Mayor Harrell Celebrates Progress on Police Recruitment

The Seattle Police Department received over 4,300 officer applications in 2024, the most since 2013 and more than double those received in 2023, and hired 84 officers, the first-time hiring has surpassed separations since 2019. Interested candidates can apply at SeattlePoliceJobs.com

SEATTLE - Mayor Bruce Harrell joined outgoing police chief Sue Rahr and incoming chief Shon Barnes in celebrating the surge in police officer applications in 2024. Police hiring has been recognized as a challenge across the nation, but Seattle is seeing meaningful improvements and in 2024 made progress through increased applications, more hires, and fewer separations.

"Achieving our One Seattle vision for safety for every person in every neighborhood requires a well-staffed and well-trained police department. Since Day One of my administration, officer recruitment and retention has been a major priority, and 2024's net positive staffing - for the first time since 2019 - is a sign of progress, even as we recognize there is much more work to do," said Mayor Harrell. "I am incredibly grateful for the service of our current officers and for all of our new recruits, and I want to thank the City Council for their shared focus toward our recruiting goals. We are committed to making Seattle a city where officers feel valued, supported, and part of the team. For anyone who wants a rewarding, challenging, and fulfilling career, we're hiring."

The City's recruitment and retention efforts had three major focuses in 2024: improving the hiring process to make it easier and quicker without sacrificing candidate quality, using digital advertising and marketing to reach new recruits, and investing in officers with a new contract.

The City, including the Mayor's Office, SPD, Human Resources, and the Public Safety Civil Service Commission, have worked together to make process and technology improvements to officer recruitment. Through these efforts, the City simplified the hiring process and reduced the hiring wait time by half-from 5-9 months to 3-5 months.

Recent improvement areas include electronic pre-employment background testing to reduce time required and keep applications moving, hiring additional examination support staff to support changing from a two-month exam period to a bi-weekly exam schedule, eliminating the travel requirement for the physical agility test by allowing candidates to test where they live, and improved candidate tracking and outreach.

SPD is also taking steps to improve the morale and wellness of existing officers. This includes hiring a staff mental-health professional and developing a wellness unit, reducing officer stress and work burdens, and making other quality-of-life changes that will improve working conditions. Improved morale and wellness will improve officer retention rates and create the type of workplace that attracts recruits. This includes continuing to pursue the 30×30 initiative to bolster the participation of women in law enforcement to 30 percent of recruit classes by the year 2030.

"We continue making strides towards creating the best police department to work for period. With those improvements, we are just starting to see the results, with more than 20 new officers waiting to go to the academy and hundreds more just beginning the process," said interim Police Chief Sue Rahr. "As we make the Seattle Police Department a career destination rather than a stepping stone, those officers will continue building this city into the One Seattle we all deserve. Thank you to Mayor Harrell for continuing to invest in the safety and future of Seattle."

The Mayor's Office and SPD worked with Copacino Fujikado, a local advertising agency, to implement a branding and marketing campaign to identify target audiences, engage them through online channels, and encourage them to apply for a public service career with SPD. The City's advertising and marketing budget for police recruitment was $2.3 million in 2024 and is $2.5 million in 2025.

SPD advertises for new and lateral recruits through ongoing paid social, video, and search campaigns. There were 4,115 entry-level and 216 lateral applications in 2024. The average total applications per day, including entry-level and laterals, rose from 5.8 in 2022 to 6.2 in 2023 to 12.5 in 2024, more than doubling. For entry-level applicants, the over 1,600 who took the exam and over 1,100 who passed were more than the last two years combined, and the most seen in more than a decade.

"Police officers are here to serve, and Seattle's turnaround in police recruitment numbers shows that our community is ready to partner with us to create a safer city. Policing is an incredibly rewarding career, full of opportunities to learn, to take action, and help others. I want to acknowledge our SPD recruiting team and congratulate everyone who joined SPD in 2024," said incoming Chief Shon F. Barnes. "I am grateful to be a new member of SPD and to support this continued growth, and Mayor Harrell's vision for a well-staffed department that shares the values of our community."

In May 2024, Mayor Harrell signed a new contract for rank-and-file officers that included their first wage increase since January 2021. Before the new contract was signed, the Seattle Police Department (SPD) went from being one of the best-paying departments in the country to being 15th just in the Puget Sound Region. Now, new recruits start at $103,000 with a $7,500 hiring incentive, and qualified lateral transfers from another agency start at $116,000 with a $50,000 incentive.

There are seven steps for entry-level candidates applying to start their law enforcement career. Candidates must submit an application, complete a written test, take a physical agility test, pass a background investigation, and complete a medical evaluation, and polygraph assessment. The most competitive candidates receive an employment offer. New recruits then attend SPD's Before the Badge Program and the state's Basic Law Enforcement Academy, spend time with SPD's Advanced Training Unit, and finally participate in the Field Training Program to evaluate their performance in the patrol division.

All police officer candidates must be at least 20.5 years of age, have a high school diploma or GED equivalent, be generally physically fit, hold United States citizenship, OR have legal permanent residency in the U.S., OR be a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient, and be able to obtain a Washington State Driver's License. Click here for the complete list of qualifications, including requirements for lateral and exceptional-entry candidates.

SPD has more specialty units than any other department in the state, including traffic, harbor, crisis response, SWAT, arson and bombs, K9, collaborative (community) policing, forensics, training, and community response group.

Individuals interested in a career with the SPD should apply online at seattlepolicejobs.com. SPD holds regular applicant workshops, the next workshops are January 13 and February 8.

SPD Officer Statistics

Includes entry-level and laterals, candidates are not always hired in the same year they applied

Year	Hired	Separated	Deployable Officers
2019	108	92	1281
2020	51	186	1094
2021	81	171	958
2022	58	159	954
2023	61	97	913
2024	84	83	1054

SPD Entry-Level Recruitment Statistics

Exam cycles may not exactly align with calendar year. Individuals may apply multiple times in a year. Does not include lateral applicants.

Year	Total Applications	Applications per Day	Completed Exam	Passed Exam
2019	3118	10.1	908	713
2020	721	10.2	210	168
2021	2518	8	1060	686
2022	1895	5.5	675	494
2023	1948	5.8	670	487
2024	4115	11.9	1655	1163

What People Are Saying

"This is excellent news! Nothing is more important to improving public safety in Seattle than bringing SPD staffing levels back up and that's been my focus from Day One - from implementing hiring bonuses to improving hiring processes," said Council President Sara Nelson. "This net positive in hires shows that our efforts, in collaboration with the Executive, are working and that's cause for celebration. However, the work is not finished. That's why this Council has left no stone unturned and will continue our efforts to hire more officers and improve public safety for all Seattleites."

"The latest boost in police recruitment numbers is welcome news and a major step forward for the department and improving public safety in our city," said Councilmember Bob Kettle (District 7), who chairs the Public Safety Committee. "It's clear the work of the Council on Public Safety has been significant and is starting to have an impact. I look forward to working with incoming Police Chief Barnes, the Mayor's Office and SPD on continuing this momentum."

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