SPD May Slow Hiring in 2026 Amid Budget, Training Challenges

A presentation by city officials revealed that while the Seattle Police Department (SPD) projects it will have more than 1,000 officers by year's end, a potential $1.7 million budget shortfall could slow hiring, causing the department to fall short of hiring goals.

Seattle City Councilmembers received the information at the June 23 Public Safety Committee meeting, as part of a discussion that covered SPD Quarter 1 (Q1) staffing, overtime, and performance metrics reports. The SPD budget shortfall, city officials said, is due to fewer officers leaving the force, resulting in less money to hire new officers. "It is more expensive to retain existing higher-salaried officers than it is to hire a lower-salaried recruit," said Greg Doss of the City Council Central Staff.

To address the budget shortfall, SPD is considering cost-saving measures, but slowing the hiring of new officers is "on the table," said Dan Eder, executive director of budget at SPD.

Along with budgetary constraints, SPD is also facing a bottleneck in moving recruits from the academy to patrol beats due to a lack of field-training officers. As of April, there are 135 recruits in training, including both classroom and field training, but 16 are currently awaiting assignment to a field instructor.

A recruit must complete field training with a certified officer before they can go on patrol and respond to calls alone. To abide by the Seattle Police Officer Guild (SPOG) contract, an established officer has to volunteer to be a certified field-training officer. Eder said Police Chief Shon Barnes, SPD, and SPOG are "all rowing in the same direction," and Eder expects the bottleneck to be resolved by the end of the year through additional field-training certification classes.

Officials also stated they are falling below their goal to have female officers account for 30% of the force by 2030. In Q1 2026, only 10% of new hires were female, per the report.

Regarding overtime, SPD is on track to stay within its 2026 overtime budget and will not require additional support from the city's general fund. Although there has been an increase in overtime use for sporting events, such as the Seahawks Super Bowl celebration parade and the World Cup, the National Football League will fully reimburse the city for parade expenses, while FIFA will partially reimburse World Cup-related expenses.

SPD is using 29% fewer overtime hours on "Patrol Operations" in Q1 2026 than in Q1 2025. Patrol Operations include general patrolling work, as well as special operations such as counter-narcotics and retail theft emphasis.

Recently, Mayor Katie Wilson announced SPD would conduct emphasis patrols in Little Saigon and North Beacon Hill, as well as on Aurora Avenue. At the meeting, Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck asked Eder if overtime will be used to pay staff on emphasis patrols. Eder said yes, though he noted that in Little Saigon, emphasis patrols are "typically done on 'straight time,'" or an officer's regular work hours.

This may not be the case in the future, given the current staffing in the West Precinct, which includes Little Saigon. At an April Chinatown-International District public safety meeting, West Precinct Captain Marc Garth-Green told attendees current precinct staffing allows them to cover emphasis patrols during the day, but not during the evening or early morning. This means that, in order to fulfill the mayor's planned emphasis patrols in Little Saigon, officers may require overtime hours.

Regarding response times, there have been no major changes between Q1 2025 and Q1 2026, with Priority 1 call response times averaging about 10 minutes. But the South Precinct, which spans North Beacon Hill to Rainier Valley, did see a one-minute increase in its Priority 1 calls, from 9.1 minutes in Q1 2025 to 10.2 minutes in Q1 2026.

SPD has maintained steady call response times this year, even with a 12% increase in call volume and a relatively stable police force size.