Rantz: More Seattle cops leave, as Mayor Harrell asks for larger police department

As Mayor Bruce Harrell calls to grow the Seattle Police Department, even more cops are leaving.

“The depleted staffing we see today does not allow us to react to emergencies and crime with the response times our residents deserve,” Harrell noted in his first state of the city address last week.

That already-depleted staff lost another significant number of cops. A total of 19 sworn officers and one recruit separated from the department in January.

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Police exodus continues

The January separations come after historic losses in the last two years. The department has now lost a staggering 375 officers since 2020.

Last year, the city only hired 72 new recruits and nine lateral officers. Last month? The SPD only hired four recruits.

While police ditch the department over untenable work conditions thanks to a city council that treats officers like the enemy and criminals like victims, Seattle has seen a surge in violent and nonviolent crimes. Indeed, the city saw a 14-year-high violent crime rate. A chief complaint amongst officers is that they’re not allowed to effectively do their jobs.

According to a recent report, the crime surge was driven by marked increases in aggravated assaults (up 24% year-over-year) and robberies (up 18%). Reported shots fired increased in Seattle by 40% year-over-year, and by 86% from 2019. At 52%, Black residents represented the highest percentage of victims by racial demographic.

Overall, the report says crime increased by 10% from 2020 to 2021, violent crime by 20%, and property crime by 9%.

With few officers to tackle the surging crime, and light-on-crime policies making the crisis worse, 911 response times reached historic highs, too. The average 911 response time last year was 10.5 minutes. In 2020, the average response time was 9.58 minutes.

What can be done?

Mayor Harrell acknowledges the city needs a larger police force, but he won’t get it.

With a deployable staff of around 950, the SPD is short of the 1,500-1,600 that city leaders have previously said was the ideal size for the force. The Seattle City Council, meanwhile, only budgeted for 125 new officers in 2021.

Making matters worse, the city walked back the previous mayor’s announcement of a $10,000 to $25,000 hiring bonus for new officers, depending on their experience level. The current officers who were told of a potential $5,000 retention bonus? Those hopes were also dashed.

Harrell has yet to offer a recruitment plan or strategy to back up the desires he made clear during his state of the city speech. Explaining we need more cops with a council that doesn’t want them shouldn’t convince national media outlets that the city is ready to change its way. Locals sure aren’t fooled.

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