A scene from a Seattle Police Department recruiting video
UPDATE: The mayor’s office has provided an updated version of this table with corrected figures — “The table of SPD officer statistics has been updated to show the accurate number of deployable officers and total officers for 2024 after a column was incorrectly transposed. The 933 deployable officers is as of August 31, 2024 to maintain consistency with previous methodology for calculation. We regret this error. “
Mayor Bruce Harrell says the city’s recruitment efforts including a streamlined testing process and relaxed requirements paired with better pay and retention policies are helping the Seattle Police Department turn the corner on growing its dwindling ranks.
For the first time in five years, Seattle’s police department hired more officers than it lost, the Harrell administration announced this week.
“The Seattle Police Department received over 4,300 officer applications in 2024, the most since 2013 and more than double those received in 2023, and hired 84 officers, the first-time hiring has surpassed separations since 2019,” the announcement reads. “Interested candidates can apply at SeattlePoliceJobs.com,” the mayor’s announcement added, reflecting the ongoing effort to continue the administration’s marketing around the hiring initiative.
It was a close race. The department reports 84 successful hires in 2024 — one more officer than it lost.
SPD has changed the way it hires with a new test and changes like allowing candidates to complete the “physical ability” test from home. There is also no age limit to apply. In 2023, a 62-year-old joined the force.
(Image: City of Seattle)
The department has also upped its recruitment of women even as the city faces ongoing harassment litigation from the department under ousted Chief Adrian Diaz.
Police office candidates are not required to be residents of Seattle
Harrell’s pick to lead the department, Wisconsin police chief Shon Barnes, will go through the approval process to begin the year and take over from interim Chief Sue Rahr.
The signs of a turnaround come as Seattle Police officials late last year said the department’s ranks had fallen to the lowest numbers in 30 years as the Seattle City Council expanded a program that pays out a $7,500 hiring bonus to new recruits and boosts bonuses for so-called “lateral” hiring from other police departments to $50,000 as the Harrell administration said Seattle continues to face regional competition for officers.
(Image: SPD)
SPD also launched a new recruiting advertising campaign this summer featuring “cartoon versions of police officers in various heroic scenarios.” The campaign will be part of a $2.5 million budget in 2025 for police recruitment advertising and marketing.
The city said the number of Seattle police officers “fully trained and available for deployment” fell to 930 at the end of July, “among the lowest numbers since at least 1991, the first year the number of ‘inservice’ officers was reported.”
To start 2025 as he begins his campaign for a second term leading the city, Harrell says the “surge” in applications for the department is a sign “Seattle is seeing meaningful improvements” despite a nationwide challenge in police recruiting.
Paying cops more is also helping. Seattle ranked 29th in the region to start 2024 for base pay for its new recruits an issue the bonus program won’t address. The city and the Seattle Police Officers Guild arrived at a new contract last spring that boosted pay 23%.
The city says new recruits now start at a $103,000 a year salary with a $7,500 hiring incentive, and qualified lateral transfers from another agency start at $116,000 with a $50,000 incentive.
While the numbers indicate progress on hiring new cops, Seattle has seen surges in crime and a reduction in service from its police force. In the East Precinct, response times for the lowest priority 911 calls have climbed above one hour. Meanwhile, a surge in gun violence, shootings, and homicides that started during the pandemic has not fully subsided.
HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE
Subscribe to CHS to help us hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you.
Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for as little as $5 a month.
This pic is horrifying
interesting. How do they explain the jump in deployable officers, given that net hiring was basically flat?
Probably officers under investigation for discipline infractions had their cases closed and are back to work after their gentle slap on the wrist and paid vacation. But yes, the math doesn’t add up in that chart for any year.
Role conversion maybe?
Maybe they can hire more officers who were at January 6th? Is the terrorist Mike Solan still president of SPOG?
With the incoming Trump pardons there should be an influx of freed insurrectionists to choose from!
Some will already have experience beating people with sticks and can skip the SPD training.
Who the eff are they trying to recruit with a video like that?!
Nightmare fuel!
So over 1,100 folks passed the exam in 2024, but SPD only hired 84? I’d be curious to know the details on why so few hires. At this pace it will take decades to make up the shortfall of officers. This city doesn’t have decades. The doom loop is setting in.
Check out the previous comments, filled with anti cop shit. If you were a cop looking for a job would you give Seattle a second look? No. No you would not.