City Councilmember Sara Nelson and Mark Solomon meet SPD’s latest recruits

Officials began 2025 cautiously praising the previous year’s efforts to turn around staffing issues on the city’s police force as, for the first time in five years, the Seattle Police Department barely hired more officers than quit or retired. It was a close one. The department reported 84 successful hires in 2024 — one more officer than it lost.

Monday, Mayor Bruce Harrell and city officials held a press conference with a bolder mood as officials say SPD’s hiring momentum has continued with 60 officers hired here through April:

The 60 officers hired so far in 2025 are more than in the last three years at this point combined. This includes experienced officers who can get started working sooner, with as many lateral hires in 2025 as in the previous five years at this point combined, and as many re-hires as in the last three years combined. Separations are also below the last five years through mid-April. If current trends continue, SPD is on track to hire over 150 officers in 2025, which would be the largest total hires in any year in recent record.

Harrell and new SPD Chief Shon Barnes said Monday that the hiring comes on the back of a continued influx of candidates with the department receiving 1,218 officer applications by the end of the first quarter this year, compared to 690 applications at that point in 2024.

Harrell, in the early stages of his reelection campaign to keep his office at City Hall, placed the quarter year’s hiring turnaround in context of his administration’s efforts to reform the department and grow efforts like the city’s new Community Assisted Response & Engagement CARE crisis responders while also pushing back on cutbacks or downsizing of SPD despite growing budget gaps and revenue uncertainty for the city.

“A well-staffed and well-trained police department is essential to effective public safety in Seattle,” Harrell said. “Our work to modernize recruiting and increase qualified applications is showing results through record hiring in 2025 – putting us on a path to restore Seattle Police Department staffing,”

The mayor and City Council president Sara Nelson, also facing reelection, have pushed for a goal of growing SPD’s ranks from the just under 1,000 officers on patrol in 2022 to nearly 1,500 by 2027.

CHS reported here on the hiring of former Madison, Wisconsin chief Barnes to lead SPD and his focus on recruitment and retention at the department though large initiatives and smaller issues like infrastructure investments to improve the work environment including smaller upgrades like new carpet and fresh paint.

The signs of a turnaround come as Seattle Police officials late last year said the department’s ranks had fallen to the lowest numbers in 30 years as the Seattle City Council expanded a program that pays out a $7,500 hiring bonus to new recruits and boosts bonuses for so-called “lateral” hiring from other police departments to $50,000 as the Harrell administration said Seattle continues to face regional competition for officers.

SPD also launched a new recruiting advertising campaign this summer featuring “cartoon versions of police officers in various heroic scenarios.” The campaign is part of a $2.5 million budget in 2025 for police recruitment advertising and marketing.

The department has also vowed to improve its recruitment of women even as the city faces ongoing harassment litigation from the department under ousted Chief Adrian Diaz. Publicola reported this week on SPD’s struggles despite its commitment to the “30 by 30” pledge calling for a 30% female recruit class by 2030. Publicola reports that only five of the 60 new hires touted by Harrell Monday are women.

Paying cops more is helping. Seattle ranked 29th in the region to start 2024 for base pay for its new recruits an issue the bonus program won’t address. The city and the Seattle Police Officers Guild arrived at a new contract last spring that boosted pay 23%.

The city says new recruits now start at a $103,000 a year salary with a $7,500 hiring incentive, and qualified lateral transfers from another agency start at $116,000 with a $50,000 incentive.

SPD also says its “average hiring process for police officer candidates” has been streamlined from 5-9 months to 3-5 months.

“On average, it takes about a year after graduating from the academy for recruits to become a Seattle Police Officer working an assigned patrol beat,” the city’s report on the hiring success said.

Police officer candidates must be at least 20.5 years of age, have a high school diploma or GED equivalent, be generally physically fit, and be able to obtain a Washington driver’s license. There is no upper age limit to apply. In 2023, a 62-year-old joined the force.

Monday, officials pointed at citywide crime totals that they say show encouraging public safety trends. CHS reported this month on those totals for the East Precinct that showed Capitol Hill and the Central District have been left out of the rest of city’s dip in reported property crime.

East Precinct Violent Crime Report Totals

East Precinct Property Crime Report Totals

To start 2025 as he begins his campaign for a second term leading the city, Harrell has held up the turnaround in hiring as a key accomplishment of his administration. So far, Harrell’s most significant political challenge has emerged from his political left where progressive activist Katie Wilson is building her campaign around her work leading the Transit Riders Union and minimum wage and renter rights campaigns around the region.

The deadline for candidates to file to take part in the August primary is next week.

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