Latest kink in efforts to grow Seattle’s police force: Not enough veteran cops are quitting

According to the Seattle Police Department’s 2026 Q1 Sworn Staffing, Overtime and Performance Metrics Report (PDF), the city has a new issue when it comes to growing its force — not enough of the most-expensive, veteran cops are leaving SPD, throwing possibly painful new budget issues into the mix as the department tries to increase its sworn officer totals.

The trends were presented Tuesday to the Seattle City Council’s public safety committee.

SPD hiring
In the presentation on SPD’s latest staffing and hiring trends, officials say SPD is experiencing a slowdown in officer separations, realizing 13 fewer separations and five fewer hires than planned over the last two quarters.

This retention is straining the budget. The report says SPD is projected to reach 1,192 full time employees by year-end 2026 against a funded limit of 1,184. Because retaining higher-salaried officers is more expensive than hiring recruits, these “excess FTEs” could create $1.7 million in unfunded salary costs, potentially forcing SPD to slow hiring:

SPD will, if necessary, slow hiring to ensure that it does not surpass its funded level of FTE, which had been expected to support a net of 174 new hires over the 2025-2026 period. A significant portion of the funding needed for recruit hires comes from the salary savings created from departing officers (vacancy savings). Because it is more expensive to retain an existing higher-salaried officer than to hire a lower-salaried recruit, low separation rates can have an outsized impact on the department’s ability to hire recruits and expand its ranks.

The revelations follow tepid optimism in recent months that the tide was turning in SPD’s efforts to meet the calls of many at City Hall including District 3 representative and council president Joy Hollingsworth for more officers on the streets to combat relatively high crime totals coming out of the pandemic.

As the city’s overall crime totals are dropping,  Chief Shon Barnes has been championing new “neighborhood-oriented policing” and a test of dedicated officers on a beat patrolling Magnusson Park.

Barnes, hired under the previous administration but retained by Mayor Katie Wilson, has overseen progress in what officials say is a reversal of SPD’s hiring challenges and a department being pushed to grow its ranks from just under 1,000 officers on patrol in 2022 to nearly 1,500 by 2027.

The starting salary for a SPD officer is now $103,000 for entry level recruits and $116,000 for lateral officers. Generous hiring bonuses have also helped. Efforts to improve facilities and boost morale are also, apparently, creating a more positive environment.

Too many veteran cops will be an interesting challenge to solve as Seattle City Hall is facing a potential $175 million budget deficit.

According to the report from Tuesday’s session, SPD is facing other bottlenecks including not enough instructors to handle the 135 student officers awaiting training.

SPD is also falling short of goals to hire more women. During the recent hiring surge from January to March, SPD says it hired 185 male and 21 female recruits — half the average 20% female hiring rate for starting state and local police recruits, according to the Department of Justice.

Meanwhile, the department’s overtime spending is soaring. Between 2022 and 2026, SPD’s overtime budget grew by $29 million, a 112% increase, according to the report.

“Much of this increase can be attributed to recent agreements with the Seattle Police Officer’s Guild,” the report notes.

SPD’s response time metrics, meanwhile, are “mixed, with some up and some down.”

“A consistent, across the-board reduction in SPD’s 911 response times unlikely to occur until new officers begin to supplement patrol ranks,” the report reads. “The number of patrol officers has consistently hovered at 490 since 2023.”

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