Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Rostker, Bernard
• Wilson, Jeremy M
• Hix, William Michael

Titel

Recruitment and retention : lessons for the New Orleans Police Department

Ort / Verlag

Santa Monica, CA : Rand Gulf States Policy Institute

Erscheinungsjahr

2007

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Cover; Preface; Contents; Tables; Acknowledgments; Chapter One -- Introduction: The Problem; A Personal and Professional Disaster for the New OrleansPolice Department and Other First Responders; Recruiting and Retention Since Katrina; Chapter Two -- Lessons That Might Help the New Orleans Police Department; Compensation; Career Progression and Promotion; Recruiting; Civilian/Officer Mix; Morale; Chapter Three -- Conclusion; Bibliography
• Since Hurricane Katrina, resignations from the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) have increased, and the department went more than a year without recruiting enough candidates to justify a police academy training course. The authors present practical recommendations for change that could help the NOPD improve recruiting and retention. Issues addressed include the lack of affordable post-Katrina housing, the fact that the families of many police officers no longer live in the New Orleans area, the destroyed departmental infrastructure, and a budget that does not provide enough resources to meet basic needs. They focus on compensation, including housing; the promotion process and the career management system; recruiting; the mix of officers and civilians; and ways to improve the morale of the NOPD. The recommendations, which are specifically tailored to the unique circumstances of the NOPD, include (1) using civilian employees, where appropriate, for jobs currently being performed by uniformed officers; (2) developing a proactive recruiting program; (3) offering some of the city's housing stock in-kind to police officers or selling the property and using the proceeds to improve compensation; (4) increasing the frequency of promotion examinations; (5) eliminating the backlog of promotions to higher levels in the department; (6) restructuring compensation to attract recruits and retain serving officers; (7) establishing a first-responders charter school; and (8) rebuilding the police infrastructure to improve morale