Category: 21st Century Policing

Recently, Benchmark CEO Ron Huberman and Steve Brewer of Benchmark Risk Solutions discussed the impacts of reform legislation on the risk in law enforcement. The conversation follows the historical arc of law enforcement in the US, public perception of police, and how risk managers and law enforcement leaders confront these issues. Through the lens of risk management, they explored the efficacy of current policy and procedure changes driven by reform legislation and regulatory changes and their intersection with risk management practices like early intervention, officer wellness initiatives, and their impact on public trust.

This post highlights some of the key themes of the webinar and provides additional context and research findings referenced in the discussion. The entire presentation is available in our Resource Center, a free library of research data and analysis available to the public safety and risk management audience.

Disparities in Perception

Ron Huberman: “In the 1990s, the first well-known police misconduct video of the modern era came to be with Rodney King. All of us likely recall that video and its aftermath. Since the advent of video being readily available [via consumer electronics], these videos have continued to shape public opinion as never before.

Trust in policing has always been massively differentiated among different demographic groups, and there are signs those disparities are growing.”

The reference to the Rodney King incident is especially illuminating and revealed a turning point in public perceptions of policing. The proliferation of handheld recording devices, first portable video cameras and later smartphones, has made it easier for bystanders to record interactions between police and citizens. Coinciding with the rise of cable news earlier and now with social media, millions can see these videos within hours of the incident.

A study at the time showed that, within 30 days of the Rodney King incident, as many as 93% of Los Angeles residents had seen the video on television news. The footage quickly impacted public perception, with groups of white, black, and Latino residents all responding at more than 90% that “police officers used too much force in dealing with King.” When similar survey groups were questioned three years later on their perception of police, a demographic disparity reappeared. Trust in the police rose to levels last noted in 1988, showing a more than ten percentage point gap between white and black respondents.

Evidence suggests this disparity has grown over time. A report from the Pew Research Center points to a correlation between personal experience with police and demographic disparities in perception. Black adults are five times more likely to report being stopped due to their race than white respondents at a rate of 44% versus 9%. Further research has shown past encounters with police as a substantial predictor of perception of police.

Punitive Settlements

Ron Huberman: “One of two fundamental arguments [from plaintiffs’ attorneys] are occurring. One is the ‘wanton and indifferent’, or ‘you weren’t competent and responsible in your governance and didn’t take action where you should have known to do so’. The second is that the police department didn’t know there was this problem or pattern of conduct and – very importantly – that they should have known.

When they’re successful in either of those arguments, we see the general trend in the [risk management marketplace] is that jurors are trying to be highly punitive – given their new societal view of policing.”

The previous section showed that public perception of policing is impacted by media and the availability of videos of alleged or sustained misconduct. In misconduct litigation, the plaintiffs’ attorneys may seek to leverage these shifting perceptions to produce more favorable outcomes and larger settlements for their clients. However, it is essential to note that perception does not always track with reality.

There is indeed observed growth in the cost of misconduct settlements, especially in larger cities. This growth in settlement costs creates strain on municipal budgets and insurance and reinsurance markets. However, the ever-rising costs of settlements do not necessarily indicate that misconduct is more prevalent, despite public perceptions that it is. Data from the University of Chicago revealed that there has been “no apparent increase in the frequency of law enforcement claims, [since 2014]” but that settlement costs have multiplied in the same period. While a causal relationship has not been determined, it is thought that diminished public perception of police likely contributes to these growing settlement amounts despite the number of claims staying relatively flat or even lessening over time.

Mental Health and Wellness

Steve Brewer: “The awareness of the impacts of mental health has led to a lot of programs taking shape and resources being made available, either at the agency level or through third parties. These programs are critical because a growing body of research shows that officers operating at their full capacity – mental, physical, emotional – and as they are trained to do, generally perform well and have a lower risk. Often, where there is a lot of overtime, a lack of sleep, and mental trauma from issues like PTSD that are untreated, it can lead to the escalation of a lot of adverse outcomes.”

Agencies have an ethical obligation to support and enhance their officer’s mental, emotional, and physical wellness. Beyond that, an officer experiencing issues with their health and readiness is a knowable risk factor in policing. In one study, 56% of officers surveyed experienced burnout with their job, which contributed to feelings of callousness towards their work and the public. Other studies have shown that as many as 15% of officers experience post-traumatic stress disorder in their careers, which affects decision-making, sleep patterns, susceptibility to drug and alcohol abuse, and emotional responses. These factors potentially contribute to the likelihood of an officer engaging in behavior that could harm themselves, their career, and their agency’s standing in the community.

