At SAFEGUARD Recruiting, we measure success not by impressions or clicks—but by hires. We’ve built a national reputation on delivering candidates and applicants to law enforcement agencies, often in volumes that far exceed expectations. From Philadelphia to North Carolina, our clients have seen dramatic increases in candidate flow within days of launching a campaign. But there’s a problem—one we encounter far too often.
We call it “The Application Problem.”
Getting Candidates Is No Longer the Hard Part
In the past, agencies struggled to find people interested in the job but our proven processes and techniques have eliminated that issue. Through data-driven digital outreach, strategic nurturing, and targeted messaging, SAFEGUARD routinely delivers thousands of interested candidates to departments across the country. We identify them. We contact them. We stay with them until they submit an application.
But that’s where the breakdown often begins.
Outdated Systems and Broken Pipelines
The majority of hiring systems in law enforcement were designed for a different era—one where departments received more applicants than they could process and when that is happening, there is no need for an efficient and timely hiring process.
Regardless of how outdated it was, there were always enough to hire at the end of it.
Today, the opposite is true, and many of these legacy systems haven’t kept up with the demands of a competitive hiring environment.
Candidates click “apply” and are routed to clunky portals. They’re required to print PDFs, create redundant logins, or navigate confusing HR systems. Some agencies don’t even collect contact information at initial touchpoints, making follow-up nearly impossible. Others impose application steps that don’t match the urgency or expectations of modern job seekers. The result? Candidates drop off. Momentum dies. Agencies lose the very people they spent time and money recruiting.
Even crazier is that some of the most popular HR software packages used by agencies (and many of our clients) endorse this 1990’s style of hiring by requiring an extensive ‘registration’ process for the candidate and that company takes the candidates from that agency and promotes them to other agencies as possible applicants. In fact, they don’t just offer your applicants to ogher agencies—they make money on them by charging $20,000+ for them!
The Disconnect
What we’ve found—and what data continually proves—is that a successful recruiting campaign must be paired with an efficient, user-friendly, and modern application process. If it’s not, even the most promising campaign will fall short. We recently ran into this at an agency that ran a small ampaign with us and in the end only received one applicant, despite over 100 interested candidates that wanted to work for the agency.
When they complained, we found that dozens had asked questions and many more simply gave up because the application process was too confusing.
We had built a process that gave them a ton of of interested candidates but at the point of agency/HR involvement, it broke.
The Solution: Aligning Recruiting with Application
SAFEGUARD Recruiting built SAFEGUARD Connect to address this problem head-on. It’s a law enforcement-specific candidate management platform designed to track, communicate with, and move candidates through each step of the hiring process. It fills the gap between interest and hire with structure, automation, and transparency.
But even without our platform, agencies can take immediate steps to resolve this:
- Streamline the Application: Ditch the PDFs, outdated portals and the registrations. Move to digital, mobile-friendly forms.
- Capture Contact Information Early: If you don’t collect an email or phone number on the first interaction, you’re already behind.
- Automate Follow-Up: Use text and email to maintain contact and re-engage candidates who stall out.
- Audit the Process: Walk through your own hiring process—from the eyes of a 22-year-old candidate. If it takes more than a few minutes or feels like a dead end, it probably is.
In Closing
SAFEGUARD can find the candidates. We can bring them to your door. But without a clear, functional, and supportive application process on your side of the fence, the opportunity is lost.
Recruiting today isn’t just about attraction—it’s about conversion.
Let’s fix the application problem—together.
