Seattle Police scraps hiring bonuses despite extreme staffing shortage

The decision comes after Seattle spent years and millions of dollars attempting to rebuild a police force decimated during the city's defund era. It also comes under Mayor Katie Wilson, who before taking office advocated cutting SPD's budget in half, argued there was a case for disbanding police departments and once said activists wanted to move toward a future "entirely without SPD."

SPD confirmed Wednesday that it will stop offering incentives to both entry-level recruits and experienced officers transferring from other agencies. Applicants already moving through the hiring process, along with those who apply before the end of August, will remain eligible for the bonuses.

“A decision has been made to stop the hiring incentives until a time when the budget forecast for the Seattle Police Department is clear,” SPD told KOMO News. “We have a responsibility to the people of Seattle to provide the best police service while also being fiscally responsible. We will continue to hire some of the highest quality candidates in the country and are dedicated to helping keep Seattle a safe and welcoming city.”

Seattle Police Officers Guild President Kent Loux said SPD currently has only 927 deployable officers while the department has been working toward a goal of 1,250, leaving it 323 officers short. "Why would you cut this program off?" Loux told KING 5. "We’ve had significant success recruiting people and just chopping it off at its knees suddenly seems irresponsible."

Loux described the decision as "cutting the legs out from under" SPD's recruitment campaign and said Seattle remains in the "residual effects" of the 2020 movement to defund the police.

Following the George Floyd riots in 2020, Seattle's then-City Council embraced demands to dramatically shrink the police department. The resulting political environment was followed by a historic wave of resignations and retirements.

The department lost more than 700 officers over a five-year period and reached staffing levels not seen in decades. In 2023 alone, SPD hired only 62 officers while losing 96.

Seattle then began spending heavily to undo the damage. In 2022, the City Council authorized hiring incentives of up to $30,000 for experienced lateral officers and $7,500 for entry-level recruits. The council subsequently moved to accelerate the hiring process and, in 2024, permanently increased the maximum lateral incentive to $50,000.

Those efforts finally began producing a recruiting turnaround, and 2025 offered what appeared to be a particularly encouraging sign: only 34 officers separated from SPD during the entire year. But new internal staffing figures indicate that improvement has not continued in 2026.

According to internal SPD staffing data, 69 officers had already separated from the department through Aug. 11, more than double the 34 departures recorded during all of 2025. July alone ended with nine departures, while another four officers had already left during the first 11 days of August. SPD's internal numbers put the department on pace for approximately 113 separations in 2026, which would be its worst year for departures since 2023.

Wilson's office said hiring "remains strong," with fewer officers leaving than had been projected, and said Interim Police Chief Andre Sayles determined ending the bonuses was "an appropriate step to help manage the department's budget."

As recently as June, SPD had initially projected 82 separations for the year. As of Aug. 21, SPD had 1,197 total sworn personnel, according to the internal data. But that figure includes recruits, officers still undergoing field training and officers unavailable for duty.

There were only 854 fully available, deployable Seattle Police Officers Guild patrol officers, an increase of just one since July. When command staff and management are included, total deployable sworn personnel stood at 929 — actually down from 930 the previous month.

Meanwhile, the number of sworn officers classified as unavailable has increased from 45 in June to 51 in July and 55 in August. Those officers remain on SPD's books but are not available for street duty because of injury, extended leave, or administrative status. SPD also has 75 recruits who are not yet sworn and another 138 sworn officers still undergoing field training.

Council President Joy Hollingsworth has set a goal of approximately 1,258 officers by the end of 2026. Before the pandemic and defund movement, Seattle's staffing ambitions were closer to 1,500.

Before becoming mayor, Wilson was general secretary of the Transit Riders Union and was heavily involved in the Solidarity Budget coalition that pushed Seattle officials to divert money away from police, courts and prosecutors. In a 2020 op-ed published by Crosscut, Wilson argued Seattle should begin with the movement's demand to cut SPD's budget in half and wrote, “There’s a strong argument for simply disbanding police departments and starting over: Institutional culture change is hard.”

During the 2020 Solidarity Budget campaign, Wilson was quoted by PubliCola saying, “We want to move towards a future entirely without SPD; we want to focus energy elsewhere.”

Wilson and the organizations behind the Solidarity Budget continued advocating major reductions to law enforcement after 2020. Wilson previously backed proposals to reduce SPD's force to 750 officers, fully defund the narcotics investigation unit, divest from police, courts and prosecutors, and cut SPD's budget by 50 percent.

Following the council's 2020 reductions, Wilson said she was “disappointed that more significant moves hadn’t been made” and supported continued attrition to further shrink the department. She also urged activists to “keep pushing for full police abolition.”

When then-Mayor Bruce Harrell confronted Wilson during a Seattle Channel debate with her statement about wanting a future entirely without SPD, Wilson responded, “I never said that.” Harrell's campaign subsequently .