SEATTLE — Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell and the Seattle Police Department said they are seeing more officer applications than they have in the past couple of years, but according to SPD, it will take years to fully rebuild their force.
Right now, the department has the lowest number of officers it has seen in more than 30 years. Since 2020, SPD said around 580 officers have left the department. It's something Harrell said he is still trying to address.
“From our administration, we're pushing public safety investments, our recruiting strategies,” said Mayor Harrell.
A new police recruitment video featuring the mayor was just released two weeks ago. In the advertisement he says, in part:
“In ‘One Seattle’ everyone deserves to feel safe and be safe. You can help to make this vision real, we are seeking leaders to serve our community right now,” Harrell said in the advertisement.
Seattle police data shows the loss of officers started in 2020 when 186 officers left the force. In 2021, 171 officers left. In 2022, roughly 151 departed. So far this year, 72 officers have left.
Since 2020, recruitment has been low, but SPD said they are seeing more applicants testing and going through background checks than they have seen in the past couple of years.
“We're finally getting officers interested in becoming part of our police department again,” said Harrell. “We're getting, in a month, between 150 to 200 applications now."
Right now, there are 937 SPD officers actively working, but the mayor would like to see more. The department is working to fill 375 positions.
“We need officers around. We need community service officers around,” said Harrell. “We need to activate areas and people need to be able to be safe. So, you'll see us continuing to recruit officers.”
In addition to the 937 officers actively working in the department right now, there are about 120 more officers who are either on long-term leave or still in the academy.