Unmasking the Truth Behind Law Enforcement Hiring Campaigns

We're confronting the elephant in the room: the real crisis in police recruiting isn't about numbers; it's about leadership. Police departments often mistake flashy websites and costly videos as a quick fix to their recruitment woes, but we're here to tear down this facade and expose the truth. This episode pulls no punches in revealing the wasteful spending on marketing gimmicks that fail to address the deep-rooted challenges in attracting and retaining qualified police officers. We scrutinize the allure of high-budget campaigns and dismantle the misconception that more money equals more recruits, urging law enforcement leaders to ignite a transformative shift toward substantive, engaging recruitment strategies. 

Join us as we spotlight what it takes to actually recruit that includes a  revolutionary approach by SAFEGUARD Recruiting (www.safeguardrecruiting.com). We dissect the stark contrast between the dazzling but ineffective Washington DC Metro's police recruiting video and their actual staffing levels, challenging the very notion of promotional tactics and their effectiveness in the real world of law enforcement recruitment. It's a call to action for police leaders to step up, to employ courage and commitment in their recruiting efforts, and to genuinely connect with those who aspire to serve and protect. This isn't just a conversation; it's a movement demanding real change within the ranks of our police forces.

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Transcript

Travis Yates: 0:01

Welcome back to the show. I'm so honored you've decided to spend a few minutes with us here today, and this is going to be a little different than what you have become accustomed to. We don't have a guest today. I don't want that to scare you off. We've got some pretty good traction on these podcasts. I've heard from a lot of you that you enjoy it. But I've got some things I need to say, and to me. I need to do it here, because if I did it on video, I am so irritated. Who knows what that's going to look like. So stay with me.

Travis Yates: 0:34

I think this is still very important for you, and it's on the issue of police recruiting. Why should we all care about recruiting, recruiting? Why should we all care about recruiting? Why is that a leadership issue? Well, folks, if we do not staff our agencies up, which is a leadership issue we got issues, we got problems and we may not come back from that. There are agencies right now that will not come back. They're down, so much. But I tell you what what I'm seeing on almost a daily basis from some of these leaders and some of these agencies is insanity, and my fear is is that we all look at that and think that is what, that's what we want to do. A lot of leadership folks is lazy, meaning they would just look around the corner and they do what the other person does. I've seen this time and time again in various areas of this profession, whether it's technology or training. Now recruiting, but man, we are being scammed. I've been shouting from the rooftops, I've written the articles, I've filmed videos, I've done webinars. I'm trying to explain this and you're going to ask yourself, like I often ask myself well, what's Travis's angle? What's he trying to gain from this? What I'm trying to gain is I don't want to lose this profession, and if you care about law enforcement, you care about leadership. You should care about this. First question I want to answer do we have a recruiting crisis in this profession? The answer is no, we have a leadership crisis.

Travis Yates: 2:05

I keep saying that there are plenty of agencies that are fully staffed because either A, they're being led well and people want to work for leaders, or, b, they understand what recruiting is and they're doing that. It's a total excuse for these agencies to throw their hands up in the air, these leaders, to say, oh, it's just the way it is and there's a big recruiting crisis because of the media or the activists or politics. No, it's because of you. It's because of you. I just came from Sheriff Mark Lamb's agency. He has no recruiting issues in patrol. He's got a few hoes and corrections that they're working on. They're doing a great job on that, but they are fully staffed in patrol in their operations and it's because they want to work for leaders, and I've explained this time and time again.

Travis Yates: 2:53

But the bigger problem is when agencies need to recruit what they are doing, and I just want to cut right to the chase here. I have to be a little bit vague because I'm so upset. Right to the chase. Here I have to be a little bit vague because I'm so upset I'm not. I can't call out specific companies or specific agencies because I don't want that to get in the way of the message. So I've got to be a little bit generic here. But I saw a contract today that an agency signed that paid a so-called recruiting company. By the way, it's not a recruiting company.

Travis Yates: 3:24

As I've already explained, some of the big players in this space are nothing more than traditional marketing companies that have come over here to our profession and scammed us. By the way they listen to this and they say you should know this. So I would imagine they do. I see you trolling my profiles. I see you trolling me on social media. I see that you're seeing what I'm saying. By the way, you're a marketer. You should know that there's ways I can tell that. So I don't care if you're listening to it, you're not debating me for sure. Before I get started, let me just say this If anybody listens to this from a company standpoint, they think, oh well, they're talking about us Open invitation, come on this podcast and we will discuss it. But you won't, because you know you're scamming police departments. And let me tell you it's right in the words of this contract I read today.

Travis Yates: 4:17

Let me give you the background. This is a department I got to be a little bit vague here. This is a department that's down less than 12 people. By the way, that's the majority of law enforcement in this country. Most law enforcement are smaller agencies and 12 people to some agencies. This is a significant reduction and they need to fix that. I applaud these agencies that are trying to fix it, but you're being scammed.

