Police will be able to offer $5,000 signing bonuses

The Bethlehem Police Department will receive a state grant to offer $5,000 sign-on bonuses to prospective new police hires.

The $75,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency will allow Bethlehem police to hire for vacancies that, like other departments across the country, have been a struggle to fill in recent years.

Bethlehem police Chief Michelle Kott said the department has seen a “crisis” in recruiting that the grant will help alleviate. She said “multifaceted reasons” have led to that crisis, from the civil unrest after the killing of George Floyd in 2020 to the city’s college requirement, which requires prospective police hires to have a bachelor’s degree.

“There was a lot of unrest that occurred after the murder of George Floyd,” Kott said. “A lot of people were hesitant to become police officers after the horrific actions of, I don’t even want to call him officer, but [Derek] Chauvin.”

Bethlehem’s award will allow the police department to give 15 new prospective police hires a $5,000 sign-on bonus when hired, according to Lt. Gov Austin Davis, who leads the state commission that issued the grant.

“When the governor and I were on the campaign trail, we promised to ensure police departments are well staffed and well-funded,” Davis said during a visit to Bethlehem on Wednesday.

The city hired 12 officers in 2023 and has nine vacancies, six of which will be filled next year when prospective hires graduate from police academy training, Kott said at a recent budget hearing. The city’s 2023 hires also received the $5,000 sign-on bonus, thanks to a previous grant from the state commission.

A total of 20 municipalities across the state received a similar grant from the commission, including the Allentown Police Department,

which received $400,000 to will help fill around 40 positions in the department.

— Lindsay Weber