One might think if Arizona first-responder agencies want to recruit out-of-state, looking to neighboring states would make sense.
That’s why the Chandler Police Department is targeting surrounding states for recruitment. Also, Illinois.
While Illinois is more than 1,500 miles from Chandler, city staff and the advertising firm Davidson Belluso have concluded Illinois, the Pacific Northwest and Southwestern states should be targeted for CPD recruitment.
At a recent meeting, the Chandler City Council agreed to a $381,000 amendment to a contract with Davidson Belluso to help the city advertise and fill vacant positions. About $180,000 of that money will be used to advertise online for Chandler public safety vacancies.
Chandler Police Chief Sean Duggan said his department has been averaging about 30 vacancies each month. While the council agreed to fund 25 new Chandler Police positions in the summer of 2021, the department has still had trouble recruiting.
Website and online applicant traffic has shown high rates from Illinois and the Pacific Northwest states. Also, Duggan said, lateral transfer officers from those places have turned out to fit well into the Chandler Police Department.
“Anecdotally, the recruits, and especially the transfers, from those states have been stellar,” Duggan said. “We’re very impressed with the quality of officers that are out there. Also, the training and standards of policing in those states very much align with Arizona’s.
“We know that in the Valley today, there are roughly 1,000 officer vacancies today,” Duggan said. “We are competing with every other agency in the Valley. The talent pool is depleted. We need to do more. We need to look outside Arizona.”
Chandler isn’t the first Valley departmemt to significantly invest in recruiting in Ilinois. An early-2022 Peoria Police recruiting trip to Chicago resulted in 90 police officer candidates being tested for the , including six job offers and three hires.
There are 360 sworn officers charged with safety of Chandler’s 284,000 citizens. Duggan said the recruitment effort not only is working against a regional and national shortage of officers, but also against the clock, as Chandler’s older force will undergo a significant number of retirements within the next several years.
The contract is funded through an existing budget allocation and one-time use of AZ Cares dollars and RICO funds, according to a staff report.
The amendment adds an additional year to a contract with Davidson Belluso initially approved in February of last year.
At least 70% of the agreement costs are dedicated to the purchase of digital ads. The City of Chandler is providing the audio, photography, video and website content maintenance elements of the campaign.
We’d like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments, pro or con, on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org.
Jason W. Brooks is a News editor for the Daily Independent and the Chandler Independent.
He covers the Chandler area for both yourvalley.net and the monthly print edition while writing for and assisting in the production of the Daily Independent.
Brooks is a well-traveled journalist who has documented life in small American communities in nearly all U.S. time zones.
Born in Washington, D.C. and raised there and in suburban Los Angeles, he has covered community news in California, New Mexico, Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska and northern Arizona.
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