Seattle City Council approves $50,000 bonuses for lateral police hires

(The Center Square) – The Seattle City Council on Tuesday approved legislation to continue its hiring incentive program for police officers as part of a plan to address the department’s staffing shortage.

Council Bill 120862 continues the city’s hiring incentive program, which would have expired at the end of this year.

The original hiring incentive program was approved in 2022, when the Seattle City Council authorized using $1.57 million of Seattle Police Department salary savings from vacant positions for recruiting and retaining officers.

The updated hiring program increases the maximum incentive amount for lateral hires from $30,000 to $50,0000 as part of the newly-permanent hiring incentive program.

The $50,000 incentive for lateral hires now makes SPD the police department with the largest lateral transfer bonus in the western Washington region, including the cities of Des Moines, Everett, Mercer Island and Federal Way.

Council Bill 120862 was sponsored by Seattle City Council Chair Sara Nelson, who said the increase in hiring bonuses for lateral transfers was necessary to bring in officers who can be deployed more quickly.

“Our goal is to attract the best police recruits in the nation to Seattle and we must provide them and their colleagues with the tools to do their jobs most effectively once they are here,” Nelson said in a statement .

The hiring incentive program would continue to be funded through ongoing reallocation of SPD salary savings. According to a fiscal note, that will continue to total $1.57 million.

Prior to the vote on Tuesday, Seattle City Councilmember Tammy Morales noted that as of Aug. 31, SPD had 1,030 sworn positions filled and expects a net positive of 15 new officers each year through 2026.

According to Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell, SPD currently has roughly 3,000 applicants, which Morales says makes the new spending for hiring bonuses unclear to her.

“I’m concerned that this legislation privileges SPD over every other city worker by increasing their hiring bonuses to the amount of about a down payment on a house in this city,” Morales said at Tuesday's Seattle City Council meeting . "Permanently offering $50,000 in hiring bonuses to SPD is fiscally irresponsible in a year when we’re facing a major budget deficit.”

Morales was the only council member to vote in opposition of the bill.

The permanent hiring incentive program will become official once Harrell signs Council Bill 120862.