Recruitment and retention of campus security and police officers has long been an issue college and university administrations struggle to effectively address. This is a common challenge that also affects state and municipal law enforcement agencies and much has been written on the topic over the years.

 

Recruiting and hiring the right officers seems straightforward, but for colleges and universities the ideal profile of a campus security or police officer tends to be somewhat different than that of a traditional law enforcement officer. Typically, campuses look for a candidate that works "well with children or young adults," according to a Campus Safety Magazine  article from 2013. A candidate's background does not need to be in law enforcement; it could be in psychology, education, or another field that fits well with the concept of community policing, a policing model commonly used by campus law enforcement. A candidate may ideally be someone with a proactive rather than reactive approach to the job, and someone who is a problem-solver rather than someone who is most interested in making arrests.

 

Vetting candidates is also a critical part of the hiring process, though most institutions have a rigorous selection process in place between the human resource department and the public safety/police/security department. Conducting appropriate background checks and making sure personalities are the right fit for your existing team and the goals of your institution are an important part of the hiring process.

 

Once you find the right person, how do you retain them? This continues to be a challenge for colleges and universities of all sizes. In 2010, David Heller, a MS student in criminal justice at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville authored a seminar paper on The Retention of University Police Officers: An Examination of the Causes of Employee Turnover and Recommendations for Administrators (PDF). Key causes for turnover identified in the paper include: