Washington, D.C., hopes giving more money to police recruits will bolster its shrinking force and, in turn, combat rising crime.
New Metropolitan Police Department officers will receive a $25,000 hiring bonus – $5,000 more than the current bonus.
“Our goal, ultimately, is to get the department back to 4,000 officers,” Lt. Patrick Loftus said.
As of March 31, MPD was at 3,379 sworn officers, the fewest in decades.
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According to the mayor’s office, the funding for the bonuses comes from a surplus from the last fiscal year’s budget.
Montgomery, Prince George’s and Fairfax counties’ departments all offer five-figure bonuses. Now, MPD will offer the most.
“Right now, a jobseeker has their pick of their agency, and the hiring bonus is going to be a factor that they’re going to consider when selecting an agency,” Loftus said.
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Not everyone thinks it’s the best use of taxpayer money. Peter Wood, advisory neighborhood commissioner for Adams Morgan, said he would prefer for the funding to go to other programs.
“We have things like the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement,” he said. “We have things like the Cure the Streets program. We have things just like community investment and infrastructure, as well as things like public safety, that isn’t solely about the type of public safety that we always talk about.”
Departments nationwide have been struggling to hire for years, with the number of recruits decreasing after high-profile incidents like the killing of George Floyd.
The News4 I-Team reports that in the first four months of this fiscal year, the first with a signing bonus in place, D.C. lost more than twice as many officers as it hired.
Chuck Wexler, who studies police departments across the country with the Police Executive Research Forum, told the I-Team he’s concerned the bonuses are not a sustainable, long-term solution.
“You’ve got a narrative about police that’s not great, and you’ve got competition between large and small and federal agencies,” he said. “All of that makes the Washington area a particularly challenging area for agencies to hire cops.”
The increased hiring bonuses for new recruits start April 24.
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