities they serve.

But it also remains among the most important work done in every town. Recruiting officers should never be easy.