Running Header: The Modern Millennial Police Recruit The Modern Millennial Police Recruit 6 The Modern Millennial Police Recruit Sheena Thiebaud SOC470- Research Methods Averett University January 15, 2016 Although recruitment of police officers greatly varies depending on economic, social and educational factors from one country to another, police departments often struggle to find the best recruits who can best meet the ever increasing technological and customer-service oriented expectations of a modern police officer (White, 2008). Security and public safety in the 21 century is highly changing and evolving. Due to technological advances, police officers are forced to do their jobs more professionally and change the way in which they relate and interact with members of the public whom they are supposed to protect. Today, almost all police departments exhibit higher levels of transparency than what was being observed a decade ago (Bradley, 2005). There is a great shift in terms of proper leadership, increased use of technology to improve safety and fight crime, policy, structure and culture. The five articles selected for this literature review majorly discuss similar themes and issues. The authors talk about how police recruitment has changed with time for the last few decades. Notably, most of these changes have been brought about technological advances. According the authors, technology has numerous benefits to police agencies but unfortunately, the come laced with immense challenges too which have to be addressed. More is expected from the modern police as compared to what the situation was some decades ago. The modern police are expected to juggle between solving neighborhood problems and also enforce the law (Wilson & Heinonen, 2012). While in the course of their duties, modern police officer are expected to make use of technology in order to recognize, analyze and solve crimes since majority of police departments have adopted an approach governed by community policing strategies (Woska, 2006). A community policing approach is one that encourages police officers to put in place measures aimed at preventing crimes from occurring as opposed to simply reacting when the crimes pop up. This implies that there is immense pressure on police officers to properly handle the complex diverse community problems that have to do with gangs, juvenile offenders, parole and people on probation (Woska, 2006). Therefore, there is a great need for those in charge of recruiting police officers to ensure that they get the best, intuitive and intelligent officers who have the capability to handle the above said complex issues. Some police departments actually have to carry the recruitment exercises two or three times in an effort to make sure that they get things right. Nowadays, modern police recruits are usually technically savvy, service oriented and enthusiastic. They mostly tend to join the police force with high expectations a.

1. Running Header: The Modern Millennial Police Recruit
The Modern Millennial Police Recruit 6
The Modern Millennial Police Recruit
Sheena Thiebaud
SOC470- Research Methods
Averett University
January 15, 2016
Although recruitment of police officers greatly varies depending
on economic, social and educational factors from one country to
another, police departments often struggle to find the best
recruits who can best meet the ever increasing technological and
customer-service oriented expectations of a modern police
officer (White, 2008). Security and public safety in the 21
century is highly changing and evolving. Due to technological
advances, police officers are forced to do their jobs more
professionally and change the way in which they relate and
interact with members of the public whom they are supposed to
protect. Today, almost all police departments exhibit higher
levels of transparency than what was being observed a decade
ago (Bradley, 2005). There is a great shift in terms of proper

2. leadership, increased use of technology to improve safety and
fight crime, policy, structure and culture.
The five articles selected for this literature review majorly
discuss similar themes and issues. The authors talk about how
police recruitment has changed with time for the last few
decades. Notably, most of these changes have been brought
about technological advances. According the authors,
technology has numerous benefits to police agencies but
unfortunately, the come laced with immense challenges too
which have to be addressed.
More is expected from the modern police as compared to
what the situation was some decades ago. The modern police are
expected to juggle between solving neighborhood problems and
also enforce the law (Wilson & Heinonen, 2012). While in the
course of their duties, modern police officer are expected to
make use of technology in order to recognize, analyze and solve
crimes since majority of police departments have adopted an
approach governed by community policing strategies (Woska,
2006). A community policing approach is one that encourages
police officers to put in place measures aimed at preventing
crimes from occurring as opposed to simply reacting when the
crimes pop up. This implies that there is immense pressure on
police officers to properly handle the complex diverse
community problems that have to do with gangs, juvenile
offenders, parole and people on probation (Woska, 2006).
Therefore, there is a great need for those in charge of recruiting
police officers to ensure that they get the best, intuitive and
intelligent officers who have the capability to handle the above
said complex issues. Some police departments actually have to
carry the recruitment exercises two or three times in an effort to
make sure that they get things right.
Nowadays, modern police recruits are usually technically
savvy, service oriented and enthusiastic. They mostly tend to
join the police force with high expectations and a strong desire
to serve citizens well. Thus, law enforcement executives have
realized that these modern recruits are eager to advance in their

