East Texas police departments find new ways to recruit officers

TYLER — Police departments across East Texas are still in need of officers. Longview PD’s recruitment team is reaching out to people across several states. “We’ve been going to job fairs across Texas and in Louisiana and we’ve been partnering with colleges and universities,” said Kendric Montgomery, Longview Police Department Recruiting Lieutenant, our news partner KETK reports. Tyler Police are using any method they can to reach potential applicants. “We use billboards, sometimes we use movie ads in theaters. We have a traffic device that goes to different areas that sometimes have a funny slogan on them,” said Andy Erbaugh, Tyler Police Department Public Information Officer.

Longview PD has updated certain policies and are offering monetary incentives for new recruits. “We have now allowed officers to have exposed tattoos and beards,” said Montgomery. “We are offering a $3,000 sign-on bonus for non-experienced officers to come into our department.” Both departments also added programs to bring existing police officers to their cities. “We’ve added on prior service credit. That is something that is huge for people who are already police officers that don’t want to come start at a recruit level,” said Erbaugh.

Once you get the job, departments are providing all of the equipment you need. “You pretty much only have to buy your socks and underwear, but other than we pretty much provide everything,” said Erbaugh. Longview PD thinks many are apprehensive to the dangers officers face in the field. “There’s some things that have happened in law enforcement across the country that has taken a hard hit on law enforcement as a whole,” said Montgomery.

Erbaugh said many are retiring and not a lot are applying. “When I started back in 1997 we had 150-200 people apply, now you see 40 or 50 people apply, but that’s 24 years later,” said Erbaugh. They hope to recruit people who want a career and to serve their community, not just a paycheck.

Applications for the Tyler Police Department are open until June 19.