SPD officers likely to see pay raises
The City of Seattle has finally figured it out.
After a couple years of decreased interest in police careers within the city limits, a new collective bargaining agreement would give officers in the Seattle Police Department a hefty raise - making them the highest paid department in the state and the fourth-highest on the West Coast amongst comparable departments. From the P.I.:
The four-year contract offer would boost an entry-level officer's annual base pay from $47,340 to $64,312 by 2010 -- an increase of about 36 percent.
A 12-year veteran's base salary would increase at least 25 percent -- from $72,072 to $90,516 -- by the contract's final year.
The Seattle Crime Blogger and I have been arguing this point for months: if a police force is having trouble recruiting new officers, let's look at the reasons why. By and large, SPD has a horrible reputation in the city...and they are one of the lowest paid police forces on the West Coast. Take a look at some of the other cities the P.I. mentions and their base salaries for entry-level officers:
- San Francisco: $71,526
- San Jose: $70,307
- Oakland: $69,162
- Sacramento: $50,400
- Portland: $40,980
While the reputation may be harder to repair - claims of corruption, police abuse and related activities are impossible to snuff out entirely - the pay problem isn't nearly as difficult to tackle.
Entry-level officers stand to be making about $64,000 dollars a year by 2010...nearly a $17,000 a year increase from the current wages. That's like the difference between owning home and renting, or the difference between accepting a job in Seattle and looking at San Francisco (where entry-level officers already make $65,000 a year, according to the Chronicle).
With Seattle's crime rates hovering above the national average and high-profile cases drawing attention to the need for more cops on the streets, this can only help the city's futile recruiting process. After all, if you want the best and the brightest, you need to be willing to pay them as such.
The agreement still needs to be voted on by the Police Guild (though I don't see this vote failing) and ratified by the City Council. But judging by the giant monkey that could leap off of Mayor Nickels back if this does help recruiting, I think it's safe to say this will have all the support it needs. Kudos to the city for figuring this one out.
