The Seattle Police Department (SPD) is embarking on a multi-million-dollar effort to recruit new officers after losing hundreds of its force to retirement, reassignments, or different career paths. However, more than just appealing bonuses and the charm of the city will be necessary to bring in the most qualified individuals. SPD must rethink its marketing strategy for the department itself and Seattle as a whole and seek ways to speed up police responses.
As it stands, median response times for priority one calls is 7.8 minutes. The times for priority two calls is 32.7 minutes, and for priority three and four, it’s 81.1 minutes. This is problematic considering that the city has only 913 deployable officers for a population of around 779,000, the lowest officer to citizen ratio since the early 90s when there were only 520,000 inhabitants. Notably, the department has lost over 700 officers since 2019.
Mayor Bruce Harrell aims to grow the force to 1,400 officers. Notable recruitment efforts have occurred at job fairs, colleges, military bases, and across social media, billboards, and television since 2022. In addition, the time from application to hire has been shortened from nine months to three to four months. This has been accompanied by an increase in marketing budget from a mere $100,000 to over a million.
Despite these efforts, the numbers have been dismal; only 61 officers were recruited in 2023 compared to 159 the previous year. While the SPD is offering new recruits $7,500 incentive bonuses and up to $30,000 for experienced transfers, these incentives seem to carry less weight than salaries and benefits.
Officers who leave the department within five years are required to refund their hiring bonus, a duration longer than other departments in Kent and Bellevue. But one distinguishing characteristic of the SPD is the potential for professional growth and development, a benefit typically found in larger departments.
Hoping to compete with leading communities for potential candidates, SPD will need to consider increasing its entry-level salary from $83,000. Comparatively, Redmond, Kent, Bellevue, Everett, and Edmonds offer $101,800, $96,200, $95,800, $94,100, and $93,700, respectively.
As SPD works to bolster its ranks through increased salaries, benefits, and marketing strategies, the task force has made it clear that maintaining honor, character, and integrity among its recruits is of utmost importance.
Source: SPD should revamp marketing strategy, salaries to attract new cops
