Faced with dozens of vacancies on its police force, Little Rock plans to turn to a multimedia recruitment campaign aimed at attracting new recruits and certified officers.
The city has posted a request for proposals on a marketing campaign that should include advertisements on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, along with billboard, television and print advertisements.
The campaign is also expected to devote special attention to attracting women and minority candidates, "in an effort to ensure the police personnel more closely resemble the population they serve," according to a document that laid out the city's request for proposals.
The document outlined the department's recruiting goals and said the marketing campaign should target candidates within a 250-mile radius of Little Rock.
The city's Police Department is short about 80 sworn officers, weakening the department's community policing efforts and causing specialized positions to go unfilled, officials say.
"There are all kinds of vacancies inside our department" said agency spokesman Lt. Steve McClanahan, adding that the department's financial crimes unit is understaffed, and there is one position open on the department's homicide unit.
The vacancies have been persistent -- the department reported about 70 openings this past winter and about 58 vacancies last summer.
"We are trying to make a very aggressive hiring push," McClanahan said.
Little Rock police officials say the dozens of vacancies are not a driving factor in a surge of violent crime this year.
The city has seen 45 homicides as of Aug. 21, well over double the 21 homicides seen in the same time period last year. Preliminary department data show there were 2,234 violent crimes this year as of Aug. 21, a 17 percent jump compared to the same period last year.
In July, violent crime in Little Rock attracted statewide and national attention in the wake of a mass shooting at a downtown nightclub. Some 25 people were shot during the incident.
That shooting led to the creation of an FBI-led task force targeting violent crime and gangs in Little Rock. Officials in the past have said gang activity is a factor in an increase in overall violent crime this year.
Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola said filling the police vacancies is critically important to the city, but there is no direct correlation between the officer vacancies and the uptick in the city's violent crime this year.
"We are being very aggressive to get these vacancies filled," he said.
Stodola said the vacancies have hampered the department's community policing efforts. With patrol officers so busy responding to calls, it leaves little time to connect and build relationships with community members, he said.
Besides the plans for a multimedia campaign, Little Rock has taken other steps to attract potential candidates and fill department vacancies.
New officers receive a $5,000 bonus once they graduate from the training academy and receive another $5,000 if they buy a home in the city. Department officials this year have attended job fairs in central Arkansas and have traveled to universities across the state to recruit, according to a memo from city manager Bruce Moore to elected leaders.
And earlier this year, changes were made to the department's hiring process after a review by the International Chief of Police Association and a Virginia-based organization. Officials said the old hiring process was too strict and prevented quality candidates from becoming police officers.
The first recruit class under the new hiring process will begin training in February. The last recruit class under the old hiring process will begin in November.
After all of the proposals for the marketing campaign are in, a committee will score them and award the contract to the top-scoring proposal, said Lamor Williams, a city spokesman. He said the city will not know the full cost of the marketing campaign until the winning proposal has been identified.
Proposals for the job must be submitted by Sept. 12.
According to a document outlining the request for proposals, the city hopes to have three classes of at least 30 recruits each year, with at least 50 percent being female or minority recruits.
"You want to be very reflective of the community in which you serve," said Capt. Heath Helton, who oversees the Police Department's Training Division.
Department data shows that about 64 percent of the police force is white, about 31 percent is black and 4 percent is Hispanic. The demographic data includes information on 27 police recruits who began their training last week. The recruits are not sworn officers and are not included in the total officer vacancies.
Of those current recruits, 17 are white, nine are black and one is Hispanic.
The department also aims to recruit 10-15 "previously certified" police officers, who receive a shortened training period and can be put out on the street more quickly than a new recruit.
Helton said the department also has plans to create its own police recruitment website separate from the city's.
Helton said connecting with younger candidates on social media is key to recruiting.
"From an agency standpoint, it's important for us to get on board with that because that's how many people communicate," he said.
NW News on 08/29/2017