POLICE STAFFING: Mayor says hires outnumbered departures in 2024 – by 1

(WSB file photo from last year)

Less than two weeks into the new year, with an extensive recruiting campaign continuing, the city has totaled up how Seattle Police staffing ended the year. A news release from Mayor Bruce Harrell‘s office says 84 officers were hired, and 83 officers left – the first year since 2019 that hires outnumbered departures. Here’s their chart for the past six years – note the number of deployable officers is up too:

(Corrected table added 4:05 pm after receiving from mayor’s office – adds ‘total number’ column)

The mayor’s office also says the number of applicants last year more than doubled from the year before – 4,115 compared to 1,998 in 2023.

We asked how many of the departures were retirements and how many were resignations. Mayoral spokesperson Callie Craighead replied, “In 2024 there were 36 retirements and 24 resignations. In 2023 there were 39 retirements and 24 resignations. So retirements were down slightly from 2023, and resignations remained consistent.”

Jason January 8, 2025 (1:52 pm)

Slick Bruce strikes again! Must be an election year! (Hope he loses)

Admiral Rob January 8, 2025 (2:45 pm)

I think the deployable officer math is wrong in the table!

WSB January 8, 2025 (4:00 pm)

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They just sent a correction – with the key addition of an entirely left-out column, “total officers.” Substituting.

k January 8, 2025 (3:23 pm)

Well, just about everyone who knows anything said the hiring bonuses and coddling the feelings of the police weren’t going to increase the ranks, as Bruce promised they would (in the face of evidence to the contrary) when he was elected. He managed to convince everything that happened in his 12 years on the council was someone else’s fault and he would be different. Let’s see if he can pull the wool over everyone’s eyes a second time.

Vee January 8, 2025 (3:45 pm)

He’s trying, a lot had to be redone over the damage done,it takes time

Brandon January 8, 2025 (4:32 pm)

So short 350 still regardless the laughable sugar coat?

rpo January 8, 2025 (5:20 pm)

I am confused….are they trying to hire enough to get back to 2019 levels? If so, they had 4,115 apply and they only hired…84. I know a lot of applicants would not be a good fit, but that is only a 2% hire rate.

mok4315 January 8, 2025 (8:11 pm)

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I don’t think they’re allowed to just lower standards. Plus a good number of them probably dropped out of the testing process.
- Infantry72 January 8, 2025 (10:46 pm)
  
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  MOK4315, yes they are, actually. It’s their doctrine, not yours. Nor your opinion. That’s a fact, and not an opinion or a guestimation. Do you have any verifiable information to refute this? Look at their current minimum requirements on their website…..We’re no longer vetting police officers, holding them to a higher standard. Think about it – very few experienced officers from other jurisdictions would want anything to do with the PR nightmare of Seattle. We vilified them for years. Shocker, that they left…. But, float them $10k+ bonuses to cops in podunk towns….Once, the 2020 s**tshow that played out in all parts of Seattle, (and we didn’t just lose police in Seattle, we lost them everywhere – Tukwila, Renton, Seatac, not with standing.) police officer retention literally fell off the cliff, and bled out to other jurisdictions not known as Seattle metro….. And for all the keyboard warriors, with their justice hats on, tell all 1.5 million of us, that we’re somehow better off in 2025, then we were pre-pandemic. I certainly feel less safe, and less assured of our collective direction.We can spin doctor hours of why:, “blah blah, this law, this council member, etc.” We get the picture. We grouped all of our law enforcement men & women into the same bucket, and vilified the crap out of them (I’m looking at ALL that city council.) They took a vibrant city, with Starbuks, Amazon, T-mobile, Costco, Microsoft roots everywhere, and pissed it away under the guise of all police are awful, and drug addicts are poor saps that need a handoutShocker of all, our officers left in droves. Good cops, and others. Gone in less than 2 years we went from 1200+ officers, to just under 935. So here we areWe lost A LOT of quality law enforcement officers. Maybe we lost those bad eggs too, but do you feel safer in 2025, then you did in 2015? I certainly don’t, and would welcome feedback form others, both on either sides of the fence.
k January 9, 2025 (10:56 am)

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The thing is, to be a police officer you have to have a pretty thick skin. You’re encountering people who are at some of the lowest points in their lives, and manners aren’t high on their priority list. You’ll get called names, probably get spit at, harassed, you name it (basically like retail or food service workers get, but with the law giving you a few more options in how you respond). Dealing with the general public just requires an ability to focus on your task and block out unkind comments. Folks who aren’t able to focus on their mission to protect and serve their community in the face of unkind or even mean comments are not well-suited to be police officers and I’m glad they’re being weeded out. It takes more than firearm proficiency and general fitness to be a police officer. I would rather have 50 really good cops than 2000 mediocre ones that pull dumb crap and tarnish the name of the good police everywhere. The low percentage of police who make it through the application process is the most encouraging thing I’ve seen from SPD in a while. Quality over quantity.

East Coast Cynic January 8, 2025 (6:27 pm)

I suspect that with the office workers recession in hiring – a lot of people out of work for six months or longer – the SPD was a plan B.

aa January 8, 2025 (6:37 pm)

Have any of you run a company as large and challenging as a city? If not stop griping and find a way to get involved. These should be changed from comments to criticisms and snarky judgements. Ugh!

Mike January 8, 2025 (7:20 pm)

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Ya, everyone, stop complaining. Pay your ever increasing taxes with negative results and shut up….ugh
- aa January 8, 2025 (9:44 pm)
  
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  Thanks Mike for proving a great example of the snark I was referring to.

Andrew January 8, 2025 (6:47 pm)

One clap 👏

snowskier January 9, 2025 (11:40 am)

Let’s hope it’s the turning of the tide. Still a long way to go but it’s amazing how having a city council and a prosecutors office that supports the police can change things.

HTB January 9, 2025 (3:42 pm)

Can we just be happy that the number are increasing and drop the snark for five minutes?

Steebie January 13, 2025 (11:14 pm)

Funny math given that there was a net increase of one but a decrease of eight total officers? I understand the deployable going up as people come off of injury, leave of absence, etc. but how does total officers decrease if there was an increase?!