Staffing the Mission by Safeguard Recruiting
The podcast for public safety leaders and recruiters
Episodes
44 episodes
PLECET Conference 2026: Lessons Learned
We come back from the PLECET conference with a reality check: no one we met is fully staffed, and the “recruiting is back” story does not match what agencies live every day. We share the simple framework we teach to stop panic spending, measure...
Public Safety Recruiting: The Key To Agency Success
This is part two of our five-year podcast special. In this episode, we break down why massive overtime budgets are a warning sign that staffing systems are failing, not a long-term fix. We lay out the numbers behind cost per hire, explain why h...
Safeguard Recruiting: How Success Was Built
We look back on the early days of Safeguard Recruiting and why Doug Larsen believes police hiring problems are mostly process problems, not a lack of interested candidates. We unpack what departments get wrong with marketing-first thinking and ...
Five Police Recruiting Myths Exposed
We react to a viral set of “five things marketing companies don’t want you to know” and explain where it’s true, where it’s incomplete, and what police agencies actually need to fix hiring. We lay out the difference between exposure and applica...
Tactical Concepts Is the Answer To Hiring Retention
We announce our new partnership with Brian Ellis of Tactical Concepts to help agencies keep more applicants moving through the law enforcement hiring process. We break down why candidates voluntarily drop out and how better education and cleare...
The Applicant Experience with Frank McGaha
Fear doesn’t thin the candidate pool, friction does. We sit down with federal law enforcement professional and Navy veteran Frank McGaha to unpack why agencies claim a recruiting crisis while thousands of motivated applicants stall at the digit...
Solving Police Recruiting with Dr. Marshall Jones
We push past “crisis” talk to show how culture, clarity, and speed drive real results in police recruiting and retention. Dr. Marshall Jones shares practical steps, from mobile‑first pipelines to stay interviews and leadership pipelines, that a...
Rethinking Police Recruiting
We challenge the sacred cow of rotating sworn recruiters and make the case for specialized, outsourced candidate generation that feeds a stronger hiring pipeline. We share real numbers, proven messaging, and why bonuses don’t move the needle, w...
Website Optimization for Public Safety Recruiting
In this episode of Staffing The Mission, Travis Yates and Doug Larsen discuss a recent audit of 100 recruiting websites and the issues hurting agencies as they seek to reach full staffing. ...
From Hire To Retire with ResponderStrong
We announce a new partnership between Safeguard Recruiting and ResponderStrong that links front-end hiring with a proven wellness platform to reduce early attrition. We explain how family education, ongoing resources, and leadership support can...
Small Agency Recruiting with Sgt. Dion Olson
If losing two officers would rock your agency, this conversation is a blueprint for stability. We sit down with Crestwood, Missouri’s Dion Olsen to explore how a 29-officer department recruits year-round, accelerates hiring without cutting corn...
Generation Z Recruiting for Public Safety
We dig into why agencies aren’t facing a talent shortage so much as a process-and-culture problem, and how mobile-first recruiting, fast communication, and real schedule flexibility win over today’s candidates. Tom Draper shares ground-level in...
Scaling Public Safety Recruiting with the National Testing Network
We dig into how a continuous recruiting pipeline and a tight partnership with National Testing Network turn applicant volume into vetted hires without burning out staff. Greg Hyde shares how virtual interviews, faster backgrounds, and candidate...
Recruiting Cops Who Stay
We sit down with Marine veteran and longtime officer Banning Sweatland to map a practical path through the recruiting and retention crunch. We break down the realities of small agencies, tech-fueled pipelines, and the cultural shifts that keep ...
Mission First Recruiting with Von Kleim
We share real numbers from Cleveland and Philadelphia to show how mission-first recruiting and clear standards can flip outcomes fast. Von Kleim with Force Science joins us to break down leadership, human performance, and training that actually...
How A Sheriff’s Office Tripled Applications With Smart Digital Recruiting
Want to see what happens when a sheriff’s office treats hiring like a system instead of a guessing game? We bring on Sergeant Seth Graham of the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office to break down how he ditched low-yield job fairs, met candidates wh...
Recruiting Proposals That Work
We break down why many police RFPs fail to deliver hires and how to fix them with outcome-based language, clear metrics, and real guarantees. We also connect retention to recruiting math and show how end-to-end workflows speed hiring and reduce...
How We Built A Police Recruiting Engine That Actually Delivers
We share how transparent guarantees, mobile-first workflows, and automation turn interest into real applicants for law enforcement agencies. We outline new features from testing to video interviews, explain pricing built for any size department...
How Urgency, Data, And Automation Double Law Enforcement Applications
Hiring for law enforcement shouldn’t feel like a gamble. We open the curtain on a recruiting system that replaces vague “awareness” with measurable outcomes, shares the exact data points you need to forecast hires, and explains why urgency—done...
Culture Drives Results in Public Safety Recruiting
Want a hiring edge that outlasts any bonus? Start with culture. We unpack how a clear, mission-first identity and balanced storytelling can transform law enforcement recruiting and retention, turning first impressions into lasting commitments. ...
Recruit Like A College Coach
Want a recruiting edge that doesn’t depend on luck or a bigger ad budget? We walk through a simple, proven strategy: recruit like a college coach. Doug Larsen, COO of Safeguard Recruiting, joins us to show how steady, human outreach turns passi...
Reaching Passive Police Candidates
Think a police recruiting crisis is draining the talent pool? We put that belief under a microscope and find a different truth: the candidates exist, but they’re not standing in line at job fairs. They’re working other jobs, scrolling on their ...
The Metrics That Matter For First Responder Recruiting
We break down the two metrics that turn recruiting spend into real hires and show how to track every step from first click to final badge. Travis Yates and Doug Larsen explain why live dashboards, source tagging, and lean funnels beat billboard...
The 90-Day Nurture That Rescues Law Enforcement Recruiting
Ghosting applicants is expensive. We open with a hard number: without timely communication, about 90% of interested candidates never take the first step. Then we show how a simple, structured nurture strategy flips the script: immediate texts a...
Stop Making Recruits Play Where’s Waldo With Your Application
We explain how fast, simple, and consistent communication turns interest into real police applicants. We share the data behind drop-offs, the power of a five-to-seven-field form, and why one-click flows and recruiter calls lift conversions from...