One Bay Area community is going the extra mile to attract new recruits in one of the most competitive hiring markets for public servants.
The city of Alameda thinks it has the solution to fill an officer vacancy of nearly 30%. Alameda police recruits will get $25,000 signing bonus as soon as they’re sworn in and another $50,000 after they complete 19 weeks of field training.
In its first few days, the new signing bonus incentive at the Alameda Police Department is already getting a lot of attention.
This is happening at a time departments across the state and nation are struggling to fill vacant positions.
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“People from across the country have reached out to our recruitment inquiring about the opportunity,” said Alameda police chief Nischant Joshi.
Alameda’s police chief added that the department isn’t looking for new recruits only. They’re also hiring police academy graduates and lateral transfers from other departments. But they’re also not accepting just anyone.
The city is budgeted for 88 sworn officers, but right now there are only 64 on the streets. There are two dozen positions available.
Local
Thom Jensen has more in the video above.
