Best questions for police officer survey about recruitment experience

Here are some of the best questions for a police officer survey about recruitment experience, plus practical tips for crafting them. If you want to build a tailored survey with these questions in seconds, you can use Specific to generate one instantly.

Best open-ended questions for police officer recruitment experience surveys

Open-ended questions invite officers to share detail, surface subtle experiences, and highlight themes you might miss with strictly quantitative formats. We recommend using them to capture nuanced feedback, uncover new issues, and understand motivations behind survey ratings. In the 2023 Police Uplift Programme New Recruits Onboarding Survey, over 85% of new police officers reported satisfaction with their roles—a valuable headline, but deeper stories emerge only through open comments about recruitment[1].

1. What first attracted you to the police recruitment process?

2. How would you describe your overall experience during recruitment?

3. What expectations did you have before applying, and how did the process compare?

4. Can you share a challenge you faced during recruitment and how you overcame it?

5. What part of the recruitment process stood out as especially positive or negative?

6. How did the information provided by the police force shape your view of the job?

7. What do you wish you had known at the start of recruitment?

8. How did your background or identity affect your experience with recruitment?

9. What suggestions would you make to improve recruitment for future officers?

10. How supported did you feel through the onboarding and induction stages?

Best single-select multiple-choice questions for police officer recruitment experience

Single-select multiple-choice questions help you structure data for easy analysis, especially when you need to quantify experience or spot trends across many respondents. They’re also great conversation starters—sometimes it’s more comfortable for officers to pick an option before diving into deeper feedback. You can follow these up with open-ended prompts to go further.

Question: How satisfied were you with the overall police recruitment process?

• Very satisfied

• Somewhat satisfied

• Neutral

• Somewhat dissatisfied

• Very dissatisfied

Question: Which aspect of the recruitment process was the most challenging?

• Application paperwork

• Assessment/interview

• Background checks

• Medical/fitness test

• Other

Question: How well did the recruitment process prepare you for your first day?

• Very well

• Somewhat well

• Not well

• Not at all

When to follow up with “why?” If a police officer chooses “Not well” for preparation, a conversational survey can immediately ask: “Why do you feel the process didn’t prepare you? What would have helped most?” This layered approach increases depth. It’s why platforms like Specific can powerfully handle both aspects, combining quantitative breadth and qualitative depth (learn more about survey design with AI).

When and why to add the “Other” choice? Always consider an “Other” option when you might miss an answer. For example, if an unforeseen step in the process made someone’s experience unique, a follow-up such as, “Can you describe your challenge?” might reveal an issue you haven’t thought of. These insights are often the hidden gems in recruitment feedback.

NPS survey for police officer recruitment experience

The Net Promoter Score (NPS) question asks: “How likely are you to recommend working for this police force to a friend or colleague?” It’s a benchmark for overall satisfaction and advocacy—highly relevant for police recruitment, where word-of-mouth impacts diversity and force reputation. NPS questions, paired with a “why” follow-up, pinpoint key drivers and detractors immediately. You can instantly generate an NPS recruitment survey for police officers with Specific’s AI.

The power of follow-up questions

Follow-ups transform static surveys into smart conversations. With automated follow-up questions, every answer triggers personalized probing, mirroring the curiosity of an expert interviewer. AI can clarify vague responses, explore motivations, and adapt to context in real time. This not only boosts completion rates—AI surveys achieve up to 90%, compared to 10–30% for traditional surveys[2]—but also uncovers more meaningful insights.

• Police officer: “The assessment part was tough.”

• AI follow-up: “Which element of the assessment did you find most difficult—written tests, role play, or something else?”

How many follow-ups to ask? Generally, two to three follow-ups are plenty to clarify intent and capture context, while keeping things comfortable. Configurable survey settings, like those in Specific, let you collect rich insights without overwhelming your respondents, and users can always skip to the next question when ready.

This makes it a conversational survey—unscripted, engaging, and human, resulting in natural feedback rather than stilted responses.

AI survey response analysis and response categorization: Even with all the extra open-text, it’s now easy to analyze with AI tools like conversational analysis. AI can instantly summarize responses, highlight trends, and extract keywords, so you don’t drown in data.

Automated probing is a relatively new capability. If you haven’t tried it yet, use Specific’s AI survey generator to see just how insightful conversational surveys can be.

Prompting AI (like ChatGPT) for police officer recruitment survey questions

Use prompts to instruct AI in generating recruitment survey questions. Here’s a simple way to start:

Request a straightforward list of open questions:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for Police Officer survey about Recruitment Experience.

But the more context you give, the better your results. For example:

I’m designing a survey for recently recruited police officers in the UK. My goal is to understand their perceptions, challenges, and satisfaction with the recruitment process. Please prioritize inclusivity and experiences of officers from minority backgrounds. Suggest 10 questions.

Once you have enough questions, try:

Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.

Then, choose standout categories to dig into further:

Generate 10 questions for categories "onboarding experience" and "diversity & inclusion".

What is a conversational survey and how does it compare?

Conversational surveys, like those from Specific, make feedback feel like a real chat, not a static form. You get richer answers and dramatically higher completion, since questions adapt in real time. In fact, a study found AI-assisted interviews draw out more detailed, actionable insights—although balancing data richness with respondent comfort remains important[3].

Why use AI for police officer surveys? AI survey tools don’t just save time—they help you see what you’d otherwise miss, surface unexpected themes, and keep officers engaged. Platforms like Specific, which specialize in recruitment experience feedback, deliver best-in-class conversational surveys that both you and respondents love using.

For practical steps, check out our guide: how to create a police officer recruitment survey.

See this recruitment experience survey example now

If you’re ready for deeper insights, see this recruitment experience survey example and create your own in moments—gain richer police officer feedback right away with a truly conversational, AI-powered approach.