S.F. offers signing bonus for new cops
Some veteran officers hoping for pay raises aren’t pleased with $1K to $3K payouts
Mayor Alan Webber’s administration announced Thursday that the Santa Fe Police Department is offering signing bonuses to new hires on the shorthanded force.
The department will offer a $1,000 bonus for each new cadet and $3,000 for lateral officers — those who join from other departments — according to a news release.
The extra incentive is an attempt to recruit new talent to a force that’s dwindling as officers leave for better pay at other agencies, a problem that has led to fewer officers patrolling the streets and longer response times.
The bonuses are not popular, however, among all officers in the department’s rank and file, said Tony Trujillo, president of the local police union.
“It’s like, ‘Wait a minute; I have dedicated myself to this department for X amount of years, and now you’re going to have a guy who comes in brand new, and you’re going to give him $3,000?’ ” Trujillo said. “It’s almost resented by our officers.”
While he appreciates the effort to get more people on the force, Trujillo said, the immediate focus, he believes, should be on keeping established officers from leaving.
As of Thursday, the Santa Fe Police Department had 29 vacancies, Lt. Michele Williams said.
Trujillo and other members of the
department raised the issue of officer retention at a City Council meeting in late August, saying the agency is “bleeding” officers who are going to better-paying jobs elsewhere.
Police response times are suffering as a result.
Response times for Priority 1 calls — emergency situations like shootings or home invasions — have increased by about 2 minutes since 2017.
The most significant increase in the response time is a lag between when a member of the public calls 911 and when an officer is actually dispatched to the scene.
Ken Martinez, director of the Santa Fe Regional Emergency Communications Center, said it takes longer now for 911 operators to dispatch police than it did last year because there are fewer officers to dispatch.
“They don’t have as many officers on the street right now as they probably need or would like to have,” Martinez told The New Mexican last week. “In the interest of officer safety, we need to make sure that we wait until we have appropriate resources to be able to send to the call.”
Williams said patrol teams don’t always have the minimum staffing they need to fill shifts. It’s not uncommon, she said, for supervisors to ask officers to work voluntary overtime to make sure city streets are properly staffed.
Of the officers who have left the force for another agency, Williams said the majority went to the Albuquerque Police Department.
The Albuquerque department increased officer pay starting in August, Albuquerque Police Officers Association President Shaun Willoughby said. With those raises, starting officers at the agency make about $10 more an hour than new recruits in Santa Fe.
And next year, Albuquerque will start offering hefty longevity pay, Willoughby said. Officers with more than five years of experience will make an extra $100 every pay period, or an extra $2,600 annually. The longevity pay will increase incrementally, capping at an extra $15,600 a year for officers with 18 or more years on the job.
Albuquerque is hungry for recruits.
On Monday, the Albuquerque City Council approved a $3 million proposal to fund an academy for lateral police recruits. Police Chief Mike Geier said the agency is trying to hire 100 new officers during the current fiscal year, according to a news release.
“Recent wage and longevity pay increases have resulted in additional interest from officers employed with other agencies to join APD,” Albuquerque City Councilor Don Harris is quoted as saying in the release. “We’re excited to welcome them to our department.”
Matt Ross, a spokesman for the city of Santa Fe, said in an email that the city is very concerned about officer retention.
“We don’t want to lose a single member of our force to Albuquerque or any other city,” Ross said. “Like much of the country we’re faced with some difficult recruiting and retention challenges, and we’re trying hard to take what makes Santa Fe unique, engage with the community to make them part of the effort, and find answers.”
In addition to the hiring bonuses, Ross said, the city is committed to working with the police union to negotiate officer
pay. Webber has mentioned the possibility of finding more affordable housing options and other incentives for police officers, and Ross said the city is working with local schools to encourage youth to start on the law enforcement track.
Still, Williams and Trujillo said they anticipate the department’s staffing crunch will only get worse before it can get better.
They expect to lose officers to the Albuquerque agency’s lateraltraining academy.
And while the Santa Fe department has made four new hires recently, Williams said most of those were cadets who won’t be out in the field for another year or so.
“We are anticipating it’s going to get worse before it gets better,” Williams said, “and we hope there is an appropriate plan put forth that will make things better.”