Law Enforcement Staffing: 6 Steps Beyond Hiring

Estimated reading time: 12 minutes

Police Staffing Challenges

I work with law enforcement agencies all over the country. It doesn’t matter what the meeting is about, the topic of staffing always comes up.

Mid-career officers are leaving. Senior officers are retiring.

Agencies tell me they can’t do anything proactive because their people are too busy driving from call to call.

Even simple things like covering a community event or adding extra security turns into a hassle. You end up hunting down and begging officers to take the shift.

Schedules change to fit lower staffing which typically means more mandatory overtime, which drives officers away. And the cycle continues.

People turn to easy tech fixes, hoping some new tool will magically free up time or make things better. But officers are still leaving faster than they can be replaced.

Leadership gets thrown into recruitment duty even though they are not recruiters and have no clue what to do next.

If this sounds like you, then this article is for you.

Instead of throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks, there’s a better way to deal with your staffing challenges.

Enter the Research

In their 2025 article Reframing the Police Staffing Challenge, researchers Jeremy Wilson and Clifford Grammich looked at over 80 studies on police hiring, training, and retention. They pulled together a six-step system that agencies can use to make better decisions about staffing.

It all starts with understanding what your agency is actually being asked to do. I breakdown their approach below:

Reframing the police staffing challenge: A systems approach to workforce planning and managing workload demand | Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice | Oxford Academic

Understand Your Workload Demand

To plan your workforce, you need to know what officers are expected to accomplish. That means looking at two things:

1. Workload – Calls for service and cases. Not all calls are the same. Some take 10 minutes, others take hours.
2. Performance Goals – These are the extra things, like proactive patrols or community policing, which don’t begin with a 911 call but are still important.

Workload + Performance Goals = Workload Demand

The challenge is meeting that demand with the right people, in the right roles, at the right time.

A Smarter Six-Step Plan

Here’s the systems approach in action:

1. Figure Out How Many People You Really Need

A lot of agencies still use old methods to decide how many officers they need. They might base it on population size, minimum staffing levels, or whatever the budget allows. But those methods do not show how much work officers are actually doing or what kind of support they need.

A better approach is the workload-based model. This model looks at the full picture of what officers are expected to do. That includes 911 calls, how long those calls take, how many officers are needed per call, and how much time officers spend on things like community events, traffic enforcement, or follow-up.

Let’s say your agency had 60,000 calls for service last year.
You pull CAD data and estimate that:

• 70% of those calls required about 30 minutes each
• 25% required 90 minutes (reports, interviews, arrests)
• 5% took 3+ hours (investigations, mental health transports)

You also decide to build in time for community policing, report writing, and backup time.

You then account for officer availability:

• How many hours per year an officer actually works (after PTO, court, training, etc.)
• The number of officers per shift
• How calls are distributed by day and time

Using all that, you calculate that to meet your current demand while leaving time for proactive work and avoiding burnout. So, for this example, that may look around 95 patrol officers needed. If the agency only has 83, the next step is to identify how to close that gap. One approach is to assess whether any sworn officers are handling tasks that could be reassigned to civilian staff or restructured to free up patrol capacity. Then look to hiring more officers.

This isn’t just math for the sake of math. It gives you something solid to go to your city manager or council with. Instead of saying “we’re short-staffed,” you can say:
“We’re running 12 officers short based on workload. Here’s how we calculated it, and here’s how we could meet some of that gap.”

You don’t need expensive software to get started. You just need basic call data, time estimates, and a spreadsheet.

The workload model works best for agencies with at least 15,000 calls a year since it uses averages. But even smaller departments can apply the basic idea by looking more closely at how officers spend their time.

If it feels like you do not have enough people, stop and ask why?

• Is there really a staffing shortage?
• Are officers being used in the best way?
• Could civilians handle some tasks?
• Is your scheduling part of the problem?
• Are officers spending time on low-priority work?

Hiring might still be part of the solution, but it should be based on actual data, not just a feeling. Sometimes the real fix is using your current staff in a smarter way.

2. Set Workforce Goals

Talk with your team. Talk with your community.

What should your department look like?

Are there certain groups in the community you’re not reflecting in your ranks?

Are there skills you need, like foreign language ability or tech knowledge?

Instead of just finding more people, try finding the right people. Where could you find and reach them?

Also think about the staff you already have.

Do you have someone with a rare or valuable skill? What would help keep them from leaving? Could they train others?

And remember, workforce goals depend on more than headcount. They include:

• Leadership – Managing both internal staff and external expectations.
• Culture – Outdated mindsets make it harder to attract and keep good people. Is there any part of your culture that is driving people away?
• Resources – Budgets shape what is possible. Consider whether your current funding supports things like development opportunities, competitive salaries, and creative staffing solutions. Are funds being used in a way that supports your actual goals?
• Civilian Staff – Can take on some tasks and bring in more diversity. Some agencies are employing civilian investigators to handle property crime cases.
• Organizational Learning – Agencies need to stay flexible and keep improving.

