In law enforcement, recruiting and retaining good people has always been a challenge. Especially in today’s climate, though, making smart hiring decisions is more critical than ever. When bad hires slip through the cracks, the consequences can be severe — ranging from poor performance and low morale to legal liabilities and erosion of public trust.
In the recent Lexipol webinar, “Why Law Enforcement Hires Go Bad — And What We Can Do About It,” panelists addressed this difficult issue. The first in a two-part series, the event features Lexipol co-founder Gordon Graham and Bruce “Coach Sok” Sokolove, principal at Field Training Associates. Pulling from a combined 107 years of law enforcement experience, these industry veterans highlight common mistakes agencies make when selecting new officers. More importantly, they offer helpful advice on solutions to resolve these issues.
Below, we break down some of the most important takeaways from the discussion, exploring why hires fail, how agencies can improve their recruitment and background investigation processes, and what steps leaders should take to ensure they bring in only the best candidates.
The True Cost of a Bad Hire
Both Graham and Coach Sok emphasize that bad hires don’t just weaken individual agencies — they can harm the entire profession. Bringing on just one officer with the wrong temperament or skillset can cause major damage to morale, create unnecessary liabilities and erode community trust.
It’s the age-old “one bad apple” situation. As Graham puts: “Every time we see a tragedy in law enforcement — an excessive use of force, an officer-involved shooting gone wrong, a scandal — it almost always traces back to hiring. If we don’t fix recruitment, we’ll never fix the profession.”
Sok concurs, adding that many agencies treat recruitment as an administrative task rather than a strategic mission. Instead of actively seeking out and identifying the best candidates, too many departments rely on outdated processes or settle for whoever applies.
“Unfortunately, a lot of agencies are just posting vacancies,” Sok says. “They’re not actually recruiting. There’s a difference.”
This “post and pray” approach means departments often get stuck with candidates who lack the character, work ethic or emotional resilience necessary for police work. Worse yet, these officers can become long-term problems, requiring excessive supervision, failing to meet performance standards or even engaging in misconduct.
So, how can agencies stop bad hires before they happen? The panelists provided some helpful answers.
“If you’re not taking hiring seriously, you’re putting your entire agency at risk.”
1. Rethinking Recruitment: Target the Right People
One of the most significant points raised in the webinar is the need to rethink how law enforcement agencies recruit. Rather than waiting for applicants to come to them, departments must actively seek out candidates with the right mindset, values and work ethic.
Sok emphasizes that college athletes, an often-overlooked candidate pool, are a great demographic to recruit from. “These are men and women who get up before their classmates, who are in the gym before the sun rises, and who understand teamwork,” he says. “They have discipline, resilience, and a competitive spirit that makes them exceptional candidates for law enforcement.”
In addition to athletes, agencies should also consider former military personnel and even service industry workers. Since customer service is so critical to law enforcement work, people who can serve customers daily without getting their feathers ruffled have already learned some important “policing” skills.
“Look for people who already know how to work with the public — bartenders, waiters, hotel clerks,” Graham suggests. “These folks know how to manage difficult interactions and solve problems under pressure.” In fact, Graham notes, he himself was recruited from a Swenson’s ice cream parlor to become a member of the California Highway Patrol.
Here are some important tips the panelists shared for more effective recruitment:
- Proactive outreach. Go beyond job fairs — actively recruit at universities, community centers, military bases and other locations where highly motivated candidates spend their time.
- Look for character, not just skills. Focus on resilience, integrity and teamwork rather than just tactical ability. You want someone who can work well with others and persist for the long haul.
- Use personalized recruiting. Cold-calling top candidates, as Sok suggests, can be highly effective. When potential recruits are personally invited to consider a career in law enforcement, they are much more likely to rise to the occasion.
- Everyone’s a recruiter. Finding qualified candidates isn’t just the job of leadership or human resources. The rank and file can be an amazing force multiplier for recruiting. When you “deputize” everyone in the department to search for and find their own coworkers, you may be surprised at how many good candidates they turn up. (Of course, if your current employees aren’t happy at your agency, they’re not likely to be particularly helpful with recruiting.)
The most important thing, in the eyes of the panelists, is being very intentional about who and what you’re looking for. Law enforcement work requires people who are tough and resilient — but it also requires compassionate problem-solvers.
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2. The Background Investigation: A Critical but Often Flawed Process
One of the most costly mistakes agencies make is too little attention to background investigations. Graham and Sok stress that a thorough background check is the best predictor of future performance.
