(The Center Square) – The Seattle Police Department’s proposed 2025-2026 budget is bigger, but includes changes to account for officers’ high use of overtime.
The Seattle Police Department’s 2025 proposed budget is set at $457.9 million, a 15.7% increase above the 2024 adopted budget. Annual wage increases and market adjustments make up 76% of that increase, according to the department’s presentation.
The department’s 2026 proposed budget is set at $462.1 million.
Despite the funding increase, some adjustments are being proposed that could impact overtime amid a shortage of officers.
Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell’s proposed budget includes a budget reduction for salary savings associated with vacant police officer positions that cannot be filled in 2025 and 2026 in order to address the city’s $250 million budget deficit.
In 2025, SPD’s general fund allocation cuts $4.3 million from salary savings and another $4.3 million in 2026.
According to a presentation to the Seattle City Council, the reductions limit the amount of salary savings that can be reallocated to overtime or other needs. The department is hopeful that these funds won’t be needed as it works to address staffing issues.
SPD reached a high of 446 applicants last July, the most since 2013. However, the department still has a net deficit of officers.
“Although we are encouraged by the recent increase in police job applications and our improved onboarding processes, it’s still going to take us years to fill all officer vacancies and restore our staffing to safe levels,” Interim Chief Sue Rahr said at a Seattle Select Budget Committee meeting on Tuesday.
The department’s overall overtime budget for 2024 increased from $37 million in 2023 to $54 million, according to SPD Budget and Finance Executive Director Angela Socci. That accounts for the wage increase and an additional $4 million in salary savings.
“This is the first year as budget director where I feel like our overtime budget is being adequately funded,” Socci said at the Seattle Select Budget Committee meeting. “We have seen an increased usage of overtime to offset the staffing shortage in prior years.”
The proposed budget allocates $10 million in one-time funding from the general fund for overtime for supplemental police patrols in crime hot spots throughout the city. The hotspots include street segments and small clusters of blocks such as stretches of Third Avenue.
“By adding that $10 million on the front end instead of coming in a mid-year supplemental [budget], we’re able to start from the beginning of the year and understand what that budget is,” Socci explained. “We don’t like to use salary savings for overtime, we would like to have a fully-funded overtime budget that we can operate from – that [$10 million] helps us achieve that.”
Despite a lack of available police officers, overall crime in Seattle has dropped in 2024 in comparison to the past two years. Through August, there have been 28,792 reported crimes: 3,571 violent crimes and 25,221 property crimes.
Last year there were 46,011 reported crimes in the entire year, including 5,366 violent crimes and 5,660 property crimes.
In 2022, there was a record-breaking 50,198 crimes reported in Seattle, included 5,660 violent crimes.
