UPDATE: Fewer SPD officers leaving, new briefing says, which might pose a dilemma

12:39 PM: In advance of tomorrow morning’s City Council Public Safety Committee meeting, the presentation is posted for a major agenda item, the quarterly update on Seattle Police staffing, hiring, overtime, and performance. One key point: Fewer officers are leaving than expected. As a result, the presentation prepared by council staff suggests in its summary:

SPD is separating fewer officers than it has in past years. This change may affect the department’s ability to hire new recruits and translate into a slower expansion of the force. It is possible that SPD may need to slow its hiring to meet budgetary restrictions.

To that last point, committee chair Councilmember Bob Kettle said, “Absolutely not!” That comment was in response to our question about it at a wide-ranging council-and-reporters conversation we just attended ta City Hall (with other participants including Council President Joy Hollingsworth, also in our photo above). Kettle says he remains adamant that the department needs to continue building to 1,258 officers (the presentation notes that “if current projections hold true, SPD will have reached an annual average of 1,192 FTE at year-end 2026” – eight more than the department is budgeted for). Lots more to note about the latest info when we get back to HQ; you can see the full presentation deck here.

7:59 PM: A few more points of note in advance of tomorrow morning’s 9:30 am committee meeting (the meeting agenda explains how to attend, comment, and/or watch):

-The slightly-higher-than-expected officer staffing is because of 13 fewer departures and five fewer hires in the last two quarters, which means salary costs could total $1.7 million more than budgeted

-The new hires are still overwhelmingly male – 90 percent – and that’s higher than the national rate of 80 percent

-Overtime costs are trending close to what’s budgeted

-The Super Bowl parade cost SPD $849,000 but the NFL is reimbursing for expenses

-Training costs related to the World Cup may be partly reimbursed by FIFA

The briefing also looks at response times; citywide they’re close to the 7-minute goal – the Southwest Precinct’s response times have risen slightly, according to this slide:

TUESDAY NOTE: This wasn’t discussed at today’s committee meeting after all – they ran out of time. We’re awaiting word on when/if it’ll be rescheduled.

K June 8, 2026 (2:06 pm)

So SPD can find another $100k+ every time Shon Barnes has a good buddy or a Bruce Harrell castoff he wants to create a job for, but there’s not enough money in the budget for actual feet-on-the-ground patrol officers? Am I hearing that right?

People need to get past politics and start holding Barnes accountable for maintaining a budget like every other Department. Finding funding for pet projects, an ever-increasing executive circle, and mismanagement and then blaming your woes on low staffing while simultaneously blaming the lack of staffing improvement on the budget is the epitome of bad management.

There is room in the existing budget for more officers if they were managing their money properly, and it is FAR past time to ask them to do so.

WSB June 8, 2026 (2:26 pm)

If you look at the document, this observation is from a council analyst, not SPD itself. How they will respond to it – and/or how the mayor – to whom SPD reports – will respond, will have to follow. We went to today’s periodic “council chat with reporters” (my description, not its official title) not knowing who would be there – two months ago, last one we got to, it was Hollingsworth and Saka; today it was Hollingsworth, Kettle, and Dan Strauss. Other public-safety topics that came up included the Aurora violence and the World Cup security camera decision.

Sleeping a Double June 8, 2026 (2:08 pm)

Any discussion of the rampant and continuous overtime fraud by SPD, or is the council just pretending that’s not a thing?

WSB June 8, 2026 (2:21 pm)

This is an agenda item for tomorrow, and if you look at the linked deck, there’s information about OT too. As noted above, I’m adding more to the story, just got back a short time ago. But no, there was no “discussion” at this briefing, I was the only reporter to ask about the police staffing report and got this one question in as the briefing was ending – and questions on a few other topics, separate stories to come.

Scarlett June 8, 2026 (3:16 pm)

Old-timers hanging on to their seniority, plummy OT assignments standing around at construction sites and folk music festivals and of course that plush retirement package. What’s this “policing” thing you all are talking about?

wscommuter June 8, 2026 (11:24 pm)

Ahh, the far left knee-jerk weigh in. Because you “know” that’s what happens with older officers and why they continue to work. Please, share more of your certain knowledge about these workings. So eager to be educated. And you apparently think someone who has spent a career giving to the community in a dangerous, thankless job (see your snotty comment as Exhibit A) ought not to have a decent retirement? So predictable.
- k June 9, 2026 (6:50 am)
  
  To be fair, this is what old-timers do at pretty much every job.
  - anonyme June 15, 2026 (9:14 am)
    
    To be fair, that’s ageist BS. To be fair, even if it were true in some cases (slackers come in every age group) there are probably still more young slackers than older ones, far more interested in their phones than their jobs.
AJ June 9, 2026 (7:45 am)

You realize the festival/construction company/sports venue pays out of their own pocket to have uniformed officers on site, right? They don’t just show up and collect OT from the city’s payroll.
- Scarlett June 9, 2026 (10:26 am)
  
  Yeah, no, I don’t want my tax dollars going to train police officers who use it to police private interests. Private events can hire private security if they need a bouncer. You know, the old-fashioned conservative way, when “conservative” actually meant something.

anonyme June 8, 2026 (4:06 pm)

If SPD is now fully staffed, can we now expect the law to be fully enforced? At the very least, enough with the whining and excuses about being “understaffed”…

Derrick June 8, 2026 (4:15 pm)

Chicago has 45 officers per 10,000 citizens. NYC has 46. Philadelphia has 38. Seattle has 14 officers per 10,000 people.

AJ June 8, 2026 (5:56 pm)

We need to double or number.
Pete June 9, 2026 (2:09 pm)

So our crime rate must surely be three times that of Chicago

WSzombie June 8, 2026 (8:02 pm)

How can SPD be understaffed for more than half the year and then meet targets and suddenly go over budget? Are you telling me that they had so much overtime that it performed like have a fulled staffed SPD?

1994 June 8, 2026 (10:45 pm)

That overtime is a budget killer but a pension booster. The OT has been outta control for years but no entity seems to have cared except those benefitting from it.

Meeee June 9, 2026 (8:03 am)

Once you understand that all OT in your 5 highest salaried years of SPD work increases your pension you stick around and sign up for the easy OT. I don’t think most of the public understands how large a pension $$ that retired officers get under the LEOFF 2 pension system. And they can draw full retirement at age 52. SPD continues to say they’re understaffed, but what they really are is poorly distributed. There are so many non-patrol jobs that could be eliminated along with way too much command level fat that could be trimmed.

SFD June 9, 2026 (9:19 am)

Same applies to SFD. 6 figure pensions, no OT requirement but OT whenever you want it. Pension bumping in your final 5 years of work. “Browning out” of units when no one wants OT. The claim is that it is cheaper to pay OT and lofty pensions than to train new staff. Perhaps this should be looked into a little closer.