The ‘Dirty Secret’ of Police Recruiting Companies – Law Officer

While most of my writing and speaking deals with law enforcement leadership, the issue of police recruiting or the lack thereof, is so dire, I have continued to discuss the issue as it is one of the most important items that has faced the profession in decades.

While many agencies have made a significant effort into getting assistance in law enforcement recruiting, the decisions they are making and the millions of dollars being spent have mostly been wasted. Here is why…

Marketing Is Not Recruiting 

While every agency should market and brand, the idea that is a recruiting solution is silly. In fact, it never has been a solution but that hasn’t stopped marketing companies from pitching themselves to law enforcement as “recruiting.” Some are even doing business in another name in an effort to convince the profession that their fancy websites and videos will do the trick. Millions are being spent on it and after several years of this scam, I wonder when our leaders will finally understand?

Marketing Promises Website Visits

The idea that promoting a website will increase recruiting may sound good until you study the data associated with it. Even legitimate marketing companies, that are designed to promote products, will tell you that it takes between 7 and 21 touch points for a consumer to make a decision but that is based on the decision to purchase an item. How many touch points or website visits do you think it would take to make a decision as important as a job and more importantly, how much money is it going to cost to get that website in front of everyone and hope that someone sees it enough to make a decision?

Everyone reading this knows the answer because no one in law enforcement took the job after seeing a website or a video.

Digital Advertising 

Marketing companies certainly promise to recruit and many of them will take a ton of money to do things like SEO, Facebook ads, etc. but here is what they aren’t telling you.

If you give a marketing company $50,000 for a online recruiting campaign, they will put the majority of that money in the bank and put just enough of it towards the campaign to get you enough website hits to make you happy. I’ve looked at a ton of RFP’s that garnered marketing companies millions of dollars and the end results of the failed campaigns tell me that just 5%-10% of the money is being applied to the social media marketing. Even when money is applied to online marketing, the idea of sending those that click on the advertisement back to the website fails because of the touchpoint data I discussed earlier.

How To See The Scam

I get it. Everyone wants a nice website and cool video but just ask the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police how that “Best” Recruiting Video of the Year worked out for them…Their staffing is at an all time low. There are many other agencies that spent crazy money on the same and are likely wondering why nothing worked. Here is how you know that you spent money on a failed marketing campaign:

1. Recruiting Campaigns Send People While Marketing Campaigns Send Website Hits.
2. Recruiting Companies will tell you how much it will cost for a certain number of candidates. Marketing Companies will never tell you this.
3. Recruiting Companies don’t send a mass audience to a website or a billboard hoping the right person sees it…They take the message directly to the qualified candidate.
4. Recruiting Companies will have a track record of success and they will be able to show you what it has historically cost for candidates and applicants…not website views.
5. Finally, if you have positions to fill, an actual recruiting company will tell you exactly what it will cost to fill the positions.

The Answer

I can count on one hand how many companies I have endorsed in the last 20 years but when it comes to an issue this urgent, along with the wolves that are preying on our profession with fancy websites and jazzy videos, I will not stay silent.

I’ve known Doug Larsen for many years and met him when he was running the EVOC Program with Utah DPS. He’s about as straight as they come and when Doug tells you something, you can bank on it. After he retired from law enforcement, he learned actual recruiting in the truck driving industry and to say that was a challenge is an understatement. He brought that success to law enforcement and he and his team have been staffing agencies full ever since and he’s doing it for a fraction of the cost of those fancy websites and videos.

I could tell you that he’s getting qualified police applicants for as low as $27 each but don’t believe me. Reach out to Doug at SAFEGUARD Recruiting and he will send you the receipts. In fact, you can see some of their work and the cost right on their website. Unlike what the scammers are telling you, the evidence is in the data and our leaders need to stop wasting dollars on the proven failed model of using marketing companies as recruiters.

Dr. Travis Yates retired as a commander with a large municipal police department after 30 years of service. He is the author of “The Courageous Police Leader: A Survival Guide for Combating Cowards, Chaos & Lies.” His risk management and leadership seminars have been taught to thousands of professionals across the world. He is a graduate of the FBI National Academy with a Doctorate Degree in Strategic Leadership and the CEO of the Courageous Police Leadership Alliance.