Travis Yates: 4:40

You're either A you're stupid or B you don't understand recruiting and I think it's probably that most of the time, you don't understand what recruiting is and these flashy marketing companies are coming in convincing you what it takes to correct it and you're being lied to. And here's the problem. They're spending crazy money for not recruiting. The money's going to marketing only. I'm going to explain in the specifics of this bid right now. Here it is. Are you ready?

Travis Yates: 5:11

This department gave this company $200,000 for a website and a recruiting video. You heard that right? This is not 1998. They just paid two hundred thousand dollars for a website and a recruiting video. Now you're going to say to yourself, if you've been listening to me, obviously that's not recruiting, that's called marketing, and you're right. But the they also paid this company over eighty thousand dollars for what the company claims will be online recruiting. Close to three hundred thousand dollars for less than 12 positions. Now they're going to get a great website because, by the way, there's no marketing company out there that can't do that. Okay, there just isn't. A 12 year old with a little bit of skill can get really close to what you're going to get.

Travis Yates: 6:11

Even though we get enamored by these looks of these websites, you should have seen the bid on this. This was nothing but a bunch of fancy pictures, right? It told them nothing about how they were going to fix the recruiting. It was fancy pictures of videos and websites and they just wrote them a check for just shy of $300,000. Now why am I upset? Well, because it's ridiculous. You know what that money could go in most agencies in this country? What that money could go for A lot of things, a lot of things. It doesn't take $300 thousand dollars to fix 12 positions. It just that's just crazy. Now, so what? So that's the details of it. By the way, it won't be fixed, and there's a couple reasons why it won't be fixed. Because what is?

Travis Yates: 6:57

What does the recruiting campaign do? It sends people back to the website, because it's a fancy website. That's marketing. Let me tell you what the marketing philosophy is, and this is all the data and research is out there. It takes 7 to 21 touch points, which is views, for someone to make a decision to buy a product. That's what it takes. That's why you're getting multiple emails from the same company. It's why you go to the mall and you see Bed Bath Beyond and you think to yourself how are they in business? It's all about marketing touch points. Ok, because they know it's in your mind, you're seeing it. You may make a decision, probably online, to buy that particular product. We aren't talking about products, folks, we're talking about people.

Travis Yates: 7:40

So this does not apply to people. Plus, the money it takes to put seven to 21 touch points in front of people is astronomical Astronomical. Now will they show the department? Look at all these web hits. We got off this $300,000 campaign, sure, but who's going to your website? And then, more importantly, when people apply, how do you even know that it came from that campaign? You don't, unless you're dealing with recruiting companies that find the applicants for you. It's a huge difference and the reason I'm upset by it is because I think A probably only one or two percent of law enforcement agencies in this country, which would be roughly 150 to 300 agencies, could even afford something like this right. So that leaves the mass other agencies out. And if the other agencies think this is how it's done and they don't have that kind of money, they may not even make a decision. And B it just sort of furthers that this is the way we think it has to be done.

Travis Yates: 8:45

And, folks, when I talk about companies, these companies are, you name the police organization, they're the sponsors, they're in front of our profession. They're saying all these things and they know they're a marketing company. They know they can't help with recruiting. Now do they have some success stories? Yeah, every marketing company and any product will have success stories. By the way, if you spend $300,000 on a campaign, you may fill five or six or seven spots. I mean that's crazy. Even if you fill all 12 spots and say, look at the success we've had, look at the money it is costing, I thought this would go away. I thought we would just sort of understand this doesn't work. I've also seen contracts from agencies that have done this spent a lot of money. It didn't fix anything. Now they're actually asking for actual recruiting. I've talked about this one particular client before. They spent $3 million on a marketing campaign. Their recruiting got worse because they did the same thing this agency is about to do with their $300,000.

Travis Yates: 9:56

Fancy website, fancy videos, and they send everybody the website on the online recruiting campaign. It doesn't work. It doesn't work Because, first off, how do you even know when people go to your website they're even eligible, right? Then you expect them to actually find the application on there. It's just so backwards, and I understand why many in our profession doesn't know this. We haven't had to know this. We haven't had to know it until recently, but we better figure this out.

Travis Yates: 10:26

So is there a solution? What's the solution? Well, if you need recruiting by the way, I'm not going to be shy about it, I gain nothing from this it just happens to be the only company I know of is actually doing this right, and it's Safeguard Recruiting. I've written articles about them. I filmed videos for them. I'm helping them because they are the ones not scamming us right Now.

