Evidence based practices Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Evidence based practices - Research Paper Example Hence, the LAPD, as well as other law enforcement agencies, can undoubtedly profit from evidence-based approaches to assessing recruitment programs along with reformation the application process. Using the Los Angeles Police Department and city administrative data from financial years 2007 and 2008, this paper will estimate impacts, in line with applicant numbers, for LAPD’s employment efforts and will revise a model for prioritizing candidates established by Lim et al. (2009). Introduction Recruitment and maintenance are long-lasting worries for large urban law enforcement agencies (Lim, 2009). Over much of the last couple of years, police departments from San Diego to New York City have gone through considerable difficulty in finding and maintaining police officers. Even though, the number of police officers countrywide increased by 3.4% between 2000 and 2004 employment did not keep pace with population increase and was well underneath the rate of law enforcement development in the 90s. In addition, 20 out of the 50 largest local police groups in the country decreased in size between 2000 and 2004, in some departments by as high as 10 to 15% (Matthies, 2011). The countrywide economic recession, which started late in 2007, has attested to be a double-edged knife for law enforcement employment. Many candidates are applying for the job, but the funds for hiring and recruiting have been cut. Sheriff and Police departments around the nation have reported large increases in the number of candidates, as is the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). However, financial woes brought on by the economic recession are stopping agencies from taking advantage of the larger applicant pools. A high number of the applications have cancelled due to the lack of available finances to pay the cadets’ incomes. Nowhere else are these hiring and recruitment challenges more apparent than in the city of Los Angeles (Lester, 2007). The LAPD, in terms of per capita, is one of the token big-city law enforcement departments in the United States. In spite of attaining a considerable lofty force strength of 9895 police officers in early 2009, or one police officer for every 388 citizens, LA is still significantly under-policed compared to other prominent cities such as New York, which has one police officer per 233 citizens, and Chicago, with one police officer for every 213 citizens. Since Los Angeles City spreads over more than 400 square miles, the Los Angeles Police Department is also fairly small in line with the geographic area of its power, with 21 administration points per square mile, compared to 118 administration points per square mile in New York City and 59 administration points per square mile in Chicago. Significant empirical questions linked to LAPD’s hiring, and recruiting can be found in Lim et al. (2009). This paper builds on their publication with an extra in-depth study of marketing data and a simplified candidate processing to ol. This paper, in the section that follows, will explain experimental work, which provides facts, if not ultimate answers, regarding some significant employment research questions. Police Recruitment Studies Given the apparent societal import of having law