Evidence-based wellness programming is the right thing to do for officers’ health, but it can also improve outcomes and help curb the risk of claims and litigation. Case studies have shown the efficacy of wellness programming and intervention in law enforcement. Peer support has been an incredibly effective means of enhancing wellness and boosting officer performance, with approximately 90% of officers surveyed reporting they would recommend peer support to a colleague.

The focus on wellness needs to be holistic, incorporating many intersecting facets of wellness. For instance, a lack of sleep can contribute to higher instances of vehicle collisions, which carry both risks of injury and claims, and compassion fatigue, which can accelerate symptoms of burnout. Programs promoting physical fitness are shown to reduce on-the-job injuries by as much as 40%, which has the potential to reduce compensable injuries and short-staffing due to recovery and rehabilitation after such injuries. Furthermore, in encounters requiring the use of force, a higher level of physical fitness among officers may reduce the probability of excessive force leading to death or injury and subsequent litigation involving both the subject and the officer.

What is knowable?

Steve Brewer: “I’m going to pose a question: what percentage of adverse events in policing are predictable? Take a guess.

Our research finds that the number is between 50% and 65%. Between a half and two-thirds of events in policing today follow a pattern of observable behavior. The research showed and validated that it is incredibly knowable.”

The keyword here is “knowable.” Early intervention can help guard against claims that arise when the plaintiff’s attorney can show that an agency should have known there was a problem and failed to act. State-of-the-art data aggregation and analysis are necessary to attain this high level of predictability in a data model. Less effective analysis, typically seen in informal or threshold-based early intervention, is unlikely to achieve the level of predictive performance that First Sign® Early Intervention delivers. Studies looking at the method of predictive analysis used in First Sign “found high-risk officers identified by prediction models experienced adverse events at a rate 1.7 times higher than those identified by a rule-based EIS” and that rate of accuracy in identifying high-risk officers increased by 75% while false identifications dropped by 20%.

Mitigating knowable risk is the bedrock of highly effective practices in both early intervention and risk management. The two are inextricably linked and are essential to promoting better policing outcomes for agencies and the public they serve. Benchmark Risk Solutions™ and First Sign operate on this fundamental premise and work in tandem to help law enforcement leaders and risk managers know these risks and understand the tools they have to address potential issues before they escalate.

To see the presentation in its entirety, visit our Resource Center.

Efforts to increase transparency are arguably the most prominent aspect of police reform efforts. Legislatures are creating regulatory changes that require the disclosure of police data to contribute to a better-informed public and shed light on police operations and tactics. A central component of these efforts involves leveraging a still-developing technology: body-worn cameras (BWC).

How we got here

From a tech perspective, the development of BWCs essentially tracks with broader trends in consumer electronics towards miniaturization and reduced production costs. Experimentation with primitive BWCs began in the 1990s, following the relatively widespread adoption of dash cams in radio cars. BWCs did not become commonplace until the late 2000s, coinciding with the popularization of smartphone technology which also allowed the public to record video and audio from a handheld device. Now it is common for BWCs to be able to record in high definition with audio and, in many cases, in low-light conditions.

This tech comes with a cost. The Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) published a research paper that estimates one camera costs between approximately $1,200 and $3,200 per year. The reason for calculating the expense as a yearly cost is that the upfront purchase price of a camera is often relatively modest compared to the ongoing costs of training, maintenance, and data management associated with deploying a BWC over the course of a year. The variation in these figures is influenced by an agency’s policy regarding how long data is kept, whether it is stored locally or in a cloud system, and who is able to access it.

As the tech has become more accessible, the prevalence of BWCs has exploded. Approximately 32% of departments were using them in 2013. Just five years later that figure had risen to 47% across all agencies. Notably, 80% of large departments, typically with greater access to resources than smaller agencies, have now deployed BWCs.

Grants have helped offset costs for departments adopting body-worn cameras. Typically, when they are mandated by state or local laws, those governing bodies also provide funding in the form of grants or budget line items for purchase and upkeep. This year, the Department of Justice is accepting grant applications from law enforcement and corrections agencies through May. Additionally, recognizing the limited budgets of agencies with fewer sworn staff, the DOJ has specially designated additional resources of approximately $7.5M for smaller, rural agencies.

What body-worn cameras promise

The arguments for deploying BWCs fall into several categories:

Increased transparency: This notion relies on the fundamental understanding of BWCs as essential to creating an unbiased record of a police/civilian interaction or other policing operation. This is, of course, only the case when the cameras are switched on during an encounter and even then they can only capture events from the vantage point of the officer wearing the camera, leading to debate over a bias in the footage.

