Attracting females and racial/ethnic minorities to law enforcement

Using a national survey of law enforcement agencies, this study (1) measured agenciesʹ ability to fill sworn positions, (2) identified the strategies used to attract and hire females and minorities, (3) measured agenciesʹ success in filling sworn positions with females and minorities, and (4) measured through negative binomial regression the impact of agency strategies and agency/jurisdiction characteristics on levels of female and minority applications and hires. The results indicated great variation in agenciesʹ ability to fill sworn positions and fill them with females and minorities and considerable variation in the extent to which mechanisms are used to attract females and minorities to policing. Just one in five agencies has adopted targeted recruitment strategies for women and minorities. Agency success in attracting the applications of and hiring females and minorities varies greatly. The multivariate analyses indicate that recruiting budget and targeting minorities and women do positively affect hiring.