North Texas police department launches big-screen recruitment amid shortage
NORTH TEXAS – Amid a nationwide police officer shortage, one North Texas police department is getting creative to bring in recruits.
The Colony is using the box office to reach potential officers. The department hired a production company to make a recruitment video worthy of playing on the big screen. Galaxy Theatres in Grandscape will air it as a trailer before movie showings.
"We want people to look into law enforcement as a career," said Matthew Winnett, assistant chief of The Colony Police Department. "And then secondly, we want people to choose The Colony, too, when they do decide to get into law enforcement."
What was once considered a sleepy lakeside suburb in Denton County is now attracting more and more development, and The Colony Police Department has to keep up with the growth.
"The city's growing," Winnett said. "So we're constantly adding new positions and trying to stay on top of that."
Recruitment efforts come when departments across North Texas and the nation are dealing with officer shortages.
"There's just less people that want to be in law enforcement," Winnett said. "There's been some incidents in the past years that have kind of given law enforcement a bad reputation, incidents across the nation. So we've dealt with that. And additionally, we're just surrounded by a lot of really good police departments with Frisco and Plano and Carrollton and all these agencies around us. So we are competing with some of the best in the country."
But The Colony believes it has a lot to offer both current officers in other departments and people looking for a new career.
"We're still small enough where we have that family atmosphere, but we're big enough where there's opportunities, there's different divisions and there's a lot going on, a lot of exciting things," Winnett said.
Even though the new recruitment video is fit for the big screen, the trailer is meant to feel like more than an action movie.
"Chasing cars and chasing people and being on the SWAT team—that's a small percentage of what we do on a daily basis," Winnett said. "Most of what we do really revolves around serving the community and responding to people's needs."
He hopes the video brings in more people who have a desire to serve others and want to wear the uniform to do just that.
The Colony Police Department used drug seizure funds to pay for the production of the video. The company used is owned by a former The Colony police officer.
Galaxy Theatres has agreed to air the trailer for free for 60 days in the theater. The department will also post the recruitment videos online.
You can find more information about The Colony Police Department here: The Colony Police Department.