Salinas Police looking to bring financial incentives to hire new officers

SALINAS, Calif. (KION-TV)- On Tuesday night, Salinas PD will be asking the Salinas City Council to bring back a hiring incentive program to hire new officers to their department.

In a report to the city, the department says they have 19 vacant officer positions. Salinas Police has used an incentive program back in 2015 when they hired ten new officers in a two year period.

Nine of those officers are currently still employed by the police department.

Here is a breakdown of the incentives.

• Lateral police officers would get $7,500 when hired and $10,000 when they successfully complete field training.
• They will also get an additional $10,000 a year from when the training was done.
• Police recruit incentives include $5,000 when hired plus an additional $5,000 a year from completing the field training program.

The details of this hiring program will be ironed out during tonight's City Council meeting which starts at 4 p.m.