Police Staffing

Police agencies face two related crises: police-community relations and staffing. While previous research has focused on how agencies may implement community-oriented policing through officers to improve police-community relations, it has not discussed how staffing tactics may help community-oriented policing. This research reviews both how staffing tactics can signal community-oriented policing to the community and how practitioners perceive the impact of these tactics on staffing levels, community-oriented policing, and other related dimensions. This work draws on a broader research project that…

Police staffing studies can provide common ground for understanding the services a police agency must provide, how to deliver them most efficiently and effectively, the expectations of elected and appointed leaders, and how to align service levels with available resources. This article outlines what a best-practice workload-based staffing study entails, the data it requires, and how law enforcement agencies and government finance professionals can use its results. Read More

We highlight how the practitioners rated 29 financial tactics for recruitment or retention. We view these through social exchange theory. Social exchange theory suggests that employees develop expectations of reciprocity in their relationship with employers, weighing the effort and risk they invest against the rewards, recognition, and support they receive. This may be particularly relevant for public safety settings, where the high-risk nature of the work can make perceptions of fairness, recognition, and organizational support especially consequential. Read More

To assist agencies in navigating multifaceted workforce challenges, the Police Staffing Observatory (PSO) applies a systems approach to staffing, seeking holistic, long-term, and meaningful impacts. This article provides an introduction to the PSO and how it serves as a trusted resource for the law enforcement community. Read More

As staffing challenges persist, police agencies are lowering minimum education requirements to increase applications. Yet, as this PSO Perspective discusses, doing so has important benefits and drawbacks for staffing, community relations, officer professionalism, and performance. In turn, agencies must take these trade-offs into account as they navigate potential workforce solutions. Read More

Police agencies continually struggle to attract and retain officers. Social exchange theory, suggesting that employees develop expectations of reciprocity with employers, provides one lens to examine such efforts. This work assesses 29 financial tactics, identified through a systematic review of sources, that police agencies may use to recruit and retain officers. It reports practitioner perceptions regarding these tactics on workforce levels, Page 2 of 2 workload management, speed of impact, ease of implementation, agency costs, quality of police work, officer…

Correctional agencies face persistent staffing shortages and declining morale. This study analyzed over 600 Indeed.com employee reviews from officers across eight state Departments of Corrections to examine perceptions of the work environment using social exchange theory. Thematic analysis revealed recurring concerns about understaffing, mandatory overtime, low wages, and organizational neglect. Officers described emotional exhaustion, diminished trust in leadership, and a mismatch between job demands and institutional support. Perceived inequities in workplace exchanges contributed to burnout, disengagement, and turnover intentions. Findings…

It is often difficult for law enforcement workforce planners to systematically address allocation, recruitment, training, and retention to effectively address staffing challenges. Taking up these broaderdiscussions of police workload and how best to manage it, however, enables certain key questions to be posed, including the following:• How does an agency know when it is understaffed?• How does an agency address the effects of understaffing?• What can be done to build better workforces?• Are there solutions other than staffing for managing…

This PSO Perspective summarizes lessons from our research, Dimensions of a Police Recruitment Program, appearing in Policing: An International Journal, 2025. It identifies the key elements of police recruitment programs, supporting a more systematic approach to recruitment by reviewing academic and practitioner literature from 2010 to 2024 and conducting interviews with 26 subject-mater experts. Read More

This study identifies key features of police recruitment programs, enabling a more systematic approach to recruitment. We reviewed academic and practitioner literature from 2010 to 2024 and interviewed 26 subject-matter experts to build a taxonomy of recruitment programs with dimensions and elements that target different levels within a police organization. At the organizational level, recruitment programs need supportive leadership, a healthy organizational culture, budgeted resources, and diverse goals. At the unit level, they need strategies to expedite processes, metrics to…