3. Look at Where You Are Now

Once you’ve set your goals, ask where you currently stand.

Start by asking:

• What’s already working?
• Where are the gaps?
• Are you on track to meet the goals you just laid out, or are you far from it?

This step helps you figure out how close you are to where you want to be. It also gives you a starting point, so later on you can measure what has improved and what still needs work.

You do not need a fancy dashboard or a full-on consultant to do this. You can get a lot of insight just by pulling a few simple metrics, talking with your team, or looking at your last staffing report. If you are not sure what to measure, start with basics like response times, officer availability, and how much time is spent on proactive work.

This is not about blaming anyone. It is about being honest with what you have so you can make a smart plan. If you skip this step, you are basically guessing. And guessing is what leads to wasted time, wasted money, and even worse morale.

4. Build a Strategy That Fits

Your strategy should fill the gaps between where you are and where you want to be. That could mean recruitment, retention, better scheduling, or stronger training.

Here are some ideas to consider:

• Deployment – Smart scheduling and better use of officers’ time. That might include adjusting shifts based on peak call times, creating overlap during busy hours, or assigning officers with specialized skills to the roles where they’re most effective.
• Recruitment and Selection – Hiring takes time. It can take a year to bring in a new officer, but only two weeks for someone to leave. Focus on attracting people with needed skills and reducing barriers for non-traditional candidates. Agencies have seen success by partnering with community colleges, using targeted social media ads, and streamlining their application process.
• Retention – You cannot hire your way out of burnout and stress. Offer real support, help people grow, and fix unfair promotion practices. Programs like mentoring for new officers, leadership development tracks, and employee wellness initiatives can make a big difference.
• Training – Good training helps people feel valued and gives them chances to grow. This could mean offering scenario-based training that reflects your department’s biggest challenges, adding ongoing skill development, or using online platforms for flexibility. If someone has a goal to be a detective, encourage them to attend detective trainings such as interviewing and investigation techniques.
• Productivity – Court dates on days off, strategy changes, public criticism, and viral incidents can all hurt productivity. Good management and clear expectations can reduce unnecessary stress and improve day-to-day performance. Even simple fixes like better case management software or clarifying report expectations can help.
• Succession Planning – People will retire. Plan now to help the next generation step up with confidence and the right skills. Identify future leaders early and give them real opportunities to grow. A lot of agencies are building formal leadership academies or including leadership modules in FTO and supervisor training.

5. Put the Plan into Action

Once your plan is in motion, keep checking in on how things are going.

Ask yourself:

• Are you using your resources the best way you can?
• Are any obstacles popping up?
• What needs to be adjusted?

You also need a way to measure if you’re making progress. This could include things like response times, retention rates, number of trainings offered, or even a yearly anonymous employee feedback survey.

Quick note on those surveys:

If you say it’s anonymous, make sure it actually is. Nothing tanks trust faster than someone getting called in to talk about something they wrote. Also, be ready to act on the feedback. If there’s something you know you can’t change (like a locked-in patrol schedule) don’t include a question about it. It just sets people up to feel ignored if they ask for something and nothing happens. That kind of disconnect can tank morale fast.

The goal here is to stay flexible, be honest, and keep things moving in the right direction. You won’t get everything perfect right away, but showing you’re listening and adjusting builds trust and momentum.

6. Keep Monitoring Progress

Don’t “set it and forget it.” Keep checking in.

Ask:

Is this working?

Are we getting closer to our goals?

What needs to change?

Stay flexible and make changes as you go.

Hiring Is Not the Only Answer

Yes, hiring matters. But it’s only one part of the big picture.

Sometimes, what looks like an understaffing problem is actually an efficiency problem.

Ask yourself:

• Are your sworn positions set at the right number for your workload?
• Is patrol overloaded because of how the work is divided, not because of staffing alone?
• Are there tasks you could shift to civilian staff?
• Are officers being asked to do low-value work that takes time away from higher-priority tasks?

Relying only on hiring to fix staffing challenges can burn out your team and hurt your department long term. Constantly saying the agency is understaffed can hurt officer morale and motivation.

Final Thought

Staffing challenges are real, but hiring more officers is not always the best or only answer. If you do not look at how your staff is being used, how they are supported, and what your community really needs, then adding more people will not fix the bigger problems.

This six-step approach gives you a way to step back and look at the full picture. It helps you make better decisions that match your goals. It is not about doing more with less. It is about doing the right things with the people and resources you already have.

So before posting another job ad, take a minute to ask what is really causing the problem. You might not need more officers. You might just need a better plan.

Don’t just count your people. Make your people count.

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Carlee Ruiz

Carlee Ruiz is the founder of PoliceResearchHub, a platform that turns academic research into practical insights for law enforcement. She brings seven years of experience as a crime analyst and justice researcher, with a focus on evidence based policing, gun violence prevention, and public safety strategy. Carlee currently works as a researcher at National Policing Institute, where she supports evaluations of law enforcement programs and criminal justice initiatives across the country. Through PoliceResearchHub, she aims to make research easier to understand and more useful for the people doing the work on the ground.