Date

6-16-2025

Department

Helms School of Government

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy in Criminal Justice (PhD)

Chair

Jarrod Sadulski

Keywords

Police officer, recruitment, retention

Disciplines

Law | Leadership Studies

Abstract

This grounded theory study aimed to understand the issues with police officer recruitment and retention for police administrators nationwide. The theory guiding this study was the grounded theory approach by Glaser and Strauss (1967) as it relates to the reasons for the loss of interest in law enforcement, including an increase in officers resigning before retiring. Data collection will explore if the police administrator being interviewed has experienced increased difficulties in recruiting potential candidates to fill vacancies and an increase in police officers in their department resigning before retirement. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with law enforcement administrators. Recruitment included the Federal Bureau of Investigation National Academy Class 279 participants. An advantage of obtaining participants from the National Academy was the ability to recruit from different parts of the United States, not depending on one area or region for the research. The ability of the research to be conducted nationwide allows for a broader knowledge base of the issues concerning police officer recruitment and retention. The nine themes developed during the research will be discussed in the paper.

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