THE APPLICANT PUDDLE
by
 Susan Saxe-Clifford, PhD

 Agencies large and small, busy and quiet, high paying and low paying are having difficulty finding qualified candidates to fill a growing number of vacancies.  Administrators say they are not lowering standards to fill spots but applicants are scheduled for the psychological exam (the last step in the process) that would not have made it that far as recently as last year.  I constantly hear comments from administrators such as, “this is the best applicant we had apply”, or “you should have seen the applicants who failed the oral”. Applicants are sent forward who have little life experience, who have never assumed responsibility, who have no idea what to expect in the academy and no idea what the job entails yet these applicants are starting to be at the top of the list.  Others sent forward for psychological evaluation have job terminations, altercations, very poor academic performance or excessive drug usage. We all want to recruit new types of applicants who may not have thought of a law enforcement career in the past but they still need to be law enforcement oriented, respectful of authority and be able to develop command presence.  They still need the support of their families and they need a realistic view of training and job demands.  I hear of more and more new hires dropping out of the academy in the first few weeks because they change their mind about a the job.

 Although every agency wants to hold out for well-qualified candidates who are good investments and likely to be successful there simply are not enough to go around.  Creative recruitment campaigns have helped somewhat but the applicant pool has become an applicant puddle.  A strong economy with many career alternatives, negative views of law enforcement in the media, demographics, and a different work ethic in the current recruitment age generation may all contribute to the problem.  These are factors law enforcement agencies do not have the power to change.  However, some changes can be made that should help fill the ranks with qualified personnel.

 Some candidates are lost because of background standards that have not recently been reviewed. Make sure all standards are relevant to success on the job.  For example, some agencies routinely disqualify candidates for very minor discrepancies in background information presented at various stages of the background process. Sometimes a misunderstanding or even a clerical error could be at fault and the error is not related to a lack of integrity.  Inflexible background policies in this regard may weed out a candidate that may have been successful.

 Sometimes a slow hiring process causes an agency to continually process towards the bottom of their list because better qualified candidates have accepted other jobs rather than wait for their first choice agency. A short-staffed department may not assign adequate resources to process new officers and the result is fewer staff.

 The Field Training Officer is obviously more important in the hiring process then ever. FTO’s need to see their job as molding a rookie into a successful police officer.  They need to know the candidate is there because administration selected them and wants them as part of the department.  But, FTO’s also need to be able to recognize a problem that can not be remedied and recommend an end to probation when necessary.  Not an easy task when FTO’s may see new officers as different then themselves in background and attitude.

 Communicate openly and often with the psychologist who evaluates your applicants.  Be sure they understand your needs and goals and be sure they are aware of your willingness and ability to work with different types of new officers.  For example, do you have the resources to maintain personnel while they mature on the job?  Also, find out how your psychologist makes decisions.  Some psychologists still disqualify candidates simply because of test results. This practice leads to an unfair and higher then necessary disqualification rate.

  In the current hiring atmosphere you can not afford to lose good candidates and you definitely can not afford to hire bad candidates.