A Bay Area city is offering new police officers a hefty $75,000 bonus on top of their starting salary of $110,000 after struggling to find candidates amid a staffing crisis.
Earlier this year, the city of Alameda had a third of its 88 full-time officer positions vacant as California police departments compete to replace officers who changed jobs or retired during the pandemic.
Police Chief Nishant Joshi then developed the impressive bonus plan to fill the 24 positions as quickly as possible, and in April the Alameda City Council approved the $75,000 hiring boost.
The bonus has already proven effective in attracting new police officers, Josh told The Mercury News. He said he has received 170 applications from across the country and expects the number of vacancies in the department to drop to 10 by early next year.
The chief pointed out that Alameda is not a cheap place to live and the bonuses helped convince recruits to take the jobs.
Alameda, California, is offering new police officers a hefty $75,000 bonus on top of their $110,000. Police Chief Nishant Joshi is pictured above
Neighboring Bay Area cities have also offered bonuses of up to $30,000 as police departments compete to replace officers who changed jobs or retired during the pandemic
“There are million-dollar houses here.” “The average rent here is also $3,000,”
While Alameda’s bonus is the highest in the state, the city is far from alone in consistently turning to financial bonuses to fill its positions.
In neighboring El Cerrito, recruits are offered $10,000 and in San Mateo, $30,000. Meanwhile, the city of Hayward is offering new police officers a $20,000 bonus.
Alameda Mayor Marilyn Ashcraft said that while the bonus was “mind-blowing,” she heard more “envy” from other local governments struggling to hire police officers.
But retired Redondo Beach Police Department Lieutenant Diane Goldstein told The Mercury News that the situation is exacerbating the divide between cities that can afford high premiums and others that cannot.
“This whole signing bonus started a few years ago. “Police departments are created for the haves and the have-nots,” she said. “It may be a well-intentioned policy in the belief that it can attract the best and brightest, but it potentially leads to inequalities in policing.”
While many California voters demanded more oversight of police following the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in 2020, national sentiment toward police has changed since then.
According to a January 2023 Pew Research Center survey, 49 percent of U.S. adults say police funding should be increased in their area.
Last month, Oakland NAACP leaders called for a state of emergency over rising crime in the area, blaming defunding the police movement and the district attorney for the rising violence.
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People President Cynthia Adams urged local officials to work with local and federal resources to address growing public safety issues in the county.
Together with Bishop Bob Jackson of Acts Full Gospel Church, she wrote a letter to raise awareness of the shootings, robberies and murders that are now commonplace.
“There is nothing compassionate or progressive about allowing criminal behavior to spread and deprive Oakland residents of their basic rights to public safety,” they wrote.
“It is neither racist nor unkind to want to be safe from crime.” “No one should live in fear in our city.”
The Black advocacy group’s letter takes aim at Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price and anti-police rhetoric like the Defund the Police movement, which they say has “created a heyday for Oakland criminals” and a “doomsday loop.” The city “continues to develop in a downward spiral”.
Meanwhile, in Southern California, a former Los Angeles sheriff warned that the number of police officers is declining and authorities are struggling to recruit new people to the job.
Speaking to Fox News, former Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said: “You have a terrible political climate where every politician went overboard in the summer of 2020 to denounce law enforcement and create a very hostile work environment.” [and] Nobody wants a job anymore.
“The LA political establishment decided, starting in 2020, ‘Let’s destroy law enforcement.’ Let’s beat them up and shrink them because of the defunding efforts.”
Last month, the LAPD approved a four-year, $384 million contract for its officers, a significant increase that includes retention bonuses, including $5,000 signing bonuses.