Police recruitment is very important for all law enforcement agencies; it seeks to recruit, select, train and retain the best possible officers (Grant et al, 2012). This article will give you the reader a general understanding of police recruitment and will also discuss some of the issues that arise in police recruitment; past and present, as well as solutions to these problems. To become a police officer, you must first meet five basic requirements. Although these requirements may vary slightly from state to state, they are fairly basic and easy to meet. First, the applicant must be a U.S. citizen or at least a permanent resident alien who has applied for citizenship. The next requirement is that an applicant be 21 years old as of the date of graduation from the academy. Agencies also have training requirements, which can vary from department to department. Some departments will accept an officer with a high school diploma or at least a GED; while policing requires some form of college education, whether it's a bachelor's degree or a minimum number of college credits. Agencies also require that the applicant have a valid driver's license and that there is a minimum physical fitness requirement to ensure that an applicant will be able to overcome any obstacle they may face in the field. When a candidate meets the five basic requirements, the selection process begins. This selection process is long and thorough and extremely competitive. The candidate is subjected to six tests and must pass all of them before being able to proceed to training. The first phase of the selection process is usually a written exam, which will assess the candidate's basic reading and comprehension skills. Background...... middle of paper ...... this is exactly the process known as police recruitment and how different it was in the 1960s than it is today. In the 1960s, police departments were concerned about not having enough minorities and today, police departments are concerned about not having enough qualified officers in general. If police departments can raise awareness about how great it is to be a police officer and how bright the future could be for a hard-working officer, I think the retention problem within police departments will decrease significantly and the number of qualified candidates will skyrocket. Overall, police recruiting is a significant part of law enforcement and if it weren't for the recruiting and work needed to prepare officers in the field, who knows what kind of chaos could have occurred if unfit officers patrolled the streets and kept citizens safe on a daily basis.