-There are dozens of recruitment videos on YouTube
and on the pages of police forces across the country,
all made to promote the work of these departments
and attract new officers.
Most of the videos we're showing were made after 2014,
when protests in Ferguson
followed the shooting of Michael Brown.
-We're strong!
We're marching all night long!
-It's also when police forces began to face
a recruiting crisis.
-Get off the lot! You're under arrest!
Get off the lot!
-As protestors across the country demand reforms
to law enforcement and defunding of police departments,
these videos offer one window
into how police attract new officers
and see their role in the community.
-They tend to represent what the agency or the organization
is looking for in applicants.
And so it reflects this conscious choice of,
"Who do we want to attract?"
And then that plays into, "How do we want to present ourselves?
What do we believe is our best asset or assets?
What do we think is the best representation of this job?
And then what should we advertise in order to get people
who are like-minded?"
-In 2019, Dr. Wendy Koslicki
looked at the most recent recruitment videos
of over 200 of the largest US policing agencies
and found that the themes of these videos fall on a spectrum,
from community-oriented to extremely militarized.
-Community-oriented policing videos were more prevalent,
but only about 30% of the videos
were moderate to highly rated as being community-oriented.
On the flip side -- militarized videos --
it was about 17% were moderate to high.
And so we really kind of found this middle ground of videos
that really weren't one way or the other
and so definitely kind of fell
across a spectrum of these two kind of conceptual opposites.
-Hola. ¿Como estas?
-Muy bien. -Most videos show officers
interacting with the community,
speaking with neighbors, handing out stickers,
stopping for coffee, and playing basketball.
Other videos show fake hostage situations
or chasing down the suspect, often with the use of force.
But most often, they're a mix of both.
Koslicki's study pointed to these two videos
that show what a civilian interaction
can look like from an officer's perspective.
-You picture yourself as the officer,
and so it really kind of does kind of show
to applicant viewers these striking differences
of what the department chose to portray the job as entailing.
-The videos that skew militaristic may leave recruits
with an unrealistic view of who can do police work.
The study found that videos that were more militaristic
had fewer women speaking onscreen.
They also may vary from what an officer actually does.
-Open the door from the outside.
Step out. Leave your hands in the air.
-For example, the video from the officer's perspective
we showed earlier
depicted officers aiming and shooting weapons
and chasing suspects 40% of the time.
But that doesn't reflect a typical day for most officers.
-You have to actually care about the people.
-A 2017 Pew report found
that most officers say that, aside from training,
they have never fired their service firearm while on duty.
Only 27% had.
And a review of police activity by The New York
Times found responding to violent crimes
was a minimal part of an officer's time.
♪ I stand alone ♪
♪ Can't get much higher ♪
♪ It's in my ♪
-By promoting the side of policing that looks more
like an action movie, some of these videos
are giving an inaccurate picture of the job.
-Black lives matter! Black lives matter!
-So much more that's been put on our plate.
You know, we've become that negotiator.
We've become that social worker.
We just carry so many hats, and it's tough, you know?
Mental health -- you know, a lot of mental-health services
have shut down, and that falls in the lap.
You know, if you look at research,
some of the largest mental- health facilities are jails,
and it shouldn't be that way.
-Departments are evolving their recruitment strategies
beyond just showcasing the more dramatic parts of the job.
The Alexandria Police Department that released this video
has distanced itself from it,
saying that it was created under a different administration.
♪ A-Town down Yeah ♪
-In many of these cases,
these aren't the only videos that departments are producing.
A few departments pointed us to other videos
they produced that show less use of firearms.
♪ Baby, I got it What you need ♪
♪ You know I got it ♪
-Come on out here.
Free food, games for the kids, good music, good people.
Come on out here.
Meet your officers.
Come have a good time.
-Koslicki sees altering recruitment strategies
as one way for departments
to begin to change the type of officers who are out policing.
-We really do need to start at the very foundational levels
of who's being hired to be a police officer.