Alameda offered police recruits big bonuses to deal with staffing crisis

By Itay Hod

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    ALAMEDA, California (KPIX) — When Kayla Gronley was a little girl, a police officer helped her family during a particularly rough time. That positive interaction triggered a lifelong obsession with becoming a cop.

“Being able to have somebody guide our family into a better situation made me want to explore what that profession was like,” she said.

Now, at 26, she’s a newly minted police officer at the Alameda police department. Little did she know, that dream job would come with an unexpected bonus. Last year, with nearly a third of its 88 sworn positions sitting vacant, the city of Alameda decided to do something rather unusual: give new hires a $75,000 singing bonus — the highest in the nation — on top of a six-figure salary.

“It was very exciting and I’m very grateful for have that,” Gronley said.

Gronley was already considering Alameda along with other police departments when she heard about the bonus. While she says the money wasn’t the main factor in her decision, it helped steer her in Alameda’s direction.

“I would very much like to be a homeowner one day so it was very nice to know that there would be a bonus that I would be able to essentially put down toward a house,” she said.

Nishant Joshi, Alameda’s police chief, said the biggest hurdle to recruiting has been the cost of living.

“It’s difficult to afford housing here in the Bay Area and so knowing that that’s a burden or an obstacle or something that people are going to struggle with, how can we as a police department come up with ways — creative ways — to remove that?” he said.

Police departments across the country are in the midst of an unprecedented staffing crisis that has sparked an arms race of sorts, with cities looking for out-of-the-box incentives to lure candidates.

In Alameda, it seems to be working.

“We are seeing a success,” Joshi said. “We went from a 30 percent vacancy rate to about 15 percent and, if all goes as planned, I expect our entire patrol division to be full by this summer.”

In the first quarter of 2024, Alameda has seen a noticeable drop in larceny, vandalism and fraud. Auto theft, which was up 114 percent last year, has dropped 17 percent since January.

Another critical measure — the department’s response time to crimes — has also decreased by 34 seconds in the past year.

Still, not everyone is on board with Alameda’s bonus bonanza.

“We need to not treat police officers as if they are athletes or superstars,” said Jennifer Rakowski, an Alameda resident and a former member of the city’s Police Oversight Task Force.

Rakowski said Alameda is spending north of a $1.5 million on these bonuses, while San Jose Police Department — a police force 10 times the size of Alameda — is spending just $150,000.

“Alameda outspends 85 percent of law enforcement departments in the country. That was before we offered 75 K in hiring bonuses,” she said.

Alameda PD said it is funding the bonuses by reallocating unspent police salaries from last year. Officers have to commit to staying on the force for at least five years.

As for Gronley, her first day on patrol, ended with an arrest of a car thief and a grateful owner who was able to get his vehicle back.

“I got into the job to make sure that I’m helping people out each day, so even little things like this are definitely a win,” she said.

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