Goodies, it is all about the giveaways!

So do giveaways really help you recruit? Well, overall the answer is "yes" and "no". Trinkets all depend on what they are and how you use them.

Let's begin by listing some of the more popular police recruiting trinkets:

• Key chains
• Lapel pins
• Pens
• Pencils
• Mouse pads
• Coffee mugs
• Magnets
• Lanyards (necklace for your keys!)

Okay, all of these trinkets are really good but how effective are they when it comes to recruiting? This depends greatly on where you use them. For example, if you use trinkets at a career fair, most people will come by your table, literally shop around what you have, take what they think is cool or what they believe they can use. So what do you get for this? NOTHING! All that happens is that you spend a lot of money for people to clean you out. So what do you do at a career fair then?

To make a difference at a career fair is not in the amount of trinkets but through the trinket itself. Find a trinket that gains a lot of attention to the point where if you looked down from the sky everyone and anyone near or at the career fair would be advertising for you. For example, about two years ago I, along with my officers, attended our state fair. Now I don't know about you but we never get anyone who really applies from our state fair. So what I did was turn the event into our own marketing event. To start, I purchased about 500 water bottles, bright blue and white, with my departmental logo and application information stamped all over them. Second, I purchased a few hundred "squishy" toys of police hats/badges.

The one day we were assigned to the fair I gave every kid a "squishy" police hat/badge and every adult I could a water bottle. What did this accomplish? We had every vendor, every employee and every patron of the state fair looking for us to get a water bottle. We had a full two or three days of marketing. Now if you are paying attention, you will notice I said we were only there one day, so how did this become a two or three day marketing event? Because we made sure every vendor had some of our items as well. Therefore, the vendors and other exhibit booths were advertising for us.

So what trinkets are the best and worst? The best trinkets are the ones that people carry that everyone sees, such as water bottles, shirts, hats, or lanyards. The worst trinkets are lapel pins (because they really don't advertise for you) or key chains because most people put them in their pockets. Remember, you want to the trinket to advertise for you because giving someone a trinket really isn't going to get someone to apply for you.