The “Civilizing Effect”: One study showed that when both parties to a police/civilian interaction knew they were being recorded that those involved tended to act more civil to one another. Generally, officers are thought to be more polite and less terse with citizens while those citizens are also less likely to act aggressively or flee an encounter. Early studies showed some positive movement on the number of complaints after BWCs were introduced.

Evidence: The scene of a traffic collision or crime often puts a lot of demands on an officer – from securing the scene itself and gathering statements to possibly detaining a suspect or rendering aid. Even those with the sharpest memories can forget the details of an incident in a hectic situation. Video of an entire encounter used as evidence can provide meaningful context and background at trial that written reports and statements cannot.

Training resource: Beyond transparency efforts and as evidence, BWC footage has been shown to be quite useful to departments as a training aid. As many as 94% of agencies currently engage in the practice, leveraging the footage for scenario-based training, performance review (especially with new officers), and for gap-analysis to determine where additional training is necessary.

What the research shows

On the surface, the reasons to deploy BWCs seem as obvious as they are abundant, representing a win/win scenario for both officers and the communities they serve. As research creates new evidence to guide decision-making on BWCs, however, a more complex and nuanced picture is emerging.

Early studies have shown dramatic reductions in use-of-force incidents and citizen complaints, as much as 88% in the landmark Rialto Study. Research published by the University of Chicago in 2021 shows that, among the departments surveyed, citizen complaints dropped by 17% and that use-of-force incidents saw a nearly 10% decline across the fatal and non-fatal categories.

The complexity arrives in the disparity between complaints and actual officer behavior. Researchers published a meta-analysis of available research in 2021, aggregating and analyzing the findings of 70 studies examining the effectiveness of BWCs. While calling for additional research, the topline of this analysis suggests there is not yet conclusive evidence that BWCs improve officer safety. Additionally, BWCs have not been shown to have a statistically significant effect on arrests, traffic stops, assaults on officers, or other types of citizen/officer interactions.

Why the difference in research findings? Broadly speaking, for every study finding a decrease in citizen complaints there may be another one, studying another department as a research sample, finding that complaints did not significantly change. What’s more, complaints are not necessarily a conclusive indicator of behavior in the field. Furthermore, with recent high-profile events in policing, changes in officer behavior and citizen reactions may be driven by factors unrelated to the use of BWCs.

The debate over and study of the efficacy of BWCs shows no signs of slowing down. Further research is needed to identify why some agencies are able to deploy BWCs and see dramatic and positive results whereas others don’t see as much change in their outcomes. One possible explanation for these disparities has do with other risk management and accountability practices like early intervention, data transparency efforts, and duty to intervene policies. Though there will always be a need for more data to base these decisions on, there is a developing consensus that BWCs still represent a net benefit to both officers and citizens.

Central to this contemporary era of policing are calls for transparency and accountability. A common assumption is that transparency and accountability are inherently linked and that by simply increasing the amount of data available to the public, accountability and public trust will trend in a positive direction. As is often the case, the reality is that the issue is far more complex – more resembling a complex set of interconnected factors rather than a “point A to point B” linear system.

This article will explore where the notions of transparency and accountability in law enforcement come from, why they’re important, and a few of the resources available to agencies seeking to implement data disclosure systems.

Transparency and Democracy: An Ethical Framework

Accountability through transparency is fundamental to police reform efforts. This is all but a given now, but the idea that transparency is needed to ensure the legitimacy of law enforcement is a relatively recent development in understanding the role of government. A brief look at some basic political theory provides transparency’s philosophical and ethical underpinnings as a moral construct.

Early 20^th century sociologists and political scientists, particularly German sociologist Max Weber, argued that the authority of governmental officials, such as police officers, is legal and rational in that police derive the authority to enforce the law through law and regulations established by a democratic state or government. This stands in contrast to law enforcement that, for example in the Middle Ages, derived its authority from what philosophers would describe as charisma, like that of an autocrat or dictator, or by traditional means such as in the case of inherited royalty or title. Weber’s theories are now considered foundational in the way social scientists understand the sources of authority.

In a democracy, the government’s authority comes from the citizenry’s consent, it follows that the citizens influencing policy decisions through their elected representatives are interested in being well-informed so that they make wise decisions about their governance. The transparency that invited scrutiny then is essential to maintaining law enforcement’s legitimacy among the public in a democracy.

 Promoting Community Trust

“People are more likely to obey the law when they believe that those enforcing it have the legitimate authority to tell them what to do … The public confers legitimacy only on those they believe are acting in procedurally just ways” – President’s Task Force on 21^st Century Policing, 2015

The Final Report of the President’s Task Force on 21^st Century Policing identifies building trust and legitimacy as its first pillar in a six-point plan to transform policing for the 21st century. The report calls for several concrete steps designed to improve the public trust in policing by regularly making public data regarding stops, summonses, and arrests and collecting survey data from community members and officers to assess the effects of policy changes and initiatives holistically.

