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. Instead of chasing the “recruiting crisis,” we trace the real pain back to churn—people leaving faster than they arrive—and show how agencies can slow the back door while drawing in candidates who actually fit the work.

Listen as Dr. Travis Yates walks through the building blocks of a strong culture from the first click: websites that speak in plain, confident language; visuals that show both community guardianship and tactical readiness; and application flows that respect time and set honest expectations. Drawing lessons from the Marines and Border Patrol, we explain why purpose beats perks and how mission clarity attracts those who’ve dreamed of the badge for years, not just those scanning for a signing bonus.

From there, we dig into the overlooked advantage most departments already have: a wide range of roles and career paths. Patrol, investigations, K-9, SWAT, digital forensics, community engagement, and IT all appeal to different kinds of talent. When you show those lanes and the steps to reach them, you invite a broader, stronger pool. We also connect the dots between external promises and internal practice—mentorship, fair promotion, training that builds mastery—so new hires find what your ads promised and choose to stay.

If you’re ready to strengthen recruiting with culture that’s real, visible, and consistent, this conversation gives you the blueprint. Subscribe, share this episode with a colleague who’s feeling the churn, and leave a review telling us what your agency’s mission statement truly says.

Safeguard Recruiting is owned and operated by first responders, and it is a public safety recruiting firm with a proven recruiting system that staffs agencies across the country. 

Reach out today for a free consultation and learn about our guarantee that will increase the number of candidates for your agency. 

Transcript

Setting The Stage Without Doug

Travis Yates 0:00

Welcome back to the show. I'm so glad you decided to join us here at Safeguard Recruiting and our weekly podcast. And I don't have the COO Doug Larson with me today. He is with a client, but I had some thoughts that I wanted to pass along to you. And I certainly I hope it can help. If you haven't uh watched the previous episodes, and we have topics on everything out there. I mean, we have tens and tens of videos out there, so obviously feel free to flip through those.

Why Culture Outweighs Marketing

Travis Yates 0:30

But one of the things that we haven't talked a lot about is the topic of culture. And I think a lot of uh marketing companies or recruiting companies, keeping in mind, we're a recruiting company. We bring candidates and applicants to first responder agencies. Uh, you know, marketing is quite different, and we've done video content on that. But I think a lot of these companies they don't talk a lot about culture because culture is seen as is something that has to be built from inside the agency. Now, while that is true, uh it can also be fostered from outside. And I want to discuss that briefly with you. But before I did that, since my partner Doug is not with me, and I'll just tell you, I I've known Doug for well over 20 years, and I think the value in safeguard recruiting, the value that what is being built here is man, you this guy is the real deal, right? He's authentic. And I would never probably say this in front of him because we're always talking about business here. But I just I just want you to understand there are a lot of companies out there, business, they're businesses, right? Almost all of them have no ties to law enforcement whatsoever. And I think it's been uh what I have seen firsthand from behind the scenes is Doug treating these clients the way you would want anyone to be treated inside your profession, right? And the lingo being able to speak to law enforcement because you work law enforcement. Of course, our entire team is able to do that, and I'm involved in some of those conversations as well. Uh, but I know that I've had more than one conversation where somebody wants to lump us into that company or this company or this local marketing firm. And what they do is fine for what they do. But when it comes to specializing in law enforcement, I think the value uh that this company provides is law enforcement experience. And I'll just speak from my personal knowledge uh of Doug Larson. I would not put my name out there for anybody unless I believed him wholeheartedly. And I, you know, he is obviously one of the leaders here at Safeguard Recruiting. What he tells you, you can trust and you can take it to the bank. And so uh that's why I'm always excited of uh getting to be involved in this and do these shows and

Retention As The Real Bottleneck

Travis Yates 2:35

speak to clients and and travel and do do some of the training because I know the heart behind the man, so to speak. And when we talk about culture, that really is what we're talking about. And culture is vital. I know it's a it's a fancy buzzword, and and all these books are on it, uh, but culture is what drives everything in any organization, in particular law enforcement. You know, if you're having uh retention issues, probably culturally related, you having morale issues, it's probably culturally related. And the aspect of what we talk about when it comes to recruiting, retention is a huge component of that because if you're losing them out the back end quicker than you should be, you're having to flood the front end even more. And I think when we talk about the so-called recruiting crisis, which is a myth, and we've talked about that before, that's really what people are experiencing. They're experiencing a retention at a faster level. Their recruiting may be uh similar or just a little less than in the past, but if the retention picks up and it increases, it's it's hard to fall behind because you think about it, you start falling behind year after year after year. Next thing you know, I'm down 20%, I'm down 25%. I mean, obviously we've seen agencies with that. Now we've had agencies that's hired us, it's been down 20, 25%, and they have come back. Uh, and then many of them are will be back. And so, but it takes a very concerted effort when that occurs. And so the easiest thing to do is to work on culture to keep that from even happening. And it's never too late to work on culture. And I want to talk to you about what safeguard recruiting does when it comes to culture,

First Impressions Shape Culture

Travis Yates 4:10

because it really starts from the very first day someone expressed interest into an agency. You know, they say first impressions are everything, and that actually is very true when it comes to recruiting. So obviously, there's one impression, which is what's on your website, right? How are you speaking to people? Are you professional? That's huge, right? We talk a lot about hey, websites aren't aren't the key to everything, but they are the key to introducing your candidates and your applicants to what your agency is. So the first place you display the culture is on your website, it's on your messaging, it's in the ads that are built. And one of the mistakes that we see a lot is is we'll have a we'll have a client say, I want all of my photographs to be community oriented, or I want all my website to be tactically oriented, or I want all, you know, it's just one thing or else. And that's

