The NOPD is constantly searching for the best of the best to join its ranks and has been aggressively marketing to high quality candidates throughout the country. In 2016, the department has not only showed why it is seen as one of the most innovative police departments in the country through advancements in technology and practices, but also been successful in attracting interest from many outstanding individuals who believe they have what it takes to become an NOPD officer.
Candidates undergo a rigorous and selective process before they are offered the opportunity to enter the department’s training academy. These include aptitude tests, medical and psychological examinations, and an in-depth investigation of their backgrounds. Only after applicants pass all of these tests are they are eligible to join the six-month academy class that begins their journey into the ranks of the NOPD.
In 2016, NOPD has received more than 4300 new applications from individuals interested in becoming police officers. Of that number, 114 have been hired onto the department as members of one of the four recruit classes begun this year.
The number of new hires is higher than the 109 officers lost during the year and marks the second year in a row that the department has hired more officers than it loses through attrition. Chief Michael Harrison attributed the number of officers lost to a higher number of involuntary separations during the year.
“While our numbers may change through attrition, we are always focused on finding the best candidates to join the NOPD,” he said.
In 2016, the department implemented new initiatives and streamlined existing practices in an effort to improve the process by which these candidates can make their way into the recruit program.
Testing faster, more often
Deputy Chief of Staff Jonathan Wisbey, who oversees recruiting for the department, said that the NOPD has made adjustments to the way the NOPD operates its recruiting on numerous levels, all with the mission of improving the recruiting process.
These adjustments include increasing the efficiency, frequency and speed of testing in the application process, he said.
“We’ve made it to where we offer testing almost every day, including weekends and nights, when necessary,” he said. “We also offer walk-in testing and scheduled testing specifically for applicants coming in from out of town.”
In the summer of 2016, Wisbey said, the department also integrated the agility and panel interview portions of the application process to occur during the background interview portion of the process.
“This way, rather than forcing applicants to wait for any amount of time, as soon as they finish the test and are verified through civil service, they can go right into the background interview portion of the process,” he said.
In an effort to keep processing times low, the department continues to staff its applicant investigative unit at a higher level that it had been in previous years, Wisbey said.
The department has also worked with New Orleans’ Civil Service Commission to create new parameters in reporting on psychiatric and medical aspects of the application process.
“Now, the commission gets a monthly report on processing time for these steps, instead of just standard management approvals,” Wisbey said.
These changes have led to multiple applicants making their way through the process from application to hire in between two and three months, Wisbey said. He added that applicants can also be hired in as quickly as a week as police aides – uniformed civilian employees who serve in an apprentice-style program designed to prepare them for a career as a police officer before entering the training academy.
Harrison said that a recent increase in staffing at the department’s training academy has also accommodated the addition of a new class as of December 28, the department’s 179th class, marking the first time in years that the academy has operated three recruit classes simultaneously.
“For the past three years, we've had two classes in training at our academy at all times,” he said. “This month, we now have three classes underway. This is showing real progress not only in recruiting and hiring, but in our training capacity.”
Coming from near and far
This year, the NOPD put more resources into its nationwide recruiting campaign aimed at bringing the best and brightest recruits to New Orleans. Through this campaign, Wisbey said, the number of applications from out-of-town candidates has steadily risen.
“This year alone, of the 4300 applicants we’ve had, more than half have been from outside of our usual recruiting base,” he said.
The number of out-of-state applicants to the department shows the growing interest that possible recruits have in joining the NOPD, Harrison said.
“In our last class to graduate, we had 11 states represented,” Harrison said. “Half of the class was local or from near the area, while the other half were from those 11 different states. The class we just started today (December 28), out of those 10, about half are from out of state. They moved to our city because they not only found interest in our city, but interest in the NOPD. That speaks volumes as to where we are now, compared to where we used to be.”
Wisbey and Harrison attribute the growing number of transplant applicants to increased efforts on numerous levels of recruiting reaching a broader audience.
In 2016, the NOPD not only maintained its focus on recruiting officers within Louisiana and nearby states, but also increased its recruiting efforts to reach even farther outside of the area. NOPD recruiters took their efforts to new places in 2016, visiting job fairs, universities and military bases in both North Carolina and Texas in search of new recruits. Such efforts will continue in 2017, Wisbey said, as recruiters will visit even more cities in an effort to bring the best recruits to the NOPD.
One target audience is those with armed forces backgrounds, Wisbey said.
“Many recruits are individuals who finish their time in the military and come to the NOPD because they want to continue protecting and serving the community,” he said. “In our first three recruit classes of 2016 (Classes 176-178), about one third of our total recruits had some sort of military experience. Our newest class of 10 currently has two recruits with military experience. Having that structure helps when coming into law enforcement, but there are also many differences between the two.”
Along with broadening its in-person recruiting efforts, Wisbey said, the department’s use of social media has had a sizeable impact on the NOPD’s recruiting efforts in 2016.
“We weren’t using social media at all in recruiting in 2015,” he said. “But, in 2016, we integrated use of social media, particularly Facebook, to help promote recruitment. Working with our Public Affairs Division as well as with the New Orleans Police and Justice Foundation (NOPJF), we feel like that has been a major contributor to bringing in recruits, particularly those from outside of the immediate area.”
Through Facebook, the department and NOPJF use 30-second videos featuring NOPD officers and recruits telling their stories – why they came to the NOPD, what drew them to New Orleans and why they enjoy being a part of the NOPD. In addition, certain articles highlighting hiring efforts are boosted to increase audience reach to targeted demographics.
“Back in January, before the Facebook push started, social media was responsible for less than 5 percent of the traffic on the department’s recruiting website,” said NOPJF Program Director Nathanial Weaver. “In the first three weeks of December, it accounted for over 50 percent of traffic to the site. That is over 15,000 additional sessions that were generated by the great work that Public Affairs is doing on social media.”
Weaver said that the effectiveness of social media in departmental recruiting shows in gauging applicants.
“We know that it is translating into actual applications and tests, as well as site traffic,” he said. “At every Civil Service test session, applicants are asked how they learned about the job opportunity at NOPD. Last month, Facebook was the third most commonly listed source, just behind ‘NOLA.gov website’ and ‘friends or family members.’”
Continued improvements in 2017
Moving into 2017, the department plans to continue its work to further streamline the application process, Wisbey said. This includes hiring key staff to positions that will aid in the process.
“We are hiring four civilian recruitment investigators to supplement our full-time investigative staff,” he said. “They will work to help us further decrease the time applicants are in the background investigation pipeline."
In addition, the NOPD will be hiring a civilian recruitment director in the near future to coordinate the department’s recruiting efforts. Wisbey said the role will be filled by a candidate with expertise in marketing and advertisement.
Another change in 2017 will see the department contract with an outside company which will assist by conducting the agility portion of applicant testing outside of regular hours.
“The hope is that with these hires, we will continue to see a decrease in processing times, which ultimately leads to more applicants being hired,” Wisbey said.
Harrison said all of these combined efforts will have the NOPD working to make sure those who meet the qualifications to join the department can do so in as streamlined a fashion as possible.
“In 2017, you will see us continue to compete with other organizations nationally for the best candidates,” he said. “We are looking for those men and women who have a passion for serving and protecting the people here in the City of New Orleans. Our staff will work very hard to ensure that those who feel a desire to answer the call of law enforcement have every opportunity to do so and to stand with us as members of the New Orleans Police Department.”
For more information on joining to the NOPD, visit www.joinnopd.org.