The greater availability of data creates more knowable information for the members of the public. The general population, especially those with programming and analytical skills, are able to digest and react to more data than ever before. While this certainly increases transparency in policing, studies published by the Department of Justice and RAND Corporation point out that, to increase public confidence, there has to be a broad perception that this transparency leads to accountability – whether that’s the termination of officers engaged in misconduct or broader policy changes. Simply disclosing data without the “follow up” of meaningful accountability can unintentionally draw attention to wrongdoing and give the impression it is more widespread than it is.

Setting the Agenda, Delivering the Funding

Data made available through transparency efforts have the potential to be a key element in growing community trust in police. That same data is also critical to informing future research, which, in turn, will be used to build policies that can contribute to a more positive public perception of law enforcement. There are two basic components to the research and funding cycle:

Creating research priorities: Research proposals center around research questions – essentially what a study or review hopes to answer. When an academic or research team seeks funding for a study, that research question is supported by data from previous research as new findings typically pose further questions. Though this may appear to be a cycle, it is more accurate to view it as the evolution of the knowledge surrounding a subject. With greater access to law enforcement data, whether by mandate or voluntary reporting, researchers can ask better questions and have greater confidence in their findings.

Setting funding priorities: Policymakers, charged with strategically administering grants and appropriations, typically set a high bar when deploying public funds. They look for evidence derived from research that their funds will be impactful. Sufficiently representative data, both in quantity and quality, guide this decision-making process which can mean additional funding for law enforcement programs and operations.

Building Systems for Transparency

As data reporting technology changes and regulatory mandates require additional types of data transparency, think tanks and professional organizations have been at the forefront of creating best practices recommendations for agencies. The Police Foundation created a five-part guide to help agencies draft policies for making their data public. These recommendations center around generating awareness using tools like social media, outreach to community groups, and creating easy-to-use, public-facing portals. Case studies in the guide take these ideas out of the world of theory and into the real world, illustrating practical examples of how agencies have successfully met data reporting requirements

The International Association of Chiefs of Police published a guide on reporting use of force that goes into even greater detail, specifying discrete data points agencies might consider including as a part of a broader data transparency strategy. The model policies in the document suggest what types of reports should be included, the data parameters of use of force reports, and procedural workflows that simplify the reporting process for agencies.

Benchmark Analytics routinely partners with agencies tasked with expanding their data reporting capabilities. Using the Benchmark Management System®, agencies can streamline the task of reporting myriad and complex data to public police data portals. By doing so, agencies can play an important role in increasing public trust, which, in turn, can help increase resources available to law enforcement, ultimately increasing police effectiveness.

In our previous article, we explored the underrepresentation of women in policing and why it is important for law enforcement leaders to address this shortfall. The article looked at what groups like the 30×30 Initiative are doing to increase the number of women as sworn officers. Today’s article takes a closer look at the group’s methodology and efforts to improve the representation of women in the profession.

An often-cited statistic shows that, while women make up more than half of the population, they represent fewer than 12% of sworn officers in the United States. When examining the number of women in law enforcement leadership roles, that figure shrinks to a paltry 3% — a number that is almost universally seen as a significant problem. While research dating back to the 1970s has documented the issue and made a strong argument for increasing the representation of women in law enforcement, these figures have remained effectively stagnant in most departments in the decades since.

There is an increased urgency among law enforcement leaders that recruiting and retaining women officers matters, with efforts to do so showing demonstrably positive outcomes for both law enforcement agencies and the communities they serve. Guided in part by these facts, Chief Ivonne Roman (ret.) of the Newark Police Department and Maureen McGough of the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) led a national research summit on women in policing in 2018 with more than 100 women representing researchers, law enforcement leadership, and professional organizations in attendance. The work from the meeting would be instrumental in propelling research and strategy on women in policing through the present day.

The 30×30 Initiative is one such effort guided by that summit. The group’s name is directly tied to its mission: to increase the representation of women in policing from 12% to 30% by 2030. Partnered with the Policing Project at the NYU School of Law and the National Association of Women Law Enforcement Executives, the 30×30 Initiative seeks to understand the issue by gathering vital data into the conditions affecting the number of women in law enforcement and using that data to make actionable, real-world recommendations for policy shifts and strategic plans to help improve these numbers. The organization uses a pledge already signed by hundreds of agencies large and small across the country to gather data and secure a long-term commitment to improving the number of women in law enforcement.

