‘We are not going to become fully staffed likely in our lifetime’: Rantz warns Seattle police shortage is worsening

Seattle’s police staffing shortage is getting worse, according to Jason Rantz, host of “The Jason Rantz Show” on Seattle Red 770 AM, who warned that recruiting challenges and the city’s reputation could keep the department from reaching its staffing goals for years to come.

“We are not going to become fully staffed likely in our lifetime,” Rantz said on “The Jake and Spike Show” on KIRO Newsradio.

Rantz put the number of fully available and deployable officers at 863, citing a staffing figure he believed was current as of Oct. 21. He argued that Seattle should focus on officers available to respond to emergencies rather than the department’s overall sworn headcount.

KIRO host Jake Skorheim questioned whether recruiting incentives, political leadership and the lingering reputation of Seattle’s 2020 defund-the-police movement were making it harder to attract officers.

Rantz challenges how Seattle counts officers

Rantz noted a total sworn-officer count does not adequately describe the department’s ability to respond to 911 calls because it includes personnel serving in other roles.

“When they talk about the total sworn officer number, that’s a bogus number that doesn’t really matter at all,” Rantz said. “What matters is fully available and deployable patrol officers, and it’s just at 863.”

He also reported that the number of recruits and trainees had fallen by 15, although he did not specify the comparison period.

Rantz attributed some recruiting and training difficulties to what he described as lowered hiring standards. He asserted that street training was taking months longer than normal and that some recruits were leaving or being dismissed after struggling with the work.

Recruiting experienced officers

Jake asked whether eliminating a $50,000 signing bonus for officers transferring from other departments would undermine Seattle’s recruitment efforts.

Rantz emphasized the value of those experienced hires, known as lateral officers, because they bring work history and require less training than new recruits.

“You want laterals because they require less training,” Rantz said.

Discussing staffing goals, Rantz recalled earlier targets of roughly 1,500 to 1,600 officers and a lower goal under former Mayor Bruce Harrell. Those overall staffing targets are not directly equivalent to the deployable-officer figure Rantz cited.

Nevertheless, Rantz said that the department remained far from the staffing level it needed.

‘Stop demonizing them’: Rantz’s recruiting fixes

Asked how Seattle could persuade more people to become officers, Rantz offered three priorities.

“Stop demonizing them, pay them well, and allow them to do their jobs,” Rantz said. “Those are the three things that you can do right now, and they’ve stopped demonizing to a degree within the city.”

He argued supporting proactive policing could help recruitment, but that staffing shortages already limit officers’ ability to do anything beyond responding to urgent calls.

Even with a policy change encouraging more neighborhood patrols, Rantz contended, the department would still need enough officers to carry it out.

“And if you don’t have any time to just patrol a neighborhood, right?” Rantz said. “Just drive around or bike around or even, God forbid, walk around and talk to people, you can’t really be an effective force the way that they want to be, and that’s the problem.”

Seattle’s reputation remains a recruiting obstacle

Jake asked whether Seattle was still dealing with the consequences of its embrace of the defund-the-police movement in 2020.

Rantz noted reversing policies does not immediately repair a city’s reputation among prospective officers.

“It’s a brand that doesn’t just go away, even if they reverse course on a lot of those policies,” Rantz said.

The discussion also turned to the search for a new police chief. Rantz described the process as slow and reported receiving conflicting information about whether the eventual choice would come from inside the department, elsewhere in Washington or outside the state.

He maintained that an outside candidate could be a strong choice, but argued that repeated leadership turnover makes it harder to recruit someone to relocate and rebuild the department.

For Rantz, those leadership challenges and the staffing shortage come back to the same issue: whether officers believe Seattle will support their work.

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to “The Jake and Spike Show” weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio 97.3