Travis Yates: 10:48

What do they do if it's different? Well, they don't use websites and videos to get applicants. They get the applicants first, then they use the marketing material to retain the applicants through the process. It's completely backwards to what a marketing company does. So why would a marketing company not do that? Here's why they don't care about recruiting. They care about money. They care about money. And, by the way, here's another little tidbit that $80,000, $90,000 that that department's going to give them to do online recruiting. They're going to put a significant portion of that in their hip pocket and they're just going to send you enough web hits to make you happy. That's how the game is played and so it's all marketing poise and we're being fooled by the best in the business marketing companies. Oh, but Travis, they're called such and such recruiting company for law enforcement. Yeah, yeah, it's a. But look at their, it's a dba. Their, their traditional marketing company's been around for 20, 30 years and they do a dba. They call it police recruiting and they fool you and we're being fooled every single day.

Travis Yates: 11:53

So what should it cost to fill, let's say, 20 people, if you just have done everything you can do and you're 20 people short and I'll just say 20. Well, I can tell you, safeguard's got the numbers. The marketing companies won't show you the numbers. Their last campaign it cost $27 per application, qualified application, 27 bucks. Right now. You don't typically hire everybody that applies, so you got to kind of figure out what percentage applies. You know, do we actually hire? You? Then just do the math and here's a quick tip it's nowhere near six figures, nowhere near six figures, which is a hundred,000. I'm just beside myself and I know that's coming across here.

Travis Yates: 12:38

I don't mean to irritate you, but I'm asking you to inform others. Like, maybe you're aware of an agency struggling and these marketing companies are slick man, they're slick. That's their marketing companies, that's the business they're in, so they will convince you to buy just about anything that you don't need, and they are certainly convincing us that they can actually fix our recruiting problem. And I'll give the challenge again. If you disagree with me, marketing company XYZ, come on here and let's talk about it, because I've got the data, I've got the resources to support what I'm saying. I love to see what you have right, and so this isn't really a fight. I even want to be in to be honest with you. I don't even call it a fight, but something has to be said.

Travis Yates: 13:25

Somebody has to stand up and talk about this, because what's going to happen is we're going to spend millions and millions of dollars and it's not going to work, and then a lot of these agencies are going to say, well, there's just nothing, we can do about it. This is just the new normal, we just have to work with less. And that is not true. It's just simply not true. And so, like I said, this is not some sales pitch. I'm not trying to gain something here. I'm trying to inform law enforcement, specifically leaders making these decisions.

Travis Yates: 13:55

Get off your high horse looking around what everybody else is doing. If you want a fancy website, you want a fancy video, fine, put out a bid for that, but that's not recruiting, and then put a separate bid out for recruiting. It's two separate things. A marketing company is never going to fulfill your recruiting needs, and so we. Obviously there's a place for marketing and branding in our profession, but you have to understand it's separate than recruiting. In fact, you can recruit without branding, without websites, without videos. You can still recruit Without that, but you will never recruit with just the branding, websites and videos. So we have it backwards, we're falling into this trap and it's like I said.

Travis Yates: 14:43

I thought it would stop, but it is. It is picking up steam and, by the way, the other byproduct of it not working is is these marketing companies then convince the agencies? Will you have to hire us back again? I saw a contract where it was two $300,000, just like this one was, and then the next year they hired him for 400,000, which I'm like what in the world are we doing? This is not like buying a technology product, where you know for a fact that you're going to get what you get right. If you buy a computer, you know what the computer is going to do. If you buy a car, you know what it's going to do. This is a philosophy you're purchasing and if it's a marketing philosophy, it will not work for recruiting. It will work for marketing, but it will not work for recruiting. So please understand this.

Travis Yates: 15:32

If you have any questions, you want to read anything I've written on this or seen any of my training stuff, reach out to me at travisyatesorg Heck. My phone number is on there. You can give me a call and talk to me about it. You can email me. My videos are at safeguardrecruitingcom. They're totally free.

Travis Yates: 15:51

I filmed a series of these training videos to help out agencies and I thought that maybe that would help and I'm sure it's helped some people. But it just blows my mind folks. I've actually had some conversations with chiefs and I'll basically explain this process to them, because I'm not talking just making this up, like there's data behind this, like what works and what doesn't work. Because one thing about doing an actual recruiting campaign you see the metrics, you see the data, you follow the leads into the application, into hiring, so you know exactly how many you're getting. That's why I can say that their last campaign at safecar was 27 an applicant. You can actually follow the money and see what it's costing, and I would explain this to this chief. I get all the way to the end of the conversation and this guy guy goes yeah, I get all that, but what about a video? What about a video? What about a video? We're on this video tangent. It's totally insane.

Travis Yates: 16:44

Washington DC Metro was just named by police one the recruiting video of the year. There's our major media companies just playing into this nonsense. Right, recruiting meet video of the year. Well, guess what? Washington DC Metro is at the lowest staffing in history, but no one's putting two and two together here. So I don't care, you can do videos, you can do websites. I love that stuff, like everybody else does, but understand that is not recruiting. And just reach out to me if you got any questions. I'm not going to ask for any money. I'm not going to send you anywhere to get money. I'll just answer your questions because we should all be caring about this issue at a high level if we truly care about leadership and we truly care about law enforcement. Thank you for listening and just remember lead on and stay courageous.