The 30×30 Pledge

Understanding that agencies have differing capacities, resources, and needs, the 30×30 Pledge that agencies and their leaders commit to is more akin to a “flexible framework” than a rigid list of actions and policies that require agencies’ strict compliance. Ideally, this flexibility is built into the pledge to give agencies the latitude to base their strategic decisions on evidence and analysis unique to their departments. The pledge itself is made of two primary phases that encompass both assessment actions and decision-making based on that analysis of the accrued data.

Crucially these are low- to no-cost actions that can be taken to improve the representation of women across ranks in law enforcement and improve their experience while on the job. The pledge first asks that departments commit to understanding gender equity, by unpacking the factors driving disparities, and developing plans to implement strategies to advance women in policing.

The first phase of the pledge comprises essential data gathering and implementing policies related to the hiring and retention of women in the department. The data gathering is relatively straightforward: collecting the number of sworn officers in an agency as well as demographic information across rank and assignment categories. It also requires that departments formally make hiring, retaining, and promoting women a strategic priority and affirm a zero-tolerance policy for discriminatory practices or harassment in the workplace. Going a step further, departments are asked to commit to providing adequate scheduling accommodation and physical space for nursing mothers. The last component of this first phase of the pledge addresses the equipment and gear issued by departments – specifically, that equipment is appropriate to the fit and proportions of women.

Translating Data into Action

The second reporting phase takes a deeper dive into diagnostic data and demographics, asking agencies to more rigorously classify and report their demographic data – including gender, race/ethnicity, and age – where possible. This phase of the pledge splits the data into four “lanes,” looking into hiring, promotion, retention and culture, and recruitment.

Generally speaking, the data gathering and reporting exercises focus on creating greater clarity on which sworn officers are applying for promotions, seeking voluntary training, leaving the agency, and generating data to assess the efficacy of recruitment programs. Looking at this in a larger context, this demographic and department-level information intersects with many of the research priorities outlined in the NIJ’s 2017-2022 Strategic Research Plan for policing.

In the long term, this data will help inform theory and research questions about policing but, in the near term, it is beneficial in providing the basis for best-practice recommendations. Taking things a step beyond data collections and analysis, a critical component of the 30×30 Pledge is translating these data-driven insights into an action plan. The same four lanes (hiring, promotion, retention and culture, and recruitment) categorize the actions areas.

The framework consists of essential, strongly recommended, and recommended areas of action. Essential action areas more often involve using aggregated data to recognize where biases exist and taking the necessary steps to address those biases with measures like ensuring voluntary training and promotion notifications are posted internally and that officers are up to date with bias and harassment training. Generally, steps both of the “recommended” categories seek to unpack the issues further, delving into structural issues that create barriers to women in policing.

Moving Forward with Intersectionality

While the 30×30 Initiative focuses on issues affecting women in law enforcement, the group makes a distinct nod towards intersectionality when describing their background and mission. Intersectionality is an analytical framework originating from the field of sociology that “acknowledges the ways in which people’s multiple identities—race and ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ability, and more—magnify or transform their exposure to discrimination.” People at different intersections of these elements of identity have their experiences shaped in different ways.

In a practical sense, this means that the data and insights generated by the 30×30 Initiative can serve as a blueprint for other such efforts. The organization’s work is not siloed and geared only towards improving conditions for women but, in effect, can be used to benefit all officers who have struggled to find representation in policing. Using intersectionality as a bedrock of the 30×30 Initiative’s methodology means that the group’s work will be transferrable to other areas of research into law enforcement equity and efforts to create real-world strategies to help improve representation in law enforcement.

As we’ve covered in previous posts, recruitment shortfalls are creating serious headaches for law enforcement leaders. A wave of resignations heightened by a pandemic and challenges with public perceptions combined with a generational trend in retirements is creating a situation for departmental leaders where attrition surpasses recruitment capacity.

Women are substantially underrepresented in law enforcement. While making up more than half of the population, women represent fewer than 13% police officers. Though the number of women in law enforcement agencies has grown since the 1960s, their participation rate has been stagnant at this level for decades. Nearly every agency throughout the country has faced challenges in attracting women to the profession.

Why attract diverse candidates?

The reasons for making a conscious effort to bring more women into the profession are more than just ethical arguments. For as long as women have been working in the law enforcement field, social scientists and academics have taken a keen interest in designing research to help us better understand what they bring to the job and how they compare to their male counterparts. Studies have confirmed intuitions about unique skills women bring to their agencies and communities as well as cast serious doubts on outdated assumptions surrounding their capabilities and job performance.

