Going to mat for recruits
Police departments use social media, offer incentives to help their numbers
After serving a five-year hitch in the Army and spending a year working as a national park ranger, 28-year-old William Bartz decided he wanted to be a police officer.
With an associate’s degree and military experience on his résumé, Bartz had options in choosing a career path in a robust economy. And he could have picked a job that brings less public scrutiny.
“I didn’t have any second thoughts,” Bartz said about deciding to become a police officer.
Bartz, who grew up in Michigan, chose the Denver Police Department because he can be a big city cop and still ski in the Colorado mountains on his days off. He is one of 52 recruits who started training last week at the department’s academy.
Police departments around the country say it is
becoming more difficult to recruit new officers because of the expanding economy and the current climate for policing.
Departments send recruiters on trips around the country. They set up booths at community festivals. They advertise their openings on social media. And they offer incentives to officers who recommend applicants who make the cut.
“What I’m hearing from police chiefs across the country is it hasn’t been this challenging in years,” said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum. “The past two years have been a difficult time for police on all sorts of levels. When you have other good opportunities and this particular climate, it’s a daunting challenge for departments.”
The Denver Police Department, however, filled one of the department’s largest recruiting classes in a decade in spite of the challenges, said Lt. John Coppedge, the academy’s deputy director of training.
In part, recruiters credit Colorado.
“We get a lot of out-ofstate applicants because of the Colorado lifestyle,” said technician Anthony Norman, a recruiter. Norman uses that incentive in his recruiting as well as talking about the department’s competitive pay and retirement system.
“It’s a difficult environment out there for recruiting,” he said. “In the past, they came to us. We can’t do that anymore.”
Denver also has the advantage of being the state’s largest department, so Colorado residents who want to be a cop often apply first to Denver because they want the pay — and excitement — that go with bigcity policing.
The city is on a hiring binge as it tries to boost the number of officers while keeping ahead of attrition. The city approved $1.8 million in its 2018 budget to bring the total number of officers to 1,525. The department currently has 1,501 sworn officers, which includes 37 new graduates who are in field training but cannot yet respond to calls alone.
“It’s going to take a couple of years to get to that point,” Coppedge said.
In January, 32 people graduated, and 37 graduated last month. Another 50-member class is planned for next spring. The department expects to lose 72 officers this year — that’s 20 more than are in the training class.
The department had a hiring spree in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and those officers are now reaching retirement age, Coppedge said.
It’s the same atmosphere for the Aurora Police Department, which recently sent its recruiting team to Dallas for the National Latino Law Enforcement Organization conference. Aurora has placed an emphasis on finding a diverse range of officers to reflect the city’s population, said Officer William Hummel, one of 30 officers who works on a recruiting team.
“That means going to the gay pride parade and festivities down there or the Puerto Rican parade or the dragon boat festival,” Hummel said. “It’s not just good community engagement, but these are the communities we want to hire from.”
Aurora has added 40 recruits in 2017. But 44 officers have resigned so far this year, Hummel said. Right now, the department has 668 commissioned officers. Its authorized strength is 696.
It’s no secret among potential recruits that policing is facing its share of challenges. After the shootings of black men by white officers around the country, the public is putting pressure on departments to use less force against suspects and demanding more accountability from officers.
“We expect more from our officers now more than ever before, especially in conflict resolution,” Wexler said. “Chiefs now are thinking of their officers more as guardians than warriors.”
Instead of searching for tall, broad-shouldered men who would be good in a fight, departments more often are looking for people who can think on their feet, he said.
“The most effective tools are not necessarily their guns and Tasers but their ability to communicate and problem solving,” Wexler said.
Because of those changes in policing, it’s important to recruit educated, accomplished people, Hummel said.
“Especially now, more than ever, we don’t want to compromise the quality of applicants we get,” Hummel said.
But the application process for officers can be intimidating and invasive. Applicants face paperwork, computerized tests, criminal background checks, psychological exams and polygraphs.
“While it’s necessary, it’s probably discouraging people, too,” Hummel said.
Still, Denver and Aurora report that they receive thousands of applications when they announce they are hiring. Out of those, about 300 people qualify, both departments said. Ultimately, just 50 are selected for the departments’ academies.
Justis Nelson, 22, and Georgia Cameron, 36, are two more of those recruits in Denver’s latest class.
Nelson, who is from Texas, graduated with a degree in sociology and has put his work toward a master’s degree
BDon hold while he trains to become a police officer. Cameron, who has lived in Colorado for 28 years, founded a no-kill animalrescue group and worked as its president for years.
Nelson said he wanted to be a police officer to help people, and his wife wanted to live in Colorado. So, he applied to be a Denver officer.
Cameron wanted a career change that would keep her involved in the Denver community.
Both recognize that some people feel hostile toward police and do not trust officers. But they both believe they can change that perception.
“I want to show people that we’re not different than them,” Nelson said.