3. careers and expect higher starting remuneration packages
(Bradley, 2005). The traditional police officer usually stuck to
the same field or agency mostly for their entire careers (Fulton,
2000). This is in great contrast to what is observed in modern
police officers who are likely to switch jobs or even employers
after a number of years. Currently, members of the police force
have higher expectations when it comes to training and
mentorship opportunities. Newly recruited officers mostly
prefer to have yearly evaluations in order to get opportunities
for promotions and career advancement. They have a strong
desire for more individualized and frequent feedback from their
supervisors as well as corrective alternatives where necessary
(White, 2008).
Technological advances have been a huge blessing for
contemporary law enforcement agencies. For instance, the
explosive growth of internet and related facilities over the last
two decades has highly revolutionized the way police agencies
and departments carry out their operations. New technologies
such the Social Media and other related applications have made
the work of police officers quite easy and challenging at the
same time. For example, though information can be passed to
police officers on time via social media applications such as
Facebook, Twitter and many other apps, gangs and terrorist
organizations have also taken advantage of the same
applications to advance their agendas and coordinate more
efficiently like never before. This has necessitated the use of
new digital means of combating such illegal use of social media
by terrorists and gangs.
The work of police officers has been made more dangerous
by development of specialized technological applications that
particularly target law enforcement agencies. For instance, there
is an application called Waze that helps users to track and tell
the current location of police officers. The implication of this is
that criminals can use it to avoid law enforcements agencies and
safely continue perpetrating their criminal activities. Worse
still, criminals can seek out where police officers are and harm

4. them physically (Bradley, 2005).
While technological advancement especially the internet
makes the work of ensuring public safety hard, criminal use of
the internet mostly tends to leave a trail behind that the police
can use to track down those involved. With the proper tracking
knowledge and tools, police technicians are able to use the
expansive technological resources under their disposal against
suspected or potential cyber criminals (Wilson & Heinonen,
2012). Since there is a lot of information stored in the internet,
when acquired legally, police can use such information as
incriminating evidence against criminals in cases where
applicable. By accessing broadly shared personal information
over the internet, police officers are able to create a strong
database to record behaviors which can later be used to identify
criminal patterns.
As the state of technology evolves, modern police officers
get presented with more complex challenges. Fortunately, law
enforcement agencies mostly have the technical muscle needed
to hack these challenges (White, 2008). However, it calls for a
rapid expansion of knowledge within the police force in order to
keep abreast with new changes and trends. This necessitates the
recruitment of technologically innovative police officers who
are tasked with providing the larger police force with the
technological tools needed to serve the community properly.
One weakness of the five articles used for this research is
that they fail to discuss issues surrounding the legality of police
agencies acquiring evidence stored in computers, phones and
other technological devices belonging to criminals and suspects
by forcing technological companies to provide access to such
devices. Two of the biggest companies in the news today
concerning this issue are companies such as Amazon and Apple.
None of the articles provides substantial information on Digital
Evidence Policy. This is a policy which brings about
accountability and creates corporate standards to make sure that
all technological devices suspected to contain evidence that can
be utilized in cyber-crime cases are correctly seized and

5. relocated from their current location to premises belonging to
specialized law enforcement agencies. This is necessary in order
to safeguard the integrity of potential evidence which can be
quite useful in criminal proceedings.
References
Wilson, J. M., & Heinonen, J. A. (2012). Police Workforce
Structures: Cohorts, the Economy,
and Organizational Performance. Police Quarterly, 15(3),
283-307
Woska, W. J. (2006). Police officer recruitment: A public-
sector crisis. The Police Chief,
73(10), 52-59.
Fulton, R. (2000). Recruiting and hiring new officers. Law
Enforcement Technology, 30, 130.
Bradley, P. L. (2005). 21st century issues related to police
training and standards. The Police
Chief, 72(10), 32-39.
White, M. D. (2008). Identifying good cops early: Predicting
recruit performance in the
academy. Police Quarterly, 11(1), 27-49.