Seattle Police Department still needs more cops despite cash bonuses

Seattle’s money bonuses for brand spanking new police recruits have but to reverse the pattern of the police division shedding officers.

Sure, however: Metropolis officers say it is nonetheless too early to rule the motivation program successful or failure.

What’s taking place: Numbers shared with a metropolis council committee final week present the Seattle Police Division’s complete variety of cops has declined because the begin of the yr, for a web lack of six officers.

• That is regardless of the town adopting a coverage final August of giving new recruits $7,500 signing bonuses, and giving bonuses as much as $30,000 to lateral hires who come from different departments.

Why it issues: Final yr, the town’s variety of deployable officers dipped to about 950, the bottom staffing stage in additional than three many years, based on Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell’s workplace. Harrell set a aim of accelerating police staffing by 500 officers over 5 years.

Newest: Regardless of the town welcoming 42 new police hires and one lateral switch between July and February, the town’s complete variety of officers in service did not inch upward in that timeframe.

• That is as a result of dozens of officers additionally separated from the division, offsetting the hiring features.
• In keeping with metropolis council workers, the Seattle Police Division had 948 officers in service on the finish of February.
• That is about the place the division was when Harrell introduced the hiring incentive program final July.

Zoom in: By way of February, 38 new officer recruits had acquired their first funds as a part of the deliberate hiring bonuses, that are paid in two installments.

• Town had spent $154,000 on the bonuses as of Feb. 28, with one other $191,000 nonetheless scheduled to be paid out, largely as the brand new officers full their probationary durations.

What they’re saying: Seattle Metropolis Council member Lisa Herbold, who chairs the council’s public security committee, stated that whereas the recruitment numbers should not what the town had hoped to see at this level, “it does really feel like we’re beginning to flip a nook.”

• Though the town had a web lack of six officers within the first quarter of this yr, that is lower than the web lack of 28 officers the town noticed over the identical interval in 2022, based on metropolis information.

Plus: Town had twice as many new police recruits this quarter in comparison with the primary quarter of final yr, and fewer officer separations.

What we’re watching: Town has launched a brand new video advert marketing campaign to attempt to entice extra police officer candidates, and plans to have interaction in additional focused advertising and marketing within the coming months.

• Final month, Harrell instructed Axios he hopes to see additional progress on police hiring on account of streamlining the appliance and background examine course of.
• Whereas it used to take eight months for a profitable police applicant to obtain a conditional supply, that timeline has now been lower to 4 or 5 months, metropolis workers stated.