Those silly council members that voted to defund the police,
now that the voters have decided THEY DEMAND POLICING,
are sure going to cost a lot to get back to where we were!

from
https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/editorials/spd-should-revamp-marketing-strategy-salaries-to-attract-new-cops/

SPD should revamp marketing strategy, salaries to attract new cops
March 25, 2024 at 3:37 pm

Police are shown at Pathfinder K-8 in West Seattle last year. The
understaffed Seattle Police Department needs to change its marketing and
offer more money to attract officers, the editorial board writes. (Luke
Johnson / The Seattle Times, 2023)

Police are shown at Pathfinder K-8 in West Seattle last year. The
understaffed Seattle Police Department needs to change its marketing and
offer more money to attract officers, the editorial board writes. (Luke
Johnson / The Seattle Times, 2023)Less

By The Seattle Times editorial board
The Seattle Police Department is in the midst of a multimillion-dollar
push to replenish its ranks after hundreds of police officers have
retired, moved to other jurisdictions or changed careers altogether.

But it will take more than just bonuses, and the lure of working in a
beautiful city where violent crime is relatively low, to attract the
best and the brightest. Officials must become even more creative in
their marketing of the police department, and the city of Seattle
itself, to hire more officers to ensure quicker police responses. Median
response time for priority one calls is now 7.8 minutes; priority two
median response time is 32.7 minutes; and priority three and four median
response times are 81.1 minutes, according to the city.

It also must address entry-level salaries, which rank well below many
nearby communities.

As of late January, there were 913 deployable officers (sworn officers
who are not on leave) in the department that serves a city of about
779,000. That isfewest officers since the early 1990s when the
population was just over 520,000. The department has lost over 700
officers since 2019.

Mayor Bruce Harrell has a goal of 1,400 officers. Since 2022, the city
has made strides in recruiting at job fairs, colleges, military bases
and advertising on social media, billboards and TV.

The city has also shortened the time between when SPD receives an
application to making a hire from nine months to three to four months,
Deputy Mayor Tim Burgess said. Candidates also can take their agility
test anywhere it’s offered in the country instead of traveling to
Seattle. The city has poured more than $1 million into marketing, up
from an annual maximum of just $100,000 in the years leading up to 2022,
Burgess said.

Still, even with boosted recruitment, only 61 officers were hired in
2023. Also in that year, 97 left. That’s a decrease compared to 2022,
when 159 officers left.

The SPD is offering new recruits $7,500 incentive bonuses and up to
$30,000 for officers who transfer from another department. Yet,
incentive pay appears to not count as much as salary and benefits when
it comes to why new hires choose SPD, according to a hiring, recruitment
and retention survey.

If officers leave the department within five years, they have to pay
back their hiring bonus. That’s longer than many departments; in Kent,
it’s one year and three in Bellevue.

But what separates Seattle from other cities is the chance for growth
and development, which is likely greater in a larger department.

Seattle must continue its national advertising and recruitment efforts
that have already yielded an uptick in applications to roughly 270 per
month. But to compete with the top five communities for candidates,
Seattle must consider raising its entry-level salary of $83,000 to
compete with Redmond at $101,800, Kent at $96,200, Bellevue at $95,800,
Everett at $94,100 and Edmonds at $93,700.

However, as the city uses salary, bonuses, benefits and marketing to
increase its ranks, honor, character and integrity among its recruits
must be paramount.

The Seattle Times editorial board members are editorial page editor Kate
Riley, Frank A. Blethen, Melissa Davis, Josh Farley, Alex Fryer, Claudia
Rowe, Carlton Winfrey and William K. Blethen (emeritus).

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SPD should revamp marketing strategy, salaries to attract new cops

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Seattle is $230 million in the hole, and SPD is their biggest budget
item. Don't be real surprised if this doesn't happen.

Haha, the city is not in "the hole". Tax revenues almost doubled over
the past ten years fully adjusted for both inflation and population.
OK, you go tell them that they really have the general fund money for
their departmental budgets. It seems there's some confusion over that.
While you're at it, tell them they have some more money that they can
pitch on for SPD raises and incentives.

(Edited)
$230 million in the hole is absurd. It's due to total mismanaged
budgeting and overspending to the max.
People may take a job for the money, but they don’t tend to stay in that
job if they don’t feel valued. It will take a long time for current City
leaders to undo the real harm done by the past administration.
priority two median response time is 32.7 minutes
Priority 2 calls include threats of violence, major property damage,
incidents where officer presence is required to avoid escalation,
disturbances involving weapons, serious injury vehicle collisions.

It is amazing how bad this response time is, and for how long it has now
been this way.
Yet Chief Diaz and Mayor Harrell (his boss) have known since a city
study reported in 2021 that sworn officers in Seattle were spending 67%
of their time responding to non-criminal calls for service with an
average of 2.4 officer per call.

And they've failed to follow other departments in offloading those calls
so officers can focus on those that really do require a gun and the
power of arrest. Civilian public safety staff have already doing as a
good a job for less for years in other departments with better
leadership, including civilian crime investigators (Denver, San Diego),
civilian traffic investigators (Wilmington, Fayetteville), civilian
crisis responders (Denver, Albuquerque, and New York City and at least a
dozen more), and various forms of community service officer or police
aide (Anaheim, Santa Cruz and many, many more).

They've been sitting on unspent salary funding for officers they know
they can't hire rather than fixing needlessly tying up sworn officers
while wasting taxpayer money hand over fist.

The Seattle Times is part of the problem. They helped create an anti
public safety officer environment that is hostile to recruits. A style
guide that reframes a 6 week riot and violent insurrection as a
'protest', weekly biased anti-SPD articles (all respectful commenters
canceled), accolades and endorsement of pro-criminal progressive
legislators.
(Edited)
quit blaming the newspaper

The newspaper created the problem. ST is anti police. They report all
the police related news and what you don't want discussed creates blame
Reporting the news in a biased manner isn't reporting.

Thanks to the previous city council and TAMMY MORALES for making such a
toxic environment that so many of our officers left and noone wanted to
be a cop here.

Now we will have to throw excesses of $$$ to recruit. That is the cost
of pandering to the mobs in 2020.

And Wake Up district 2 voters!
..
Toxic Tammy certainly harmed Seattle.