This work reviews 49 tactics that police agencies may use to select personnel. More specifically, it reports on assessments that 30 practitioners gave to these tactics on dimensions of staffing levels, workload management, speed of impact, ease of implementation, cost of implementation, quality of police work, and effects on community policing.
It finds the effectiveness of selection tactics will depend on agency-specific needs, constraints, and priorities. Agencies will need to consider tradeoffs in choosing particular tactics. For example, the review finds that streamlining hiring processes can boost staffing levels but may pose implementation challenges. Hiring ahead of vacancies can improve workload management but may require at least a temporary redeployment of resources from elsewhere. Easing residency requirements may offer more candidates for selection but adversely affect community policing.
The authors advise agencies choosing among selection tactics to consider those most tailored to their circumstances, not just those that appear easy or that have been done historically or elsewhere. Police agencies should understand there is no single best tactic but there are alternatives for addressing their most pressing need. Finally, police agencies should consider relevant combinations of dimensions. For a faster and inexpensive solution, for example, it should consider tactic speed and costs. This work can guide agencies in identifying and balancing tradeoffs among the tactics most applicable to their situation.
