Amidst an Impending Budget Shortfall, SPD Entry-Level Officers May See a Raise in Salary

by Lauryn Bray

As the City continues to strategize ways to address next year's $240 million budget deficit, PubliCola reports that a new agreement between Seattle and its largest police union, the Seattle Police Officers Guild (SPOG), will carve out funding for raises of up to 23% for entry-level officers.

The negotiation is just one of many efforts the City has made toward police recruitment and retention; however, even with the new increase in pay, the City of Seattle may still be far from its goal of 1,400 officers.

"We have a huge budget deficit we're facing," said South End District 7 Councilmember Tammy Morales in an interview with the Emerald, "and how increased investment in anything shifts funding for alternatives is going to be the big question on the table this year."

The effects of the shortfall can already be felt — Mayor Bruce Harrell initiated a hiring freeze for all City departments excluding police, fire, and the Community Assisted Response and Engagement (CARE) department, with limited exceptions, at the end of January.

With public safety as one of the pillars upon which he built the foundation of his election campaign, Harrell has been clear regarding his intention to build up the city's police force since the beginning of his administration.

During his inauguration, Harrell said he envisions "a safe and supported city [that] employs the right kind and right number of police officers and establishes [the] unarmed, community-based responders we desperately need to restore trust and street-level safety."

In July 2022, Harrell announced his recruitment and retention plan, in which he promised to hire 500 police officers by 2027. Some changes to the previous process include the use of national test sites to eliminate the expectation for out-of-state applicants to travel to Seattle to take the physical agility test; online oral board interviews; and hiring bonuses of up to $7,500 for new recruits and $30,000 for lateral transfers.

On Thursday, April 11, the City Council's Governance, Accountability & Economic Development Committee will consider legislation that, if passed, will create a position that would enable quicker and more personal responses to police officer candidates. It would also enable other efforts to streamline the hiring process.

"This was prompted for me by the fact that SPD continues to lose more officers than it can hire," Council President Sara Nelson said during a council session on Monday, April 8. "So we have to do everything we possibly can to hire more officers faster." She said that other cities are also grappling with a tight labor pool, so the City needs to investigate ways to improve and streamline the hiring process.

Morales expressed concerns that the goal to make hiring "easier, faster, and more efficient" will not include time for future officers to receive bias training. "As a city, we already spend tens of millions of dollars settling cases of police discrimination, of use of force — I don't know why we would risk more lawsuits by hiring officers who aren't screened for bias," said Morales.

In November, SPD Det. Denise "Cookie" Bouldin filed a lawsuit against the police department alleging racial and gender discrimination and harassment. Bouldin had filed a $10 million claim with the City and filed the lawsuit afterward, saying the City had "failed to respond meaningfully."

Public Radio station KUOW spoke to 10 former female police officers who all recounted experiences of sexism, harassment, and favoritism within SPD, calling the department a "boys' club." There is also an ongoing lawsuit in which longtime SPD Officer Deanna Nollette accuses Chief Adrian Diaz of sexism and misogyny. Nollette worked at SPD for 27 years.

The City hired an outside agency to help launch a new branding and marketing campaign to encourage more people to apply to SPD. During a Public Safety Committee meeting on March 12, Deputy Mayor Tim Burgess said their efforts have led to a steady increase in applications.

"In August of last year, we hired an outside advertising agency to come in and assess the messaging that the department was using for recruiting, and then they did A/B testing to test various messages. In October, [we] rolled out new advertising [and] saw an immediate uptick in applications on a daily basis," said Burgess.

Despite the ongoing lawsuit and allegations of harassment, sexism, and misogyny, recruiters for SPD are still seeking to hire more women.

"We have made every effort to reach out in as many different diverse communities and events that we could," said Autumn Manning, senior recruitment specialist with the City of Seattle working on outreach for hiring at SPD, at the Public Safety Committee meeting. "In February, we went to 19 different events in a short month. We are going to career fairs, universities, upcoming women and trades fairs, Northwest Women's Show — a wide variety [of events], and we're open to any other ideas and suggestions."

Meanwhile, others, like Morales, are concerned that the time and money spent on hiring and recruitment should go to funding alternatives to policing.

"Given the fact that we can't recruit fast enough and we are, based on national recommendations, short a few hundred officers, and we're only able to hire and actually bring through the academy maybe a dozen at a time per year, we aren't going to get to the preferred 1,400 officers for a very long time," said Morales, "What do we do in the meantime to address all these other issues?"

The agreement between SPOG and SPD has not yet been released to the public and must be approved by the City Council before it can go into effect. The last contract was approved in 2018 and cost the City $65 million.

📸 Featured Image: A patrol car in front of the Seattle Police Department West Precinct in 2020. Photo via VDB Photos/Shutterstock.com