“A dollar properly spent on a background check can save you a million dollars in lawsuits,” Graham warns. He cited multiple cases where officers with red flags in their backgrounds — such as DUIs or prior terminations — were hired anyway, leading to disastrous consequences. In many of these cases, the agencies who hired these problematic employees neglected to do their due diligence during the hiring process.
Though it’s tempting to consider everyone who can fog a mirror, it’s critically important to make sure future employees haven’t established patterns of aberrant behavior in previous jobs.
Sok highlights a particularly alarming case in which an officer was hired despite having been discharged from the military for multiple incidents of drunk driving. The same officer later caused a wrongful death incident, resulting in a $10 million settlement against the agency that hired him.
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Here are a few of the most egregious failures Graham and Sok have seen in the hiring process:
- Not contacting previous employers. Many agencies rely on dates of employment only, missing red flags like poor performance or terminations. Indeed, many departments are reluctant to volunteer information about former employees because of fears of being sued. This makes the “Waiver for Lateral Hires” even more important. (See below.)
- Ignoring past misconduct. Officers who leave departments under questionable circumstances often move to other agencies without thorough scrutiny. This is the problematic “He’s their problem now” approach to personnel management.
- Not verifying education and training. Make sure they’ve actually done what they say they’ve done. It’s not unheard of for candidates to falsify credentials or overstate their experience and training. As President Ronald Reagan was fond of saying, “Trust, but verify.”
To help improve the quality of your agency’s background investigation process, consider the following:
- Use the “Waiver for Lateral Hires.” Graham mentions using a simple form allowing agencies to access full personnel records from previous employers. When presented with this waiver, he notes, half of lateral candidates drop out, knowing their past records will be reviewed.
- Require mandatory ride-alongs. Before advancing in the hiring process, candidates should participate in ride-alongs to assess their fit for the job. And if they actually show up for their scheduled ride-along, that’s a good start!
- Conduct comprehensive military & employment checks. Agencies should pull military discharge records (DD214) and thoroughly vet past employment history. Be sure you’re paying by the hour rather than a flat rate. That will encourage those doing the investigations to be more thorough as they vet your agency’s candidates.
It’s hard to overstate the importance of the background investigation process in law enforcement hiring. Sure, turning over rocks may lead to information that will (or should) disqualify a potential recruit. But that’s a good thing — it means you won’t put more time and money into training and onboarding someone who isn’t a good fit for your organization.
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3. The Academy: Catching Red Flags Early
While solid recruitment practices and background investigations can help prevent many hiring mistakes, some issues don’t emerge until training begins. Both Graham and Sok stress that agencies must monitor recruits closely during their academy training.
“Too many agencies send candidates to the academy and forget about them,” Sok says. “We need to stay engaged, talk to instructors and watch for warning signs early on.”
Here are some potential red flags to watch for as your new recruits complete their training:
- Struggles with stress management. If a recruit panics or freezes in stressful scenarios, they may not be a good fit for law enforcement. While it’s common for cadets to be occasionally overwhelmed, if that becomes a pattern it might be good to wash them out.
- Inability to write reports. Poor report writing can cause legal issues and signal a lack of basic skills. Besides poor writing, pay close attention to really good writing, which may indicate the candidate might be using AI tools to make up for a lack of skills.
- Lack of situational awareness. Recruits who don’t notice critical details during training exercises can become liabilities in the field. Failing to recognize potential threats, read body language or assess unfolding situations can lead to dangerous misjudgments, putting both officers and the public at risk.
Academy training provides a crucial opportunity to confirm whether a recruit is truly suited for the job. It’s far better to identify any deficiencies before sending the officer into high-risk, real-world situations. Agencies must be willing to make tough decisions, ensuring that recruits who consistently struggle with stress, critical thinking or report writing do not advance. As Graham points out, “You’re not doing anyone any favors by pushing someone through who isn’t cut out for the job”
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Recruitment as a Long-Term Investment
Hiring the right people in law enforcement isn’t just about filling vacancies — it’s about building a foundation for effective, ethical policing. Bad hires can lead to scandals, lawsuits and lasting damage to public trust, while good hires strengthen agencies and communities.
Graham and Sok make it clear: “If you’re not taking hiring seriously, you’re putting your entire agency at risk.”
By proactively recruiting, conducting thorough background checks, and fine-tuning training processes, agencies can avoid costly mistakes and build a police force that is truly prepared to serve and protect.
The future of policing depends on hiring the right people today—and that starts with making recruitment a strategic priority, not an afterthought.
