Here’s a challenge for any advertising firm: make the Los Angeles Police Department look warm and fuzzy to entice more people to become cops. That was the assignment for Duncan & Associates, a Santa Monica advertising agency that developed a series of TV and radio ads to recruit more people to the force in the midst of a tight job market.
The four 30-second TV commercials, running mostly on local broadcast and cable channels from mid-July through mid-August in Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties, show various police officers chatting about what they enjoy about their jobs and why they chose their profession. Most of the featured officers are women or minorities.
In one spot, a policewoman named Alma says she is willing to go the extra mile to save people. “Saving people’s lives is excellent,” she says. “That doesn’t happen every day. Impacting people’s lives, I can do that every day. It’s a great feeling.”
Another commercial shows a policewoman talking about her experience as a cop and asking, “Why can’t people see your heart?”
The spots present a stark contrast to the LAPD’s image on recent newscasts.
First it was the fatal shooting last year of a 102-pound homeless woman who police said threatened them with a screwdriver. Then it was the Rampart Division brouhaha in which former policeman Rafael Perez admitted that he and other cops beat and framed people, lied in court and covered up shootings.
Last week it was TV footage and newspaper photos showing LAPD officers firing rubber bullets at demonstrators outside the Staples Center during the Democratic National Convention. The police officers looked menacing in riot gear that consisted of helmets and face masks, dark bullet-proof vests, and batons clutched across their chests when they weren’t swinging at protesters.
“The new ads are an improvement over the last ad campaign, whose posters I still have,” said defense attorney Stephen Yagman, who makes a career of suing the LAPD for violating individuals’ civil rights. He has filed 19 cases related to the Rampart scandal, is preparing 40 more cases and is reviewing another 130. “But the present ad campaign seems to be a bunch of righteous propaganda to try to present a false image of the LAPD.”
Better than the last one
A few years ago, the LAPD launched a billboard campaign during another recruitment drive that depicted two cops, one black and one white, clasping hands. Underneath the photo, the caption read: “Join the LAPD. You can be a Lethal Weapon 2.”
Other critics agree that the new campaign is an improvement over the old one.
“I know they are trying to diversify by hiring more women and more people of color. Obviously, there are a lot of people in these groups that aren’t attracted to a baton-wielding image. So I think it is important for them to reach these people if they are going to diversify the force,” said Bryce Nelson, a journalism professor at USC and a former L.A. Times reporter who was a member of the Christopher Commission, which examined how to improve the LAPD after the 1992 Rodney King riots.
At a time when Los Angeles County’s unemployment rate is the lowest it has been in 11 years, everyone is having a difficult time finding good employees.
The LAPD is no different. And it has a lot of vacancies. The department is looking to fill 700 to 1,000 jobs this year, said Cmdr. Betty Kelepecz, the LAPD’s lead recruiter. It is also trying to diversify by attracting more women and more minorities. Currently there are 9,323 officers on the force.
Police Chief Bernard Parks, when launching the ad campaign in July, admitted the department has an image problem, but it needs individuals with the people skills to work well with the community.
While the police department couldn’t specify how many people have responded to the campaign, advertising executives at Duncan & Associates said they were told the police department had to put in an extra phone to handle all the calls coming in.
“We knew this was going to be a challenge, given the kind of press the police department has gotten,” said Sandy Jones, one of two creative directors on the pro bono project. “But we felt we could make a difference in getting good people on the force.”
From grocery stores to cops
Normally, Duncan & Associates handles ads for grocery-store chain Albertsons. But Hugh Duncan, chief executive of the agency, said Ron Rogers of Century City P.R. agency Rogers & Associates approached him last fall about coming up with some positive ads for recruitment. At the time, the Police Department had little money for recruitment advertising. It was allotted $1 million in its new budget on July 1.
“Apparently we struck the right chord,” Duncan said. “The response rate, we heard, has been 10 times the regular rate.”
Jones said it was an eye opener for the ad people to listen to the 75 to 100 officers they surveyed, who explained why they chose their careers.
“We all have these fears that cops are out to get us, and we saw behind that,” she said. “They are very proud of what they do and proud to be part of that organization.”
