CEDAR PARK, Texas (Nexstar) — Police departments around the state of Texas are on the hunt for new officers, tapping schools and social media to recruit young people to the force.
Agencies are turning to job fairs, police explorer programs, and junior academies to reach prospective officers at earlier ages, in order to shape them into the next generation of crime fighters.
“What you’re seeing now is really a recruiting effort nationwide,” Cedar Park Police assistant chief Mike Harmon said. He said 290 people applied to join the department in its latest hiring spree. The department currently staffs 97 officers.
Harmon said after attending a police recruiting symposium in Washington, D.C., he learned departments around the country are changing strategies for recruiting, hiring, and retention.
“It is changing from more of a traditional ‘Hey, let’s go out there and enforce the laws,’ to more of a, ‘Let’s be involved with the community, let’s be one with the community,’ and a partnership more so,” Harmon said.
That’s exactly what Katharyne Peterson wants to hear. Peterson, 14, has a passion for police officers and wants to become one when she grows up. In first grade, she made an officer’s hat for a class project, and recently started a collection of police patches from departments around the world.
“(I have) seven coins and I think I have 48 patches,” Peterson said. The patches have come from state police in Pennsylvania to Minnesota, local Texas agencies to departments in Germany and Canada.
Peterson said she would like to become a SWAT officer after she graduates from school.
Texas Highway Patrol Sergeant Robbie Barrera said she has seen equality evolve in her 25-years as a state police officer.
“Women can do this job just as good as men,” Barrera said. “It has changed since I joined, but it’s the greatest job I’ve ever done.”
Lubbock Police Chief Greg Stevens said his department is slowly shifting in representation. Stevens said 37 of the department’s 427 officers are women, including those in the academy.
“We are taking a concerted effort to have a diverse department, to have people of color, to have women in law enforcement, we see the value in that,” Stevens said.
Cedar Park’s ratio is about 13 percent, consistent with the national average, Harmon said.
In the Permian Basin, Odessa Police also have approximately a 13 percent female-to-male ratio. Odessa Police is short-staffed about 30 officers, mostly attributed to the volatility of the oil market.
“This whole industry, this area, is completely dependent upon oil,” Corporal Steve LeSueur said.
“Every time we have a boom here, it affects us, we lose officers,” LeSueur explained. “Every time we have a bust, we gain officers.”
He said having a diverse department is crucial to operations.
“We constantly have officers that request a female officer to come for a transport or a search, or in some calls there’s actually victims out there that will request female officers,” he stated. “Whether it’s a sexual assault or something they can relate more.”
Barrera recognizes some people are scared off by the danger that comes with the job.
“Not everyone can do this job,” she said. “There are just some people that are not made for it, and I know that every day when I go to work I may not go home.”
Stevens said violence towards officers, like the 2016 attack that left five members of Dallas Police dead, and the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, inspired mixed results in recruiting.
“We saw a little bit of an uptick in interest from some people and we saw people that of been doing it for a long time ready to leave the career field over the tragedy in Dallas,” Stevens mentioned.
“It’s truly a calling,” he said, adding that his recruiters are looking for people who are “willing to commit especially to this kind of service career for the long-term.”
“It’s not for the faint of heart,” Stevens said. “Got to stick through it when it seems like there is no support and when it seems like society is not behind you.”
“The vast majority of America is always going to be behind the police, they are always going to need cops and they’re always going to be immensely thankful when their world is turned upside down and the first thing they think in their mind as to call 9-1-1,” Stevens asserted.
Harmon said he is encouraged to see young people like Peterson show interest in law enforcement as a career and believe the benefits outweigh the risks.
“To see a young 14-year-old already thinking, ‘Hey I want to be in law enforcement, I want to serve my community, I want to give back,’ is really encouraging,” Harmon explained.
Peterson hopes it could be her calling one day.
“A lot of women are police officers and I think I could be one of those women,” she said.