Social scientists and researchers have been studying the impacts of a gender-diverse police force since the 1970s. A landmark study in 1987 as well as many subsequent studies have contributed to the strong argument that diverse police forces are beneficial to the communities they serve.

Research suggests female officers are less likely to be involved in incidents involving excessive use of force than their male counterparts. Though a correlation has not been conclusively established, women also tend to show, on average, more advanced interpersonal communication skills, which suggests they may be more likely to practice de-escalation tactics, further reducing the incidence of excessive force.

Women officers are highly skilled at addressing crimes involving violence against women and sex crimes. Sexual assault is a sensitive issue, and it is thought that more significant numbers of female officers may help break down some of the barriers to reporting such crimes. Studies have shown a correlation between increased female representation on police forces and declines in intimate partner murder rates and rates of repeated domestic abuse, as well as higher clearance rates in these cases.

In an era when public trust in the police has eroded to critical levels, law enforcement leaders have an urgent interest in finding ways to rebuild that trust. Writing for the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) Police Chief Magazine, Retired Chief of Newark Police Ivonne Roman documented a link between trust in the police to the proportion of women serving in an agency. More advanced interpersonal skills related to conflict resolution, de-escalation, and use of force likely contribute to these observations.

Barriers to Recruiting Women

There is a consensus among policing leaders that women bring valuable skills and experience to the profession and that these abilities enhance an agency’s capacity to fulfill its mission. As referenced earlier in this post, recruitment numbers have, for generations, fallen short of representation targets needed to field a more diverse police force. Like many issues facing police recruiters, there is no simple one-step solution to these problems but rather an interconnected set of strategies policing leaders employ.

Revised physical aptitude standards for entrance into police academies are among the more impactful tactics to increase recruitment.  These standards vary widely from agency to agency, with some considering aspects like differences in upper body muscle mass when creating standards. Other agencies have uniform standards, regardless of gender. Comprehensive data is not readily available, but anecdotal reports suggest these physical fitness requirements have a disparate impact on female applicants.

Within some pockets of policing, there can be lingering doubts and anxiety about female colleagues’ abilities to do the job as well as their male colleagues. These outdated views are often expressed in the form of harassment on the job. Laws dealing with sexual harassment have been strengthened in the last twenty years, which, combined with broader cultural shifts, show promise at improving working conditions.

While women make up only 13% of police officers, their numbers are even smaller in leadership roles. Recent data compiled by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) shows that 9.5% of first-line supervisors are women and only represent 2.7% of executive leadership. It is widely understood that mentorship programs involving senior officers and leaders providing coaching support to junior officers are tied to a wide range of improved outcomes in rank advancement and retention, job performance, and officer and family wellness.

Next Steps

The NIJ’s Women in Policing: Breaking Barriers and Blazing a Path crucially lays out a research agenda designed to create more empirical evidence for crafting policies to improve the recruitment of women officers. Several research questions are categorized under six themes that, broadly, seek to more clearly identify the scope of the problem, look at cultural and performance-based barriers to recruitment, and understand better how retention and advancement figure into the overall picture. The report also outlines questions raised by officers in the field as another means to inform future research.

The 30X30 Initiative is a prominent example of an advocacy coalition bringing together current and former law enforcement leaders with research institutions with the goal of “increase[ing] the representation of women in police recruit classes to 30% by 2030, and to ensure[ing] police policies and culture intentionally support the success of qualified women officers throughout their careers”. This group frames the issue as a matter of both equity and public safety, using evidence to show that agencies with greater representation of women historically show better outcomes for both their communities and their officers.

The 30X30 Initiative…frames efforts to recruit women as a matter of both equity and public safety…

Like all complex social problems, additional research is still needed to understand issues of gender parity in recruiting. There is, however, broad agreement among law enforcement leaders that it needs to be a priority moving forward. In an era of substantial recruiting and public perception challenges, the evidence showing that women make extremely valuable contributions to the communities and agencies they serve can no longer be overlooked.

Moving into 2022, a lot is changing in the world of law enforcement — legislation is reshaping policies and tactics while enhanced data collection and reporting is giving new insight into officer performance metrics and crime statistics. Police recruitment remains an issue facing law enforcement leaders in 2022, changing only because the need is growing as trends in retirement and resignation continue. This article looks at how cultural and employment trends affect staffing levels and recruitment levels in law enforcement with an eye towards the future.

What’s Causing Recruitment and Staffing Shortfalls?

For decades, social sciences researchers have been studying police recruitment efforts and documenting the pivot in the profession to a more highly skilled and technically proficient workforce needed for the 21^st century. Despite a whole field of research devoted to law enforcement recruitment and retention, the problem persists to such an extent that even mainstream national news outlets are taking note. Both CNN and the Wall Street Journal have covered the topic in recent weeks, highlighting interviews with law enforcement leaders about their experience with staffing shortfalls and speaking to officers about why they left the profession.

