South Australian Police targeting school leavers in new recruitment ad

Have you seen the new SAPOL recruitment advertisement targeted at school leavers. Cringe or bussin’? Have your say in our poll.

SA Police have taken to social media to target school leavers to its recruitment hub with Gen Z slang.

The simple ad has attracted the attention of social media users, with both positive and negative responses to the post made on SA Police’s Facebook page.

Comments range from the post being the “best Gen Z worded advertisement” but others labelled the post “cringy”.

“School leavers listen in – year 12 is complete, schoolies is done, now it’s time to secure the bag,” the ad starts.

“We pay you while you’re training/learning to become a police officer or police security officer.

“Straight out of school you could be making bank. Being paid to learn just hits different.

And when you graduate from the academy, you go into a job with over 40+ career paths, where you’re helping the community. It’s giving main character energy.

Don’t sleep on this opportunity – you can now apply when you’re 17 years old.”

The post continues to explain applications to the police force are open to 17 years old with training starting when applicants turn 18 years old.

Most users saw the fun side of the post with comments saying the post was “very mindful, very demure” and another diving in with their own Gen Z response; “Man that’s bussin’ No cap!”

“You gotta love SAPOL, y’all are built different and I love it,” another replier said.

“So much skibidi rizz, big feels in this post for me,” quipped another.

However, some users pointed out that seems like life experience – a reason people were rejected before – was now irrelevant with schoolies targeted in the post.

“At 21, I was knocked back due to lack life experience despite passing all testing requirements. How do school leavers have this?” asked one commenter.

“17 … obviously life experience doesn’t matter any more …” said another.

But Shadow Minister for Community Safety, Police and Correctional Services, Jack Batty said the government needed to get serious about recruitment and retention.

“What would be more “bussin” is for the government to financially incentivise young people to consider a career in policing, like other jurisdictions, which offer special cost of living allowances, accommodation and relocation costs,” he said.

“That would give “main character energy”.

In September, The Advertiser reported SA Police lost 227 officers during the last 12 months and recruited 218 new cadets in the same time, – decreasing their numbers by nine people.

The organisation is facing severe annual attrition challenges, as well as falling short on the required number of officers required by 167 people.

Originally published as South Australian Police targeting school leavers in new recruitment ad