Hire More Police Officers, Keep Your Recruiting Budget!

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Looking to hire more Police Officers but are out of answers and out of budget?  🙋‍♂️🙋‍♀️

From Billboards to recruiting videos, fancy websites, out of state recruiting trips, coaching programs, and even applicant generation systems…you’ve tried seemingly everything, right? 😔

Well, try these ones on for size…here are three redonkulously easy ways to hire more Police Officers without spending a penny...keep reading! 👀

Hey everyone, it’s Tom Sye your Police Marketing FTO, and this week, we’re talking about hiring more Police Officers!  What a topic, I know! 👏

Look, I know you’ve tried everything and recruiting in 2025 can be incredibly frustrating…and at times…feel like it’s impossible.  But it doesn’t have to be…we just got to get out of our own way as a profession. 😘

You see, and you’re probably figuring this out already, but those tried-and-true methods we’ve been using for decades to recruit people…yeah…they don’t work anymore.  😳

But fortunately for you…I’ve got three ridiculously easy alternatives that are super simple to implement and will see your agency not only attracting but getting more Police Officer applicants through your hiring process without spending a single penny to do it. 🙌

Intrigued?  Let’s get to it…

1. Make sure your police recruiting meets them where they’re at as applicants

Ditch the job fairs, career expos, and out of state recruiting trips, and get yourself on social media.  Spoiler alert: that’s where your applicants are at.  Now, before you go telling me, ‘Hey Tom, we’re on social media, we have a Facebook page’, realize that social media is way more than Facebook. 🤯

Did you know the average Generation Z social media user, you know, the generation that makes up a large chunk of your current applicants, uses six different social media platforms per day.  Six.  When you consider that roughly 3% of your entire social media audience will actually see your posts on any one site, you better believe you need to be everywhere to have a better shot at meeting them. 🌎

For starters, get yourself set up on all of the big ones…post interesting content frequently…and be consistent in your messaging of how awesome a place your agency is to work. 😎

Total cost: $0.

2. Streamline your testing process

You want to hire more people?  Make it easy for them to test with you. 😮

An all-in-one day testing model, where an applicant can complete all of the initial steps of your process is guaranteed to not only get more people showing up, but more people making it through as well because they don’t have to ‘no-show’ the next step because they couldn’t get off of work again. 👍

In addition, and this is a really good idea, you can also offer more opportunities to test with your agency.  If you’re an agency that is still opening, closing, and then opening again three months later you’re missing a lot of applicants along the way and should switch to an at least once a month testing date immediately. 📅

Remember…everyone is hiring nowadays…so, when you’re not accepting applications or don’t have testing dates available, another agency does and they’re going to hire them. 🤷‍♂️

Total cost to streamline - $0. 

3. Offer to help

From Run with a Recruiter type programs, to Oral Board prep sessions, Written Test practice exams, to even providing information as to how to properly fill out an application or your background packet, there is a ton you could be doing to help people through your hiring process. 💪

Now…this in no way, shape, or form, means for you to lower standards or to give away all of the answers. It simply means to help people prepare for a process they have no idea how to make it through. 🫡  

How you deliver the message is entirely up to you.  You could email them a .pdf of testing tips.  You could create how to videos and throw them up on your website or social media channels.  There can be in person training sessions, phone calls, you name it. 🔀

Do whatever you have to do to reach out and help people…remember you and your applicants are a team.  If you start treating them like you have something to prove to them as opposed to the other way around, you’ll see yourself hiring more of them.  🚀

Total cost - $0. 

So, how do I know all of these will work? 🤔

Because this is exactly what we’ve done at my agency over the past five years to hire the most Police Officer applicants we’ve ever processed in that short amount of time.  This stuff works…you just have to execute and more importantly believe in it.  💯  

Looking for even more ways to help get people through your hiring process, while completely overhauling your recruiting outlook, sharpening your knowledge of police marketing, and learning how to meet your applicants where they’re at, build a relationship with them, and show them that people like them work for you? 📈

My Road to Better Recruiting online super course is your fast lane to recruitment success.  Check it out now on my website by visiting forcopstraining.com/rtbr and start recruiting like it’s 2025!

Have a friend in recruiting who really needs these tips in their life?  Share this newsletter with them so they can learn too.  Remember, we’re all in this together. 🤝

Have more questions about police recruiting, marketing, or anything else you're struggling with? Don't hesitate to reach out...I’m always here to help. 🙏

Until next week my Police Marketing Squad, happy recruiting! 😃

Tom

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👋 I’m Tom Sye, your Police Marketing FTO. I founded ‘For Cops’ Training to teach Police Departments how to attract more qualified candidates through the same tried and tested methods I’ve used for the past ten years at my own department to keep up with turnover and stay ahead of vacancies.

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