It is too soon for comprehensive reporting from 2021 to be available, but the most recent research from the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) speaks to the magnitude of recruitment shortfalls. From April of 2020 to March of 2021, resignations rose at 18%, while retirements jumped an impressive 45%. Adding to the urgency created by staffing shortages, these statistics show how large agencies (500+ sworn officers) are likely feeling the effects more intensely than smaller departments. The report showed that “large” agencies faced a 36% reduction in recruitment numbers over the same period.

Understanding the magnitude of the problem is generally easier than understanding the underlying factors contributing to it. The COVID-19 global pandemic has upended and realigned industries throughout the country, including law enforcement. Making its way into headlines as of late is the notion of a Great Resignation which has seen workers reprioritizing work-life balance and seeking higher wages in a job seeker’s market, the likes of which have not been experienced in at least a generation. Though there’s evidence this wave of resignations may have hit its peak in 2021, the ripple effects are likely to affect staffing levels well into 2022.

The issues driving this wave of resignations – working hours, conditions, and pay – are particularly prevalent in law enforcement. Shiftwork is especially difficult for law enforcement officers where inconsistent scheduling and unpredictable overtime can create acute problems for an officer’s health and wellness. The national average annual pay for law enforcement officers remains above the salary of the average American worker. This is not always true in some parts of the country, especially those with booming technology sectors. The draw of higher-paying and less-dangerous work puts law enforcement at an inherent disadvantage regarding recruitment.

Lastly, public perception of police and policing strategies creates barriers to more robust recruiting across the profession. The Pew Research Center conducts longitudinal research on public perception of law enforcement and has charted notable declines in survey participants’ views on how police treat the public and how effectively investigators pursue misconduct cases. The results of these surveys tend to be most visible along with race and political lines though there’s been some softening of positive views across the board. These broader cultural attitudes create an issue for recruiters where a sociological concept known as social desirability bias — the desire to present one’s attitudes, behaviors, and occupation in a positive light – steers potential recruits away from a profession with a perceived negative social stigma attached to it.

Effects of Staff Shortages

The numbers surrounding staffing shortfalls in law enforcement are easy to understand. However, the effects of the issue are more profound than can be conveyed in spreadsheets of survey results. Staffing shortfalls create real hardships not only for departments struggling to recruit new officers but for the officers themselves who struggle with long hours and difficult working conditions.

Low recruiting numbers create financial challenges for departments that turn to signing bonuses to attract potential recruits. In Washington State, law enforcement leaders offer bonuses of as much as $25,000 to help lure recruits. Other counties in the state, like King County (Seattle), seek outside help from recruiting specialists to boost their numbers. These signing bonuses and recruitment consultants come at a cost when growth in spending on policing is under increased and intense public scrutiny in many areas of the country. Additionally, though municipal and state legislative bodies provide funding for bonuses and contractors, there is no guarantee these funding packages will become permanent parts of the law enforcement budget, with many being framed as one-time expenditures.

When officers resign or retire, their shifts don’t leave the department with them. Though the public perception of crime rates doesn’t always match reality, the facts are that property crimes like carjacking are on the rise. Murder rates are jumping year-over-year while clearance rates are dropping. These trends create a greater need for officers on patrol, but the shortfall requires extra shifts and potentially unwanted overtime. These factors contribute to a cyclical effect of long hours and stressful work driving increased burnout, leading officers to pursue careers in other fields.

A Complex Problem

For generations, law enforcement agencies have experienced shortfalls in their recruitment efforts. The profession, to many, is seen as a higher calling to public service that requires rigorous ethical and performance characteristics of its recruits – qualities not found in just anyone. In recent years, recruitment shortfalls have been compounded by broad, societal trends set into motion by high-profile policing incidents and a global pandemic. While agencies can turn to incentives and outside consultants in the short term, investments in systemic change to the profession are most likely to create lasting change. Leadership development and technical training are shown to move the needle somewhat. Still, most experts agree that the hard work reforming the public perception of policing and the nature of the profession will go a long way to improving recruitment shortfalls.

Calls for reform brought about by high-profile incidents have led to an unprecedented pace of legislation affecting law enforcement over the past two years. New laws and the change they’ve created have reshaped policing since 2020 and will undoubtedly continue to influence law enforcement trends in 2022. This article looks at some of the prominent themes we’re monitoring as the new year gets underway.

