Should Non-Citizens Be Cops? Legal and Practical Considerations

The shortage of qualified applicants for sworn law enforcement positions has become a crucial problem and shows no signs of improving in the coming years. As a result, law enforcement leaders are being forced to reexamine “the way we’ve always done things” in order to find solutions to this recruiting crisis without lowering standards regarding the character, competence and integrity of potential applicants. The recruiting crisis has reached a level that calls for open and honest reexamination of minimum qualifications to determine if each one is truly necessary, or simply a best-case-scenario preference.  

A mandatory requirement that applicants must be U.S. citizens (by birth or naturalization) before being hired as law enforcement officers is one of the qualifiers that law enforcement leaders and elected officials should consider reexamining. In critical professional positions—from priests to nurses to doctors to military service members—non-citizens serve an essential role in the everyday lives of Americans. If we entrust non-citizens, who are legally authorized to work in the United States, to serve in these roles, is it time to consider similar eligibility for service as sworn law enforcement officers in the face of an unprecedented staffing crisis?

In this two hour webinar, Attorney Matt Dolan will discuss the legal and practical considerations to be taken into account by law enforcement leaders as they consider the possibility of recruiting and hiring applicants who are legally authorized to work in the United States but have not obtained citizenship.