Seattle is budgeting for more police while pulling back on recruiting. Now residents can speak up.

The proposed 2027 Seattle budget would fund 1,250 sworn positions in the Seattle Police Department, 66 more than the current budget. That is a meaningful acknowledgment of a staffing problem that has dogged the city for years.

But there is a problem. At almost the same time Seattle is budgeting for more officers, it is pulling back on some of the tools it has been using to recruit them.

Beginning Sept. 1, SPD stopped offering hiring incentives that included bonuses for new recruits and as much as $50,000 for experienced officers transferring from other departments. SPD said the decision was driven by budget constraints.

The decision to end the bonuses was made by SPD rather than Wilson’s office. But Wilson’s new budget continues the same general shift. According to the Seattle Times, her proposal saves approximately $9.5 million in the police budget by scaling back recruitment and marketing efforts even as it adds funding for those 66 additional sworn positions.

That creates an obvious practical question: if Seattle believes it needs substantially more officers, why reduce the tools designed to attract them before those additional positions are actually filled?

Seattle now has an estimated population of roughly 823,000, but SPD reported just 927 deployable officers in August, or about 1.13 officers per 1,000 residents. That is a significant decline from 2012, when Seattle had about 1,235 deployable officers serving a population of roughly 600,000, or about 2 officers per 1,000 residents. Even under Mayor Wilson’s proposed budget, which would cap the department at 1,151 fully trained officers, Seattle would have only about 1.4 officers per 1,000 residents. Seattle City Councilmember Bob Kettle highlighted the comparison in his review of the mayor’s proposed budget.

Seattle does have an argument for shifting resources away from recruiting. Wilson says more than 3,000 applicants are now in the pipeline and that training, rather than attracting applicants, has become the limiting factor. If that assessment is correct, spending more money on bonuses and advertising may produce diminishing returns.

But this is where two critical realities are being overlooked. First, the number of applicants is not the right metric. The real question is how many of those 3,000 are actually high‑quality candidates – well‑trained, capable, and worthy of wearing the SPD uniform. In perhaps an unintended insight into how Mayor Wilson views law enforcement, policing is much more than “bodies on the street.” It is a profession that demands judgment, training, and character. A large applicant pool is meaningless if only a small fraction meets the standards required to rebuild a depleted department.

Second, one of the most important factors in both recruiting and retention is trust: will the mayor have an officer’s back when it counts? Based on Mayor Wilson’s past comments in support of defunding the police and her hasty dismissal of Chief Barnes, many officers and potential recruits may conclude that the answer is no. That perception directly affects who applies, who stays, and who laterals in. Incentives matter – but leadership confidence matters more.

For a different approach, Seattle only has to look across Lake Washington.

In Bellevue, public safety is viewed as a shared responsibility – and a shared success. The City Council stands squarely behind the Bellevue Police Department, whose officers continue to earn the trust of their community. In fact, Bellevue residents consistently give BPD some of the highest marks in the region, with satisfaction ratings above 90% in annual city surveys. 

But Bellevue PD isn’t just recruiting more officers – it’s recruiting officers who can uphold the department’s long‑standing CALEA accreditation. Bellevue has maintained accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) since 2005, a distinction earned by fewer than 6% of law enforcement agencies nationwide. CALEA accreditation is widely recognized as the gold standard in policing, reflecting rigorous training, accountability, and professional excellence.

Bellevue continues to actively compete for experienced officers. The city currently advertises signing bonuses of up to $30,000 for lateral officers and up to $10,000 for certain officers who already have academy certification. It also offers relocation assistance for qualifying candidates, take-home vehicles, and other recruitment and retention benefits.

Those incentives have accompanied tangible hiring gains. Bellevue began 2024 with 32 police vacancies but recruited 46 officers over the following year, producing a net gain of 17 positions. Police Chief Wendell Shirley specifically credited the department’s recruitment package and retention programs, including lateral signing bonuses, take-home vehicles, and wellness benefits.

That is especially notable because Bellevue is becoming an increasingly important competitor to Seattle for more than police officers.

During the first half of 2026, downtown Bellevue leased office space equal to about 6% of its total inventory, compared with about 2% in downtown Seattle. OpenAI, Uber, and Databricks were among the companies making major Bellevue commitments, while commercial real estate researchers described Bellevue as one of the region’s strongest office markets relative to its size.

Public safety is hardly the only factor businesses consider when choosing where to locate, and Bellevue faces its own challenges. But when companies, workers, and families have choices within the same region, the comparison between the two cities is worth watching.

Wilson’s budget acknowledges that Seattle needs more police officers. But adding positions on paper is only the first step. The real test is whether the city is willing to put the resources behind recruiting, training, and retaining enough officers to actually fill them.

Now Seattle residents have an opportunity to weigh in on whether police staffing and public safety receive that priority.

The City Council is currently reviewing Wilson’s proposed 2027–2028 budget, and the coming weeks include several opportunities for public comment. These hearings are an important part of the budget process: Councilmembers can still propose changes before the final budget is adopted. The first major public hearing is Tuesday, October 6.

• Remote public testimony begins at 1 p.m., giving residents an opportunity to speak directly to the Council without going to City Hall. Registration for remote testimony opens one hour before the hearing through the Council’s public comment page. Sign up for remote public comment here.
• For those who want to testify in person, public comment begins at 5 p.m. at Seattle City Hall, Council Chambers, 600 Fourth Avenue, Seattle, WA 98104. In-person speakers should sign up inside Council Chambers at least 15 minutes before the hearing.
• Residents who cannot testify can also follow the hearing live through the Seattle Channel.

Seattle’s budget is ultimately a statement of priorities. If police staffing, recruitment, response times, and public safety are priorities for you, this is an opportunity to make sure Councilmembers hear that directly as they decide where the city’s money goes.

There will be another budget public hearing on November 5, along with additional public-comment opportunities throughout October and November. But Tuesday’s hearing is one of the first major opportunities for residents to weigh in while Councilmembers still have time to reshape the proposal.