By Morgan Womack
Portland Press Herald, Maine
PORTLAND, Maine — Portland police say they are seeing results after spending $300,000 on new recruiting videos and a website that promote the department as a unique team.
The department used federal funding to hire an outside company, Epic, that specializes in digital recruiting strategies for police departments throughout the country. Its website boasts that its services can bring in over 600% more applications.
The result is a series of highly produced videos, all a minute or less. Some focus on Portland’s scenery while others showed officers in different divisions, like dispatch, SWAT and dive teams, carrying out simulated scenarios of their work. One video, called “Work-Life Balance” promotes officers’ hobbies, like ice fishing, skiing and paddle boarding. Another, called “Final Fight” shows officers wrestling with one another in a training exercise.
Since Epic deployed the new recruiting website, and set up advertisements on Google and social media using the promotional videos, department leaders say they’re noticing more buzz, and an uptick in email inquiries about the 30 open positions.
But the videos were posted about two weeks ago, so it’s “too early” to tell exactly how many more people are being reached, Chief Mark Dubois said in an interview at police headquarters on Thursday.
The department has a total of 158 budgeted positions but the force is currently down about 20%, spokesperson Brad Nadeau said. Of those 30 or so empty positions, Portland police are prioritizing hiring beat officers, who respond to 911 calls and monitor the city in patrol cars, Dubois said. But what the department also has a great need for detectives, as well as the traffic and community policing divisions, he said.
Because of the staffing shortages, officers are forced to work overtime, especially at major events like Fourth of July, Sea Dogs games and concerts at Thompson’s Point.
“When we’re fully staffed, people are ambitious to work the extra (hours) because they make extra money,” Dubois said. “Right now, there’s so much of it, people are like ‘I’m tired of it, I want to go home.’ ”
First-year police officer wages start at $30.16 per hour, plus additional shift and assignment differentials and stipends for things like possessing a college degree, according to the Portland police union’s current contract. At 40 hours a week, that comes out to at least $62,700 annually without overtime.
Detective wages start at $31.65 an hour, or just over $65,800 per year, according to the contract.
The department’s traditional efforts to advertise openings “just weren’t enough,” Dubois said. That’s why he said he was excited to fill in the gaps with the “successful” recruiting company, which has so far “exceeded their expectations.”
Maine law enforcement agencies have struggled for years to hire enough officers. Department leaders have said they all compete with one another for a limited pool of officers, with some leaving the field because of high rates of burnout related to the drug and homelessness crises, a bottleneck at the police academy and a recent increase in criticism of law enforcement.
‘DUE FOR AN UPDATE’
The effort is funded through the Department of Justice’s asset forfeiture program, which doled out $825,000 to the department for various improvements last November, $350,000 of which was budgeted for recruitment efforts. A large chunk of that went to Epic and, because that initiative is “fluid,” Nadeau said police may spend more if the company’s strategies are effective.
The agreement between Epic and Portland Police Department details four efforts: brand development, and video and photo production at a cost of $150,000; building the recruitment website for $50,000; and advertising the campaign online, which costs $90,000.
“This isn’t taking drastic measures or anything like that, I just think we hired people who are the best at what they do to try to help fill these spots,” Nadeau said.
Epic will run the online marketing for one year and maintain the website for two, according to the contract.
Right now, Dubois said the advertisements are targeted toward the New England region. Depending on how successful that is, the department may ask Epic to broaden its reach.
“It’s something that we can use forever,” Dubois said. “The previous material we had was probably 15 years old, so it was due for an update, modernization anyway.”
The hiring process can take three to six months, Dubois said. If an officer is hoping to laterally transfer from another department in Maine, the process is shorter.
After an application is submitted, the police department requires a written aptitude test, a fitness test, interview, background investigation, polygraph exam, psychological assessment and medical exam. From there, qualified candidates go to the police academy for 18 weeks and complete a 12-week field training program.
The company first visited the department last November to interview staff, deciding whom to feature. In February, the company filmed officer interviews and got a few winter shots. Then it returned in June for three full days of filming around the city.
Dubois said he was happy with the result.
“They did a really nice job highlighting the uniqueness of Portland PD because of all the different aspects that we offer internally,” Dubois said.
Staff Writer Daniel Kool contributed to this report.
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