Assessing Police Recruit Disqualifiers: Public Attitudes Toward Drug Use, Mental Illness, Education, and Criminal Offending

Abstract Current workforce shortages have led many police agencies to evaluate their hiring standards to increase the number of candidates they receive. Although getting more individuals into the profession is crucial, it should not come at the expense of losing trust and legitimacy from the public. With this in mind, the current study uses data from a national-level survey of citizens ( N = 1,340) to assess attitudes towards qualifications related to prior drug use, treated mental illness, educational attainment, and criminal history. Findings show that the public is more lenient towards certain types of prior drug use (e.g., marijuana and steroids), treated mental illnesses (e.g., anxiety, depression, OCD, ADHD), and criminal offenses (e.g., misdemeanors, DUIs). However, other forms of more serious drug use, mental illnesses, and prior criminal behavior receive overwhelming support to be treated as automatic disqualifiers. Most of the public also believes that applicants should have at least some college education to be eligible to work as a police officer. The multivariate analyses reveals that support for hiring standards varies based on participants’ familiarity with policing, personal criminal history, and sociodemographic characteristics. The current study closes with a discussion of the implications of these findings for police hiring practices.