Date of Conferral
2022
Degree
Ph.D.
School
Criminal Justice
Advisor
Tamara Mouras
Abstract
Throughout the history of policing in America, the industry has been hobbled by inadequate recruitment and retention of quality personnel. During the first half of the 21st Century, this inadequacy has reached the level of a crisis. The crisis encompassed the continual shrinking of the police force in the United States with 2020 numbers showing that the United States currently had roughly 800,000 certified police officers with 27,000 leaving the profession each year. The purpose of this study was to examine the perspectives of law enforcement officers on the factors affecting recruitment and retention among new police recruits. For this study, 15 certified police officers from multiple Georgia Police Departments who had been employed no less than 5 years were asked to complete a voluntary qualitative questionnaire. What are the perspectives of law enforcement officers on recruitment and retention and the impact a lack of retention and recruitment had on the agency and community. Findings included themes related to social perceptions, pay, benefits, lifelong desire to police, and micromanagement. The information gained from this study furthers positive social change through an understanding of the root causes of retention and recruitment problems throughout large agencies within the United States and can potentially contribute to solving the recruitment and retention problem.
Recommended Citation
Lentz, Brandon Michael, "The National Crisis of Police Recruitment and Retention" (2022). Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies. 12439.
https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/12439
