Recruitment and Community Outreach Program

About the Program

Category: Criminal Justice and Public Safety (Best in Category)

Year: 2009

The Suffolk County Police Department’s Recruitment Community Outreach Program was created to attract qualified candidates to consider a law enforcement career with the Suffolk County Police Department. The emphasis of this program was directed toward recruiting qualified minority candidates. With the leadership of Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy, the Suffolk County Police Department, achieved a nationwide record of the number of qualified applicants seeking employment with SCPD. The program netted an astounding 28,584 people for the June, 2007 entrance examination. This figure contradicts a growing problem facing many large police departments, the lack of qualified applicants. The SCPD generally hires between 200 and 400 new police officers during a four year period. The SCPD now has thousands of qualified applicants available for selection. The success of this program was directly related to overwhelming community participation with assistance from influential community leaders, including clergy, civic leaders, community activists, educators, and military personnel. The main focus of requesting assistance form influential community leaders was to change the perception among many young minorities to now consider helping their community by becoming police officers. This begins with gaining the trust and understanding among community leaders to help police personnel negate the negative perception that many young people feel toward law enforcement.