REVEALED: Bay Area city offered new cops $75,000 bonus on top of their $110,000 after dire staffing crisis that left a third of 88 full-time sworn officer positions vacant

A Bay Area city is offering new officers a hefty $75,000 bonus on top of their $110,000 starting salary after struggling to find candidates amid a hiring crisis.

Earlier this year, a third of the city of Alameda’s 88 full-time officer positions were vacant as California police departments battled to replace officers who changed jobs or retired during the pandemic.

Police Chief Nishant Joshi then came up with the impressive bonus plan to fill the 24 positions as quickly as possible, and in April the Alameda City Council approved the $75,000 hiring bonus.

The bonus has already proven effective in attracting new agents, Josh said The Mercury News. He said he has received 170 applications from across the country and expects the number of vacancies in the department to be reduced to 10 by early next year.

The chief pointed out that Alameda is not a cheap place to live, and the bonuses helped convince recruits to take the jobs.

Neighboring Bay Area cities have also offered bonuses of up to $30,000 as police departments compete to replace officers who have changed jobs or retired during the pandemic.

“There are million-dollar homes here. The average rent here is also $3,000,”

While Alameda’s bonus is the highest in the state, the city is far from alone in handing out financial bonuses to fill their positions.

In neighboring El Cerrito, recruits are offered $10,000, and in San Mateo, $30,000. Meanwhile, the city of Hayward is offering a $20,000 bonus to new officers.

Alameda Mayor Marilyn Ashcraft said that while the bonus is “eye-popping,” more “of what she hears is jealousy” from other local governments struggling to hire officers.

But retired Redondo Beach Police Lt. Diane Goldstein told The Mercury News the situation widens the divide between cities that can afford hefty bonuses and those that cannot.

“This whole signing bonus thing started a few years ago. It creates police agencies of the haves and the have-nots,” she said. “It may be a well-intentioned policy, thought to attract the best and brightest, but it potentially creates inequality in policing.”

While many California voters demanded greater oversight of police after the 2020 killing of George Floyd by a police officer, national sentiment toward police has changed since then.

According to a January 2023 Pew Research Center survey, 49 percent of American adults now say police funding in their area should be increased.

Last month, Oakland NAACP leaders called for a state of emergency due to rising crime in the area, blaming the police movement and the district attorney’s office for the rising violence.

Cynthia Adams, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, called on local officials to work together with local and federal resources to address growing public safety concerns in the District.

She co-wrote a letter with Bishop Bob Jackson of Acts Full Gospel Church to raise the alarm about the shootings, robberies and murders that have become a common occurrence.

“There is nothing compassionate or progressive about allowing criminal behavior to deprive Oakland residents of their fundamental rights to public safety,” they wrote.

‘It’s not racist or unkind to want to be safe from crime. No one should live in fear in our city.”

The Black advocacy group’s letter takes aim at Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price and anti-police rhetoric like the Defund the Police Movement, which they say has “created a heyday for Oakland criminals” and has a “doom loop” created because the city ‘continues to spiral downward.’

Meanwhile, in Southern California, a former Los Angeles sheriff warned that police numbers are dwindling and departments are struggling to attract people to the job.

Speaking to Fox News, former LA Sheriff Alex Villanueva said: “You have a terrible political climate where every politician fell over themselves in the summer of 2020 to denounce law enforcement, create a very hostile work environment (and ) no one wants a job anymore.

“The political establishment in LA has decided as of 2020, ‘Let’s destroy law enforcement. Let’s bash and diminish them for the attempted funding.”

Last month, the LAPD approved a four-year, $384 million contract for their officers, a steep increase that includes retention bonuses, including $5,000 signing bonuses.