Salinas police association reacts to sign-on bonuses
The Salinas Police Officers Association is reacting to news that the Seaside Police Department is wanting to offer a $30,000 sign-on bonus to police officers working in California and across the country.
Just last week, the Salinas City Council imposed a new contract on Salinas police officers that outlined no pay increases and required officers to pay five percent of their own health insurance premiums.
The SPOA says the competition for hiring good officers is getting stiff.
“It was only a matter of time, and in fact, $30,000 seems like an exorbitant amount of money to some people, but you’ll see higher,” said Jim Knowlton, the SPOA president.
Police departments in Monterey, Santa Cruz and in the Bay Area are already using sign-on bonuses to beef up staffing. Some are straight cash bonuses, others offer money toward getting a master’s degree.
The SPOA says it is a simple supply and demand issue. There are not a lot of people interested in doing police work nationwide, which means departments are trying to incentivize all the more.
“Seaside is facing the same thing. They’ve tried to come up with a creative solution, and I wouldn’t be surprised if you see more local and northern California agencies do the same thing,” said Knowlton.
Some Salinas residents think the police hiring process is starting to look like sports teams drafting.
“A little bit, yeah, you got free agents and hey come on over here with us,” said Aaron Dye, a Salinas resident. “But these are police departments, this is people’s safety and people’s lives that you’re playing with.”
The City of Salinas just imposed a new contract with the SPOA, and Knowlton says the timing of the Seaside proposal is interesting.
“It does seem quite convenient that on the heels of the vote last Tuesday, that Seaside is offering that and taking it to their council on Thursday,” said Knowlton.
There are 174 positions at the Salinas PD, but the city council froze 12 of those positions a couple years ago. They have over 10 openings right now, and residents think that should be prioritized.
“With a multi-million dollar police station that’s being built, hasn’t even finished being built yet and you’re having issues with paying your people, maybe redirect some of that funds,” said Dye.
Seaside Police Chief Abdul Pridgen tells KION they are not trying to poach officers from Salinas with their proposed sign-on bonus. He says their plan has been in the works for over six months now.
