Police Marketing Philosophy: The Wrong Assets!

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Have you ever had an applicant in your police hiring process where everything was seemingly going great and then all of a sudden, they were gone? 😞

Of course you have, we’ve all experienced that.  But if you’ve just been chalking it up to bad luck, this newsletter has an epiphany for you that’s going to change your outlook on police recruiting forever...keep reading! 👀

Hey everyone, it’s Tom Sye your Police Marketing FTO, and this week, I’m not messing around here, I’m jumping right into it.  I promised you an epiphany that’s going to change your police recruiting forever…so here it is… 👇

You can’t out-market the wrong assets in place. 

So, what does that mean…

Here's a little story that should change your police marketing philosophy forever…

Once upon a time, probably eight years or so ago now, I had a candidate in for a Background Interview for a Police Officer position.  Nice kid, looked sharp with a shirt and tie on, clearly groomed himself before coming in, and was pretty personable despite being clearly nervous.  😟

Now…early on in our background packet we ask about other agencies people applied for and I noticed he had a neighboring agency listed with a simple ‘no longer in process’ reason given as his current status in their hiring process. 🤔

When I asked him about it…

He told me a whopper…

He said that he was actually really excited to work for that agency and after his background interview, he was feeling great about working for them.  However, when he showed up for his polygraph examination, the polygrapher, who also worked for their agency, immediately began to show disdain towards him because the applicant showed up in a blue dress shirt and he didn’t feel that was a professional look because mature, professional people wear white dress shirts to major meetings. 👔

At the conclusion of the polygraph, the examiner again commented on the unprofessional appearance of this applicant and sent him on his way with nary a pleasantry.  A few days later he received a letter in the mail, stating he was no longer under consideration for a job with their agency. 😳

Hmm…what a tale, I thought. 🤥

Fast forward to a week later...

And there I was...conducting a file review at the neighboring agency and thinking to myself ‘I can’t wait to get the real story on this one’.  As I sifted through the file, I didn’t see any red flags at all.  There were no big disclosures that he made over there he didn’t make to me, all of the information he provided in his packet for them matched identically to what he provided in ours…and then, I came to the background write up that left me floored. 🤯

Right there, in black in white, “reason candidate not moving forward: maturity issues - unprofessional dress during polygraph”.  Wow.  😮

The report went on to clarify that my applicant indeed wore a blue dress shirt to the polygraph examination and not a white one.  That was it.  That’s the reason they got rid of him. 🤦 

Of course...

I went on to hire the young man, never even considering that he wore a white dress shirt to our interview.  😂

So…when I tell you that you can't out-market the wrong assets in place…this is exactly what I’m talking about.  I don’t care what you do to attract applicants to your agency…I don’t care how much money you spend.  I don’t care how good your police marketers and recruiters are.  I don’t care how many family members your applicant has working for you.  If they encounter someone along the way who is not treating them like they’re gold…they’re gone! 👋

Candidate experience is everything in police recruiting. 💯

Applicants can get yelled at anywhere.  If you want to be successful in recruiting like it’s 2025 and stop losing applicants to other agencies or having them ghost you, you need to make sure you have the right amount of the right resources in all of the right places. 🙌

Need some help figuring out what and where those are? 🙋‍♂️🙋‍♀️

There is a whole section dedicated to just this in my Road to Better Recruiting online training course!  Inside, I’ll give you all the knowledge you need to evaluate your entire hiring process, from start to finish, and ensure you’ve got the right people in place to keep applicants, not lose them. 🧲

I’ll also teach you about…all those marketing products and services outside companies keep pitching you so you can properly evaluate them and know the real value they will or won’t bring to your agency.  We’ll cover attraction marketing and how you can use it to start attracting high-quality applicants to your agency again, and I’ll even reveal to you my three favorite attraction magnets that I’ve been using for years that will have people wanting to work for you and only you.  🫵 

I’ve loaded this course up with everything you need to get going and you can check it out now by visiting forcopstraining.com/rtbr. 

Have a friend in recruiting that could really use a good epiphany?  Share this newsletter with them so they can learn too.  Remember, we’re all in this together and they’ll be really happy that you did. 🤝

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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