Mission Messaging Beats Bonuses

Travis Yates 5:06

a huge issue. Um, you sort of have seen that in the military in recent years. I don't know if you're familiar with this, but until January of this year, January of 2025, every military branch but one, the U.S. Marine Corps, was underperforming in recruiting. And that's kind of important when it comes to national security. And people were kind of wondering why they were they were trying to increase salary, increase bonuses. That sounds a little bit familiar to you in law enforcement, is it not? But the truth is that really wasn't why. In fact, uh the head of the Marines, and I apologize, I don't know his rank, but you know, general with multiple stars, I'm sure. He was uh he was speaking testifying in front of Congress a couple years ago, and they said, Well, how is it that all these other military branches are underperforming in recruiting, but the Marines continue to outpace their recruiting goals? And he he said this because and they said, By the way, and you're not offering hiring bonuses, you're not offering retention bonuses, your your benefits have not changed. What's going on with you that makes it different for everybody else? What he said was pretty fascinating. He goes, they have a chance to be a U.S. Marine. Now, what's he talking about there? He's talking about culture, right? He's talking about culture. There are a segment of people in our country that they, since the day they could walk, they wanted to be a U.S. Marine. What's a married what's a U.S. Marine to people in the civilian world? It's people carrying guns, they're going to war, they're going to battle, they're wearing cool army. That's just that's just the culture of Marines. And so when you start changing that culture around to one thing or the other, you're missing out on a lot of people. And the military has discovered that. Of course, now we'll go to 2025, and they're all surpassed the recruiting goals. So, what changed in the military? Well, I would submit to you, and it's just my opinion, is they started steering their way back to the mission. We're here for national security, we are war-fighting

Balance Tactics And Community

Travis Yates 7:00

machines. That's what we do. All the other political stuff, all this other stuff that's been going on, we don't do that. We are here for one purpose to defend the homeland. And they just started talking like that. And next thing you know, their recruiting is off the charts. You can say the thing about the U.S. Border Patrol. U.S. Border Patrol, um, they they are hiring. I think it's, I mean, it's a lot of it's in the crazy numbers that they're hiring. And you go, well, how are they going to do that? Well, they got 150,000 applications in the first few weeks. What? Well, go look at their website, go look at their materials. It's all mission focused, right? Now, you may not like the mission of the U.S. Border Patrol, but that's their mission. You may not like the mission of the Marines, but that's their mission. But you know who does like that mission? The people that want to work there. And so when it comes to law enforcement, I think we make a significant error when we go one or the other. No, we should not have complete tactical gear on our website in our ads. And no, we should not have all community relations gear on our website. People come to law enforcement for different reasons, right? And so when it comes to recruiting, you want that diversity of interest. And there's enough in most departments that they can go there. So if I want to, you know, engage in the community high level, or I want to be uh work uh, you know, that's that was my focus. Well, there's a spot for me in law enforcement, and the culture is going to tell me that because there's going to be diversity in the ads, in the website, in the way they talk, the way they introduce themselves. But if I wanted to be on the SWAT team, I ought to be able to look on the website, look in the ads, and be able to speak to those members as well. Uh, you see what I'm saying? And I think what we have fallen into is not as extreme as the military in recent years, but there's been sort of this political backlash, you know, back several years of, oh, we don't want to show military vehicles, we don't want to show police officers with helmets on, we don't want to, you know, you know, uh humanize the badge, so to speak. And listen, some of that is fine,

Diversity Of Roles Attracts Talent

Travis Yates 9:00

but uh, I I know at my agency, like we would post a picture of a SWAT team member doing some actual work and we would get backlash, right? We would get backlash. And so if you're not careful, you will sway away because I don't want the backlash. Well, you have to understand for every person that is mad about that picture, there could be 10 or 15 that goes, Well, I'd love to do that. You see what I'm saying? So I think diversity is the key. People want to come into law enforcement for different reasons, and we've got to show that. And then once they get inside that culture, so to speak, they get hired, they start talking to recruiters. You can't let go of that diversity, and uh, and so I think when we go one way or the other, it's a problem. So when we build ads, when we build websites, we really encourage our clients to show that diversity because that's a huge strong value for law enforcement. You think about it, most people that get a job they do one thing, they're doing one thing for their career or until they leave that job, right? I always sort of use troopers as an example. Like, who wants to work the highway nonstop? Well, there's obviously people that want to do that, that's why they go there. And I know there are some other jobs in the state highway patrols, but in most law enforcement agencies, man, you could be a detective, you could be a patrolman, you could be uh, you could be the equipment manager, you could be the IT person. There's so many different jobs, man. And I think we lose out on a lot of people that would be interested in those jobs by simply sort of stying away and not talking about that. So culture is king.

Culture As The Recruiting Engine

Travis Yates 10:30

Culture will not only help your retention, it will help your recruiting. And I just encourage everyone out there, whether you're our client or not, to consider that and think about that and to make sure you show that diversity of culture to not just the people in your agency, but the people that may be interested in your agency. Thanks so much for

Closing And Free Consultation

Travis Yates 10:48

being here. It's always fun. Uh, we love to hear from you. Check us out. Haller if you have any questions, you need any help. We always offer free consultations to help your recruiting out. Our goal is the staff agencies full across this country to make sure that communities are safe. Thanks for being here. We'll see you next time.