Cleveland, Ohio – The Cleveland Police Department has a story like many others. Post-2020, attrition rates spiked to over 100 per year, with 550 officers leaving between 2021 and 2023. Many agencies across the country faced a similar crisis, but most have not been able to correct course as rapidly as in Cleveland.
Last week, it was reported that CDOP is within 100 officers of being fully staffed, and they currently have over 800 applications for their January recruiting drive.
This didn’t just happen.
In 2023, Cleveland adjusted the age requirements and began offering a $5,000 hiring bonus. As many law enforcement leaders know, it takes more than this to “catch up” on increased attrition, and that is where CDOP has shone.
Decisions Matter
In early 2024, CDOP began working with SAFEGUARD Recruiting. They are operated by former law enforcement professionals, and unlike traditional marketing companies that push branding and web traffic, SAFEGUARD Recruiting is a recruiting firm dedicated to bringing applicants to agencies.
Long before CDOP saw its applications increase 356%, the team at SAFEGUARD Recruiting was quietly bringing success to police departments across the country, including the Philadelphia Police Department, which came within two hires of breaking its all-time record this year, and the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office, tripling the number of hiring interviews in its first year after partnering with SAFEGUARD Recruiting.
We spoke to SAFEGUARD Recruiting COO Doug Larsen after seeing the success in Cleveland, and while he was hesitant to proclaim victory yet, he told us that the leadership and the recruiting team in Cleveland deserve the credit.
Larsen said that their biggest hurdle when working with new clients is convincing them that change is needed to maximize applicants and hires. When it came to Cleveland, they were already on the right path, but “they listened to our suggestions and embraced the processes we brought them.”
“We promise every client that we can help them fully staff, but it’s a partnership. Our role is to significantly increase the volume of qualified applicants, but the agency has to turn those applicants into hires,” Larsen said.
When it came to Cleveland, Larsen calls them the model client, and that was a direct reflection of the city’s leadership and its recruiting team, which put in the hard work.
According to Larsen, “They were not only open to minor changes but embraced them, and because of their efforts, they have seen success.”
That success, according to Larsen, is not over.
“While we are honored to partner with Cleveland, success for us means just one thing: providing our clients with a fully staffed agency.”
Larsen said that his team will not rest until that happens in Cleveland.
According to city officials, that could very well be right around the corner.
