Do Hiring Gains Mean End to Seattle Police Force's Hiring Drought?

Last year, for the first time since 2019, the Seattle Police Department hired more officers than it lost.

It’s largely a symbolic victory — the net gain is a single cop — and the 84 hires still fall well short of the department’s goal of 120 for the year. But the departure of 83 officers was the lowest number in at least the past six years — including 2019 — and half the number of exits during the years that followed Seattle’s widespread protests.

Combined with a swell of overall applications from the year before, and a slowdown in the number of people resigning or retiring, the department is seeing a very real departure from the drought of recent years.

The shift comes as the cauldron of 2020 reduces to a simmer. Gone are the days of proposals — real or just spoken — to defund the police. The City Hall of today is one desperate to court the favor of the city’s current and future police officers, to spirit away veteran cops from neighboring jurisdictions and convince those who’ve left to return once more.

Seattle’s eagerness to hire more police is mirrored at both the state and national levels. In Olympia, lawmakers are quick to point out Washington’s ranking as the state with the lowest number of police officers per capita, and public safety was labeled as a bipartisan priority heading into the legislative session, which began Jan. 13.

Gov. Bob Ferguson’s campaign included a promise of $100 million in funding to support a local hiring grant program. If passed, Senate Bill 5060 will do just that.

Seattle lawmakers over the past year have sought to smooth the glide path between applicants and officers by streamlining testing and performing quick follow-ups with would-be recruits. But more than the city’s vibe or bureaucratic processes is a simpler incentive: paychecks.

At $103,000 to start, entry-level Seattle cops are now the best-paid in the state, thanks to a new contract with the city’s largest police union. And those who strayed to other departments are being enticed to return with friendly signing bonuses of up to $50,000.

“2024’s net positive staffing — for the first time since 2019 — is a sign of progress, even as we recognize there is much more work to do,” said Mayor Bruce Harrell.

Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, said the tide appears to be turning across the country, as departments started to grow in 2023 for the first time in several years. But big departments continue to struggle, making Seattle an encouraging example for those hoping for a similar boost in staffing.

It's not all about money, but making upward of $100,000 as a young cop is astounding, Wexler said. It feels like you're an MLB team recruiting a star player," he said.

The hiring class of 2024 is still heavily male, falling far short of the department’s goal to hire 30% women — 13 of the 84 hires were women, or 15%. As the department is beset by claims of sexism and stymied opportunities for women, it’s not the outcome the city’s current leadership wants to see.

The pipeline is disproportionately made up of ex-military hires, as has long been the case. More than 20% previously served in one of the branches, according to training records provided by the state police academy, compared with about 3% in Seattle more broadly. Veterans receive extra points on the city’s civil service exam.

In total, the department brought on 73 new recruits, in addition to nine officers who’d previously worked for the Seattle Police Department and two who newly transferred from other departments.

For those who left the department only to return, the financial incentives were even greater. Officer shortages statewide prompted nearby departments, as well as Seattle, to offer tempting signing bonuses, particularly for veteran cops.

Two returning officers had previously left Seattle for the Marysville Police Department, where they each stayed for two years — long enough to collect a $20,000 hiring bonus. And because they were gone from SPD for two years, they also qualified for the $50,000 signing bonus offered by Seattle when they returned.

Three officers took a similar path to the Bellevue Police Department, where they stayed the three years required to collect a full $30,000 signing bonus, before returning to Seattle. Another did the same in Federal Way, while another collected a bonus from the Tacoma Police Department.

The 933 officers available to be deployed is still significantly fewer than the department’s peak of nearly 1,300 in 2019. But applications are more than double what they were last year, giving City Hall hope that the trends will continue to improve.

"This net positive in hires shows that our efforts, in collaboration with the executive, are working and that’s cause for celebration," said Councilmember Sara Nelson. "However, the work is not finished."

At a recent training session for new recruits in South Seattle, Sgt. Ryan Kennard said the past five to six months of classes have been noticeably fuller. Where they used to field two to three new hires at a time, it’s more like 12 to 14 now.

One such recruit was Damaris Dominguez. At 39, it’s a new career path for her. Her daughter has gone to college and her husband works full-time at Amazon. Much of her family back in New York, where she’s from, went through the military and into law enforcement, and it was something she was always interested in.

“I was just like, I'm gonna try this out and I'll see how this goes,” she said. “And as each step progressed, I went on to the next stage and next stage. And once I was in and I got the offer letter, I was like, 'OK, this is it, there's no option for failure.' ”

Another recruit, Natalie Cornwall, said some people close to her questioned why she didn’t choose a department in a city seen as friendlier to police.

“People definitely look at me like I'm crazy,” she said.

But that never factored into her decision-making; she doesn’t need everyone around her to wholeheartedly love the police to do her job well, she said.

Beyond Seattle, law enforcement in Washington hasn’t seen any notable upticks in applicants, said David Quinlan, spokesperson for the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission.

But Steve Strachan, head of the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, said departments are finding higher-quality applicants in their pools. As a result, vacancies are being filled more quickly.

While the state saw net losses of officers in 2021 and 2022, there was a net increase in 2023, the most recent year with available data.

“I've heard from a lot of chiefs and sheriffs that they're like, 'Wow, we're getting fewer applicants, but we're getting really good people,' ” he said.

The new governor and his allies in the Legislature hope a $100 million pot of money can juice the number of applicants higher.

With SB 5060, “agencies won't have to think twice about investing in new recruits’ training," said Nathan Olson, a senior policy adviser from Ferguson’s office, during the bill’s first public hearing.

Some who support the bill also acknowledge that money will not be the magic fix for the state’s issues. Addressing the problem “requires our state's leaders to embrace and support our law enforcement officers and uphold the rule of law,” said James McMahan, policy director at the sheriffs and police chiefs association.

Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen, D- Seattle, said funding isn’t the problem everywhere. He pointed to Seattle, where there are about 400 funded but open officer positions.

“Why is that? It's not because there's a lack of money or lack of a new state grant program. It's because we have a significant workforce challenge,” Pedersen said.

Back in Seattle, around half of the officers who left the department retired, while a quarter resigned and the rest were fired. On average, the departing officers had 17 years’ experience.

Recruitment is likely to be among the top priorities of the next police chief. The Seattle City Council has not yet held any confirmation hearings for Shon Barnes, who takes over from interim Chief Sue Rahr.

In a recent exit interview in Wisconsin, he said he would explore all paths to bringing cops to Seattle. "Everything is on the table when it comes to recruiting and retaining officers, he said.

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