Public Safety Recruitment and Retention: A Discussion With Regional Managers

The Centralina Regional Managers group is one of several peer networking opportunities we offer to communities in our nine-county region. Comprised of town, city and county managers, assistant managers and clerks, the group meets monthly to receive federal and state updates, discuss regional issues and share best practices. Heading into FY22, the group provided Centralina staff with suggestions for potential meeting topics relevant to their role as local government administrators. Public safety recruitment and retention emerged as a topic of interest with several managers noting the challenges they have encountered in attracting and retaining public safety personnel. The group’s December meeting focused on this topic and featured a mix of guest speakers, Centralina service profiles and interactive exercises.

Highlights from the meeting included:

• A real-time poll and peer discussion in which managers shared the approaches their local governments have used to address public safety recruitment and retention
• A presentation from the Governor’s Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice on recommendations for strengthening law enforcement recruitment and training and enhancing support for officers’ mental, physical and overall well-being
• A presentation from Triangle J Council of Governments on their Regional Recruitment Partnership, a collaborative effort to recruit high-quality officers to law enforcement agencies in the Triangle region
• A spotlight on Centralina’s fire and law enforcement promotional assessment center services
• An overview of federal and state public safety grant opportunities along with tips for pursuing funding

Centralina welcomes the opportunity to leverage our partnerships to share information and resources with our members. Providing forums for discussion and information exchange around key issues such as those covered at the Regional Managers group meetings is just one example of the support Centralina provides to local governments.

For more information about the Regional Managers group, please contact kweston@centralina.org.