Northwest Arkansas police departments look outside state for recruits

Six Northwest Arkansas police departments are working together to recruit more officers. (Getty Images)

Six Northwest Arkansas law enforcement agencies are launching a campaign to attract out-of-state candidates in response to nationwide recruitment challenges.

The agencies are partnering with the Northwest Arkansas Council, which created a public safety consortium that discusses issues facing local first responders. The group is the continuation of a relationship that formed among law enforcement agencies, fire departments and health care providers as they worked together to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic. 

NWA Council Policy Director Rob Smith said the police department’s struggles to attract talent was a prevailing theme at the consortium’s quarterly meetings, so they decided action needed to be taken.

“This is a national thing, it’s not unique to Northwest Arkansas,” Smith said. “I think what’s unique here is that we’re working together to tell the story of all these departments.”

Departments in Bella Vista, Bentonville, Fayetteville, Rogers, Springdale and the Washington County Sheriff’s Office have about 45 job openings for officers. To fill the positions, four-person teams will attend recruiting events in Fort Worth on Friday and in Los Angeles on April 11.

While Texans will likely be familiar with Arkansas, Smith said he hopes to be “an odd duck” in California where recruiters can discuss the advantages in housing and quality of life that Arkansas can offer.

Springdale Police Sgt. Matt Ray will attend both events and said several factors have contributed to recruitment issues, including people retiring, misconceptions about police officers and a shift to remote work following the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Low pay can also be an issue. Gary Sipes, a retired police chief and executive director of the Arkansas Association of Chiefs of Police, said pay varies across the state, but he estimates the average is around $35,000.

“Northwest Arkansas is kind of the premier spot right now for Arkansas and they seem to be paying a little better than the southern region officers, so I suspect they’ll be pretty successful [with recruitment],” Sipes said. 

Law enforcement officers did receive some extra pay under Act 224 of 2022, which awarded certified law enforcement officers one-time $5,000 stipends. State troopers were awarded one-time $2,000 stipends. 

Arkansas does not have a minimum law enforcement salary, but that’s something Sipes said his association has considered as a solution to recruitment issues, which are seen throughout the state. While some agencies may only have a handful of vacancies, Sipes said one central Arkansas agency is down about 50%.

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Smith and Ray both said they welcome Arkansas applicants, but Ray noted recruits from other states can bring different life experiences and talents. 

“Having law enforcement officers that have different cultural backgrounds and diversity helps us to be better as a department and as officers because there’s just things that I don’t understand being from Springdale that they can help with [by] bringing that expertise to us,” he said. 

Roughly 40% of Springdale residents are Hispanic, according to the U.S. Census. The city is also home to a large population of migrants from the Marshall Islands. 

Ray said recruiting bilingual speakers would be beneficial to his department, which does offer an incentive to officers fluent in other languages. The Springdale Police Department has several Spanish-speakers and two officers who speak Marshallese, but other languages would also be helpful, he said.

The department does use an interpreting service, but Ray points to an encounter with someone speaking Lao as an instance when it would have been beneficial to have an officer who could speak in their native tongue to explain things. 

“We have a very diverse community…we want to reflect our community, and that’s the biggest thing is we’ve got to represent our community and reflect it in that way,” he said. 

Language skills aside, Ray said he’s looking for someone who is level-headed, community-driven and puts others above self.

If the out-of-state recruitment trips are successful, Smith said they may organize a third. In addition to the recruiting events, the NWA Council has also created a webpage where interested applicants can connect with a talent ambassador to learn more about job opportunities in the region.

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