With 60 new Seattle police officers hired since the beginning of the year and another 160 applicants undergoing background checks, interim Seattle police Chief Shon Barnes said the department is on a trajectory to return “to full strength.”

“I’m pushing for 200” new officers by the end of the year, he said Monday. “We’re on pace to hire more police officers this year than at any other time in our department’s history, illustrating the city’s renewed commitment to public safety and community engagement.”

Surrounded by gym equipment and blue floor mats, a group of 14 new hires stood at ease inside the Seattle Police Department’s training facility off Airport Way South, their session halted by a news conference to announce early results of the city’s efforts to rebuild a police force that saw hundreds of officers retire or leave since the pandemic and the 2020 social justice protests that led to an effort to defund the police, which has since been walked back.

“The officers you see standing behind me are symbolic of the direction we’re heading,” Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell said. “They truly represent our community. They range in age from young adults in their 20s to a seasoned public servant who is 63.”

While many grew up in the Seattle area, others have come from across the country, he said.

“Some of these new officers, this is a second or even third career for some of them. We have former paramedics, health care workers, military members, lawyers, tech employees and even a former tour boat captain,” Harrell said.

SPD hired 84 officers last year, the most in a single year since 2019. Last year was also the first year since 2019 that new hires surpassed separations of officers who retired or quit, Harrell said. The pace has picked up since then, with new hires in 2025 running sixfold over the rate from this time last year.

Many departments in Washington and throughout the nation have struggled to hire officers since 2020. Seattle officials have aggressively moved to draw in candidates, offering signing bonuses as high as $50,000 and competitive starting salaries above $100,000. Barnes said the department also shortened the hiring process and embraced more direct and personalized interactions with each recruit.

The current force stands at 1,017, with a shortage of about 260 officers, he said. The department has recruited through social media; shifted to electronic background testing; reduced the wait time in half for new hires to get an offer; hired additional staff to shorten exam periods; and eliminated the travel requirement for the physical agility test by allowing candidates to test where they live, Barnes said.

More than 4,000 people applied to be Seattle police officers last year, both brand-new officers and candidates who are already certified police officers in Washington and other states, according to Barnes.

He said he got a call from an old classmate whose son is a police officer in Atlanta and wants to come to Seattle and he recently heard from another man in North Carolina who also wants to apply, bringing to three the number of people he personally has helped add to the recruitment pipeline.

“My job is to give them everything that they need in order to make their dreams come true so they can become Seattle police officers,” Barnes said. “What that means for public safety is we can get these officers trained, get them through field training and put them where we need them the most, which is in patrol, which is certainly, I believe, the backbone of policing.”

He acknowledged that only one of the 14 recruits standing behind him Monday was a woman and said the number of female applicants “are not exceeding my expectations.” So far, five female officers have been hired this year, compared to the 10 hired last year. To help meet a department goal of having women account for 30% of sworn personnel by 2030, Barnes said he’s directed staff to “give a second look” to any female applicant “before we give them a rejection letter,” making sure there’s an extra layer of quality control.

“For me, it’s making sure any applicant, no matter your demographics, you know that Seattle Police Department is a place for you,” he said. “People sometimes don’t understand underserved, minority recruiting … You don’t recruit who you want, you recruit who you are. So we’re trying to show people that Seattle is a place for everyone. That’s my strategy.”

Seattle City Council President Sara Nelson said it has taken time and a lot of work “to build a police department back that reflects Seattle’s values and also engenders trust.” And while it remains a work in progress, “last year’s reversal of the five-year trend of losing more officers than we could hire was the first sign that showed that our three year, all-hands-on-deck effort was really starting to pay off.”

Also noteworthy is that in one recent police academy class of 30 new recruits, 14 of them had been hired by SPD, said Monica Alexander, the executive director of the state Criminal Justice Training Commission, which provides basic law enforcement training for all police agencies in the state except the State Patrol.

A year ago, there was a 10 month long waiting period for a new hire to get into an academy class but that wait time has been eliminated thanks to increased funding from the state Legislature, she said. Still, the training commission was looking at reducing the number of classes it provides each year due to a dearth of trainers.

But SPD stepped up, despite its own staffing challenges, and provided five tactical officers to serve as trainers, Alexander said.

“That was a huge commitment and a huge sacrifice … so consequently, the Seattle Police Department has helped every agency in the state by making that sacrifice and giving us so many people,” she said.

This recent success comes at a time when the state is seeking to help departments boost hiring. Lawmakers approved a program, championed by Gov. Bob Ferguson, that offers $100 million to help departments hire new officers. It relies on a new 0.1% sales tax that cities would have to adopt.

“We know that a potential sales tax is on the table and being discussed. So with the council’s input, we’re looking at it,” Harrell said. “We recognize fully that public safety is one of the highest priorities that our people is Seattle want.”