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The Flagstaff City Council approved a contract on Tuesday, June 3, for consulting services intended to assist the city’s police department with recruitment and retention of officers. The $150,000 contract is wholly funded by a grant from the Arizona Department of Public Safety.

“One of the most important things we’re doing right now is recruitment and retention, and for them to work together is very important,� police chief Sean Connolly said after the council meeting. “If you’re excelling in recruitment but then you’re not retaining, you’re defeating the purpose.�

In a summary of the contract’s objectives provided to the council, the Flagstaff Police Department acknowledged that officer retention has been an ongoing problem. The department “has routinely lost approximately 20 officers per year over the past seven years due to lateral transfer to other agencies, retirement, departmental discipline, and the decision to change professions,� that document stated.

The contract was awarded to Phoenix-based firm Performance Protocol, which describes itself as a “human capital management firm� specializing in law enforcement. The firm has a preexisting contract with the Department of Public Safety, and Flagstaff is effectively piggybacking on the department’s procurement process.

Performance Protocol will provide multiple services to the department, including an audit of existing recruitment strategies to identify “bottlenecks, redundancies, and inefficiencies,� training for the department’s recruiting staff, and an applicant tracking system, which it claims “correlates recruiting data with performance metrics to identify successful interviewers and predict high-performer potential.�

Additionally, the firm will provide a “leadership bootcamp� for all officers in supervisory positions. Echoing what he previously told the Arizona Daily Sun during a February interview regarding staffing levels, Connolly said, “If you look at the national statistics, the reason people are leaving police departments around America is because of their frontline supervision, their sergeants and lieutenants.� The department hopes additional leadership training for supervisors will be a positive factor for intradepartmental cohesion and officer retention.

Finally, Performance Protocol will provide two years of online coaching and career development services for the department’s officers. The company says that its coaching services support increased retention, greater employee satisfaction, and reduced burnout or turnover for law enforcement agencies.

In its statement to the council seeking approval of the contract, the department wrote, “The Flagstaff Police Department is committed to recruiting the most talented and diverse group of employees that will resemble the community they serve. Our intention is to focus our recruitment efforts right here in the community while also being inviting to talented individuals from across the nation wanting to pursue a law enforcement career in Flagstaff.�

The contract approval was part of the council’s consent agenda for the June 3 meeting -- “considered by the City Council to be routine� -- and as such did not receive any specific council discussion or public comment. The entire consent agenda was approved unanimously.