The Seattle City Council overcame opposition from three of its members and has signed off on Mayor Bruce Harrell’s plan to grow the number of Seattle Police officers on the city’s streets by nearly 50% over the next five years.

Tuesday, the council voted 6-3 to approved the legislation that is hoped to grow SPD’s ranks from the just under 1,000 officers currently on patrol to nearly 1,500 by 2027 by offering up to $30,000 hiring bonuses for lateral transfers from other departments and $7,500 for new recruits. The plan also calls for retention incentives to keep existing officers.

District 3’s Kshama Sawant was joined by Teresa Mosqueda (Pos. 8 – Citywide) and Tammy Morales (District 2, Chinatown / International District and South Seattle) in opposing the plan.

The Harrell administration says officer staffing levels are “at their lowest in more than 30 years with over 400 officers departing SPD since 2019″ but there is little evidence that hiring incentives will help. A City Hall analysis found hiring incentives are only sometimes effective in filling hard to hire positions.

“This is a positive step in the right direction as we seek to make Seattle a safe place for every neighbor and rebuild and restore the Seattle Police Department in line with our highest values, priorities, and aspirations,” Harrell said in a statement on the bill’s passage. “This challenge created over years cannot be solved overnight, but this plan will help move us forward.”

Councilmember Lisa Herbold (District 1, West Seattle) who joined in support of the mayor’s plan also called for more to be done to create alternatives to traditional policing in the city. “Moving forward, our top priority must be lightening the load on officers and creating new, more effective ways of responding to calls that do not require an armed police response,” Herbold said. “We can’t keep asking officers to direct traffic and help people in mental health crises when we don’t have enough officers to investigate sexual assaults or respond to 911 calls. Being a first responder is a difficult job. We shouldn’t make it an impossible job.”

SPD statistics show violent crime reached a 14-year high in 2021 even as the city’s measurements of proactive policing fell as “community reporting” of crime increased. The property crime rate in Seattle also climbed but only slightly from 5,267 to 5,686 per 100,000 residents. According to SPD’s report on 2021 (PDF), 911 response times reached “historic highs” with the median response time for the highest priority calls climbing to seven and a half minutes, “approaching a historic 10-year high.”

The way in which SPD’s officers become involved in crime prevention and response has also changed hugely . In 2021, the department reported a massive 27% drop in officer-generated responses like an officer driving by and noticing a smashed window at a business. Part of the gap was made up for by so-called “community-generated” calls like 911 calls or someone flagging an officer down — those incidents climbed 6% to just over 233,000 events. Overall, SPD responded to 5% fewer events in 2021, according to the department.

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