Change Management as a Constant

A prominent theme in law enforcement policy has been a rapid and profound legislative change in recent years. The pace of reform legislation has been swift, with 453 bills addressing law enforcement passed into law over the last two years. What this means for law enforcement leaders is an urgent need to create strategies to implement sweeping changes to their agencies’ policies and data-gathering practices.

Law enforcement agencies are often seen as organizations where changes come slowly, emphasizing tradition and continuity. This is, in part, due to the nature of the profession. When dealing with the safety of officers and the public they serve, leaders can be reluctant to make broad changes that could be perceived to threaten that stability. Legislative mandates, however, are compelling law enforcement leaders, in most cases, to enact policy changes on defined timelines.

Policing executives are increasingly looking towards the corporate world for guidance on change management strategies. Strategies like McKinsey’s 7-S Framework and Kotter’s Method are often used in the business world to introduce potentially problematic changes to an organization, and most importantly, create the buy-in needed to move towards change as a whole organization.  While there is some variation in the methods to build the momentum for change, they both fundamentally rely on a bottom-up approach that increases buy-in and ultimately successful transition in policies.

Officer Wellness in 2022

The conditions that have been a primary driver of reform legislation have prompted policymakers, citizens, and law enforcement to step back and look at the bigger picture of policing. Individual actions, events, and policies are increasingly viewed in their context as part of larger systems. While much media attention is on aspects of reform measures aimed to add transparency to policing operations, many of those pieces of legislation also have substantial components that address the health and wellness of law enforcement officers.

At the federal level, the Department of Justice, in conjunction with Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), announced $7 million in grants late last year as a part of the Law Enforcement Mental Health and Wellness Act Program. A total of 65 grants were disbursed in the previous year to state, tribal, and local law enforcement agencies throughout the United States and Puerto Rico. These grants are a valuable first step in establishing and maintaining programs like peer support, suicide prevention, and family services to support officer wellness in 2022 and beyond.

Looking to the state level, many of the mandates and programs concerning mental health and wellness coming into effect in 2022 are a more direct result of recent policing reform legislation than federal programs. The state-level initiatives cover a broad range of topics pertaining to mental health and, in many cases, expand upon federally funded programs. A few notable examples include:

• New Hampshire created a new commission with SB142 to study post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in first responders. The commission’s findings will be delivered on or before November 1, 2022 and will be used to make further recommendations for programmatic funding.
• S24 in Texas authorized the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement to roll out a peer-support network for law enforcement officers in January of 2022. Peer support networks and associated programs are being formalized throughout the country and are considered to be among the most effective means to promote officer wellness.
• The Utah state legislature enacted H248, which opened up a half-million dollars in state-funded grants to be awarded before June 30, 2022. These grants will provide funding for mental health resources for law enforcement officers and other first responders.
• S703 was introduced and moved to committee in New Jersey in January of 2022. The New Jersey First Responders Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Protection Act addresses PTSD among law enforcement officers and first responders by guarding against retaliation or loss of benefits. Another bill introduced in New Jersey in 2022, A1622, seeks to create funding for a PTSD hotline administered jointly by the New Jersey Department of Health and behavioral healthcare specialists from Rutgers University.

Data Analysis and Management

Law enforcement researchers have long used policing data to understand everything from community/police interactions to health outcomes in the policing community. The insights that can be gained from this data can create positive change both for the law enforcement profession and their communities. Unfortunately, many agencies haven’t had the funding or workers to bring their recordkeeping and data management practices into the 21^st century.

Much of the recent reform legislation frames data collection mandates as a move towards greater transparency. However, another beneficial effect of these measures is increasing the data researchers use to study law enforcement as well as creating new data sources for agencies to use to make smarter decisions around personnel and allocation of resources.

In North Carolina, SB300 mandated the creation of data capture systems used to inform early intervention systems and a critical incident database tracking use of force. The mandate took effect in December of 2021, and agencies in the state have either begun improving or establishing such systems. Maryland’s SB670 requires that certain officer misconduct records be available for public inspection. In practice, this means agencies must have the capacity to report incident data to publicly accessible portals or databases, requiring the agencies to have procedures to standardize and report this data.

A Busy Year Ahead

The pace of reform legislation and the changes it will create in law enforcement show no sign of slowing down. 2022 promises to be another active year in state legislatures. As new mandates pass, law enforcement leaders will be seeking new solutions to guide their agencies through this period of change for the profession.

Benchmark Analytics’ First Sign® is a first-of-its-kind, research-driven early intervention platform that is custom-tailored to agencies of any size. The Benchmark Management System® captures use-of-force, internal affairs, and other data to help agencies meet the requirements of reporting mandates while providing law enforcement leaders with an analytics-driven and holistic view of their agency.