Torrance to offer up to $100,000 sign-on bonuses for lateral police officer hires

This is bad news for police agencies around the nation.  We already have a massive shortage of cops.  Who wants to be demeaned and placed in financial jeopardy for doing their job?  In San Fran a police Sergeant gets paid $180,000 a year—plus overtime—and they still have a shortage.

Will other cities be forced to match the Torrance bonus of up to $100,000 for cops coming from other jurisdictions?

“The City Council has OK’d a $4.6 million a year pilot program to recruit and retain officers for the Torrance Police Department — with lateral hires able to earn signing bonuses as high as $100,000 over the course of their first year of employment.

Torrance, like many cities, has faced challenges recruiting and retaining a high-quality workforce in recent years, according to a staff for this week’s council meeting. Its Police Department currently has 219 full-time sworn positions, with 35 positions vacant. That’s a vacancy rate of 16%, according to the report.”

Maybe an offer of immunity form crazy California laws will help?

Torrance to offer up to $100,000 sign-on bonuses for lateral police officer hires

By MICHAEL HIXON, Daily Breeze,  7/19/24    https://www.dailybreeze.com/2024/07/19/torrance-police-to-offer-up-to-100000-sign-on-bonuses-for-lateral-officers/

The City Council has OK’d a $4.6 million a year pilot program to recruit and retain officers for the Torrance Police Department — with lateral hires able to earn signing bonuses as high as $100,000 over the course of their first year of employment.

Torrance, like many cities, has faced challenges recruiting and retaining a high-quality workforce in recent years, according to a staff for this week’s council meeting. Its Police Department currently has 219 full-time sworn positions, with 35 positions vacant. That’s a vacancy rate of 16%, according to the report.

In the case of lateral recruits — which are the most desired, according to the report, as they save the department training costs — a new hire would receive a $50,000 signing bonus, with an additional $20,000 bonus for military veterans and then additional incentives for experiences such as investigative or SWAT.  Additional incentives cap out at $15,000 per specialized detail. Half of that total will be paid upon hiring, with 25% paid when the new employee completes probation. Another 25% will be paid one year following probation completion.

For new hires from the police academy, incentives begin with a $20,000 signing bonus, plus an additional $20,000 for military veterans. The incentives are paid out in a simmilar 505, 25%, 25% structure.

Public safety dispatchers will also be offered hiring bonuses: Lateral recruits can make up to $40,000 while new hires can make up to $10,000 with a similar payout structure.

“I’m confident this will enhance our ability to deliver exceptional police services, foster a stronger community and also make a meaningful difference in the lives of the citizens we serve,” said police Chief Jeremiah “Jay” Hart said at the council meeting.

The Torrance Police Department has seen an average of 18 employees leave annually, according to the staff report, and “recruitment efforts need to more than double to improve the current vacancy status and approach nearly full staffing levels in three years.”

“The city has experienced challenges recruiting and retaining a high-quality workforce due to a multitude of factors,” the staff report said, “including a pandemic, a constrained workforce resulting from historically low unemployment levels, less than competitive pay and benefits, among others.”

Hart described the new program as one that would attract new talent and new people who are passionate about serving.

“At the same time,” he said, “it honors experienced police officers across the nation to come here that want to join an innovative team to serve a very special community here in the South Bay.”

For current employees, the plan allows sworn staff (excluding police chiefs and captains) a maximum bonus of $15,000 per year for five years and professional staff (administrative assistants and analysts) a maximum bonus of $10,000 per year for five years.

Hart said he wanted to ensure incentives also went to personnel already working for him.

“(The plan) does not leave behind the men and women, sworn and professional staff inside the Police Department, that have been holding the front lines of public safety over the last three years.”

Jamie Lee, assistant to the city manager, said the funding is available in the city’s general funds for the 2024-25 operating budget and is “anticipated to be available in subsequent fiscal years.”

The pilot program will not exceed five years, and can be terminated by the city manager or council before then, according to Finance Director Sheila Poisson.

The program is funded through “salary savings” and is “designed to break the cycle” of the recent trend of departing employees, the staff report said.

“Businesses aren’t going to come if they do not feel we have a safe community,” Mayor George Chen said during the Tuesday, July 16, meeting at which the council unanimously approved the program. “Your students aren’t going to feel safe going to school here. People won’t go to our shopping centers if we don’t keep them safe.”

The councilmemebers agreed.

“We have to pay the best,” Councilmember Jon Kaji. “And I think at this time, for us to come out into the marketplace and to offer these types of incentives to current staff and to those who (we) are hoping to attract, I think it’s timely and the right thing to do.”