SEATTLE — New attempts are underway to hire more Seattle police officers as the Seattle City Council considers ways to improve the hiring process.
Council President Sara Nelson is sponsoring a draft ordinance she hopes will help improve police recruitment and retention. This draft comes after a March Public Safety Committee meeting where Seattle Police Department (SPD) and the Public Safety Civil Service Commission briefed the council on hiring efforts.
The Seattle Police Department has lost more than 700 officers in the past five years and is at its lowest staffing level in decades.
“SPD continues to lose more officers than it is able to hire and 2023 was no exception. Ninty-seven sworn officers left the force and out of 1,948 applicants, only 61 or 3% were hired,” said Nelson.
The draft ordinance was discussed at a committee meeting at Seattle City Hall on Thursday afternoon, April 11.
The draft ordinance would create a four-person recruitment and retention office within SPD to speed up the hiring process and better staying in touch with applicants. One new position would be added, the other three would be moved over from the city's human resources department.
“There can be a coordinated effort within the department and someone that council can really look to to ensure that the recommended changes are having the intended effect,” said Nelson about why she feels the ordinance is needed.
The ordinance would also encourage the Public Safety Civil Service Commission to switch to or add a different application system.
Nelson said the system she wants to use allows applicants to use the same form for multiple jurisdictions and is used by surrounding cities. By not using that system, she said she thinks Seattle is missing out on applicants.
“If they have to use another test that nobody else is using, that is a dis-incentive to include Seattle in their application process,” said Nelson.
One of the heads of he Seattle Community Police Commission agrees that there is a shortage of officers and that it is impacting the city.
“I think people all over Seattle understand that the police force is down significantly and that in turn has resulted in delayed response times and all sorts of other problems,” said Joel Merkel, the co-chair of the Seattle Community Police Commission.
He said finding ways to improve the application process is important, but said there needs to be more accountability within the department in order to make people want to be Seattle police officers.
“The more transparent and fair and robust the accountability system is, the more the conditions will allow the relationship between the police and the community to improve and make SPD a more attractive place to work,” said Merkel.
Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell said in a statement that, “We have completed critical work to modernize the application system, reduce recruitment timelines, and improve advertising and incentives, and we appreciate Council President Nelson's push to further these efforts.”
Nelson also said the new application system allows the applicants to do their physical testing in more locations.