Expand search for Seattle police officers

Across the nation, cities recruiting police officers have used techniques akin to colleges attracting top-tier athletes. It takes a personal touch and a competitive edge to meet the tremendous need for specialized talent.

Sadly, Seattle is late to this game, and the City Council has sent mixed signals about how much it values public safety.

Last August, after months of wrangling, Seattle City Hall finally agreed to an incentive and recruitment package to replenish the sharply reduced ranks of the police department.

Since January 2020, the department lost 332 in-service officers, a 26% reduction in staff that resulted in longer response times to 911 calls and redeployment of detectives and other specialists to patrol units.

Systemic problems within SPD hiring practices have meant that much of the work so far has been in back-of-the-house operations. Now, the department should focus on a proactive recruitment strategy that focuses on immigrant and other communities that may have been overlooked in previous efforts.

“Fixing SPD’s staffing crisis was never going to be as easy as paying a few bonuses and placing some digital advertisements — it requires a top-to-bottom review and re-imagining of the hiring systems that have been at constrained capacity for years,” said Mayor Bruce Harrell’s spokesperson, Jamie Housen.

The national testing service that Seattle and other police departments across the country use for recruit intake allows applicants to send their scores to multiple departments. Seattle has lost qualified candidates because of its long and slow intake system, which can take as long as a year to process.

In response, Seattle transitioned to a digital background system, which makes it easier for candidates to track where they are in the process and cut wait times for requested documents such as questionnaires and references.

SPD has made other improvements as well, including adding someone to help candidates through the hiring process and adding more locations for physical agility testing.

Seattle now offers a $30,000 bonus to trained officers coming from another department, as well as a $7,500 signing bonus for new recruits. New police officers in Seattle earn about $83,000 annually once they graduate from the academy, while experienced officers transferring earn more than $90,000 a year to start.

At a recent conference in Washington held by the Police Executive Research Forum, a law enforcement policy organization, officials from departments across the country said they were struggling to find recruits.

“I need an officer that’s literally going to be the community outreach officer, but also can respond to that active shooter,” said Seattle Chief Adrian Diaz, according to The New York Times.

That is a high bar indeed. Seattle is right to add community service experience to its hiring matrix to find the right kind of officer.

Housen said SPD is putting together a temporary advertising plan while developing new outreach efforts and “innovative and modern marketing materials for the department.”

Being a Seattle police officer is an honorable, well-paid job. People from across the community, especially those once overlooked, should be encouraged to consider this unique public service.