By Aaron Allen
The Seattle Medium
Last week, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell flanked by Interim Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz announced the city’s new Police Recruitment and Retention Plan to help address staffing issues and emergency response challenges by SPD.
The major goal of this new initiative is to increase the number of deployable officers to 1, 450, a ratio of 1.9 officers per 1,000 residents. The plan includes increases in recruitment staffing and budget, competitive hiring incentives and relocation reimbursements, and system efficiency and modernization improvements to ease and accelerate the process for both new recruits and lateral transfers.
“In One Seattle, every person has an absolute right to safety, but we cannot deliver without a well-staffed and well-trained police department,” said Harrell. “This strategy is our opportunity to restore and rebuild a Seattle Police Department with the right number and right kind of officers so that it lives up to our highest values and priorities.”
According to officials, the city of Seattle has lost more than 400 police officers over the past two and a half years, which has depleted the force to the point where essential services cannot be delivered promptly and effectively.
Statistics show that as of May 2022, the number of trained and deployable officers is just 954, the lowest number in over 30 years.
In order to reverse this trend, Harrell is looking to accelerate the recruitment and application process to increase the number of successful applicants without sacrificing quality by implementing a package of comprehensive short-term strategies, including but not limited to, taking full advantage of state academy slots available to Seattle, strengthening existing recruiting teams, creating and hiring civilian recruitment management, leveraging technology, an accelerate candidate background review.
The plan will also create competitive compensation packages through hiring bonuses, moving reimbursements and other incentives to attract recruits along with values and experiences aligned with Seattle.
To address retention, Harrell looks to create more career advancement opportunities, ensure comprehensive and competitive economic packages and demonstrate a commitment to officers’ wellness and morale.
Interim Chief Diaz emphasizes just how important this process will be to the overall mission of the Seattle Police Department which is to serve and protect the people of this community.
“The police profession is a service profession, and our mission is to help people,” says Adrian Diaz, Interim Chief. “We will hire only the most compassionate, dedicated and qualified employees.”
