By Erica C. Barnett

City Council President Sara Nelson is sponsoring legislation, proposed by Mayor Bruce Harrell’s office, that would increase the bonuses paid to lateral Seattle Police Department hires—those who transfer to SPD from other departments—from $30,000 to $50,000.

The proposed new one-time signing bonus is the equivalent of a year’s pay for a full-time worker making $24 an hour, or $4 more than Seattle’s minimum wage, on top of six-figure starting salaries for cops in the first year of their careers. (It’s also $6.75 an hour more than many council members think tipped workers should be paid; supporters of a plan to adopt a sub-minimum wage for tipped workers argue that tips should count toward the minimum).

Councilmember Maritza Rivera, who represents Northeast Seattle, suggested at a council committee meeting on Monday that the new hiring bonuses are necessary to save children from shootings. “We have more gun violence in the schools, and our ability to address that really relies on having a police force that can go out to the schools when these things happen. No matter how people feel about policing, at the end of the day, it is a fact that we are having kids getting killed across the city.”

There is little evidence to suggest that Seattle’s already generous one-time signing bonuses have increased police hiring (and substantial evidence to suggest that one-time bonuses are ineffective as a hiring and retention strategy). The city began paying out bonuses to both new and lateral recruits in 2019, under then-mayor Jenny Durkan. Despite repeated boosts to the size of the bonuses, city officials and continued to panic over the size of the police department before, during, and after the 2020 COVID pandemic.

In contrast, the number of applicants did increase dramatically after the city approved a contract earlier this year that boosted starting salaries to $103,000, not counting overtime, suggesting that higher pay is an effective recruitment incentive.

Nelson had not responded to questions by press time. Previously, she said there was no reason to study whether bonuses are effective, because public safety was “such a crucial issue.”

Funding for Nelson’s proposal—about $1.5 million a year— would come out of SPD’s budget, which includes ample funding every year for positions that won’t and can’t be filled. The city routinely dips into this fund to pay for new and expanded SPD programs.

Councilmembers Joy Hollingsworth, Rivera, Bob Kettle, Rob Saka, and Nelson all made comments emphasizing that the new hiring bonuses are already paid for. Saka, getting animated, said it was important to “debunk some of the most egregious myths” members of the public are perpetuating about the source of the funding, and Kettle said public commenters who opposed the bonuses were confused about where the money is coming from.

In fact, every year at budget time, members of the public express concern about the fact that SPD has so much extra money sloshing around inside its budget, allowing the department to fund new programs on an ad hoc basis outside the regular budget process. There’s even a common term for this phenomenon: “Ghost cops”—phantom positions that will never be filled that provide a ready source of money for other purposes. Far from being confused, people who oppose programs such as police hiring bonuses argue every year that SPD should have to live within its means, just like other city departments.

The legislation would also remove an incentive for new officers to actually stay at the department, rather than taking their bonus money and leaving. Instead of requiring officers to pay the bonuses back if they leave SPD within five years, the legislation would “pro-rate” the amount officers are required to pay back, allowing them to keep the pay for each year they stayed at the department before leaving.

The bill would also would make the bonus program permanent, rather than requiring it to go through regular evaluations to determine whether it’s necessary. It also removes a requirement that the incentives be based on market demand.

The city is facing a $250 million budget deficit, and Mayor Bruce Harrell will introduce a budget that will likely include significant cuts to other departments next month.