D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser announced Friday that she’d be upping the hiring bonus for D.C. police officers to $25,000, a $5,000 increase from the current hiring bonus in effect.

The announcement of the new incentive comes as D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department — along with other departments across the country – have struggled to hire and retain police officers. The department has about 3,400 officers as of March. Last fiscal year, MPD hired 254 new officers, but lost 374 sworn members, most through resignation and retirement.

The increased incentive puts D.C. above nearby departments in Montgomery County and Anne Arundel County who have instituted $20,000 hiring bonuses as police departments across the country struggle to recruit new hires to keep pace with departures (Anne Arundel’s police department even advertised the bonuses on a billboard along Rhode Island Ave NE, in the District).

“We want officers to see the District as somewhere where they can grow their careers, where they will be supported, where they will receive high-quality training, and where they will have the equipment they need – and that is the message we are sending with our investments,” said Bowser in a press release Friday.

New recruits will get the $25,000 bonus in two installments – a $15,000 installment paid upon hiring, and then a $10,000 installment after they successfully complete the police academy. That could bring the starting salary for a newly hired officer to $80,000, according to the press release from Bowser. The administration is using surplus funds from this fiscal year’s budget — which it says come from staff vacancies — to fund the increase. The new incentives will go into effect April 24.

The increased incentives come in the midst of a tight budget cycle. Bowser’s proposed budget for next fiscal year includes steep cuts to emergency rental assistance and a fund that creates new affordable housing — choices she said she had to make because of a grim economic outlook that is forcing the city back to “the basics.”

And the incentives also land in the midst of a fierce debate over D.C. police staffing. Bowser has consistently pushed for increased hiring incentives and funding for the police department, arguing that the force needs to return to 4,000 police officers. Advocates have pushed back and argued that a better solution would be limiting the scope of police responsibility, delegating tasks that don’t require an armed officer to other agencies and leaving MPD officers more time to devote to solving serious crimes. The D.C. Auditor has said the city needs more data to determine if the force is using its resources well to begin with: the office has embarked on a staffing study for MPD and hopes to have results by the end of the year.

In a D.C. Council oversight hearing in February, D.C. police union chairman Gregg Pemberton called attrition and staffing “the active and existential crisis facing the Metropolitan Police Department,” and cited a net loss of 631 union members since June of 2020.

In that same hearing, Contee said that the department’s lower staffing has contributed to longer response times to calls, even for serious crimes. Contee also told the D.C. Council that the average D.C. patrol officer responded to 8% more calls for service in 2022 than in 2019 – and 23% more than in 2017. Contee also cited staffing as a contributing factor to soaring overtime costs — and, therefore, a physically and emotionally depleted police workforce.

But while more recent budgets have increased the dollars available for MPD staffing, the department has struggled to fill those budgeted positions.

In February’s oversight hearing, Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen cited the numerous incentives for police officers to join MPD’s force – including the signing bonuses, and also assistance with housing and education.

“We’ve got a lot of incentives we’re trying to put out here, but we also know it’s a very competitive space. So it’s not a budget issue, because we’ve budgeted, right?” Allen asked Contee.

“That’s right,” Contee replied.

In the hearing, Contee shared that MPD had given out 97 of the $20,000 hiring bonuses to date, and the department saw interest jump by about 24% since the signing bonuses had gone online. But as new officers arrive, many others are retiring or resigning. Former MPD officers tell WAMU/DCist that they’ve noticed a trend of MPD members seeking opportunities elsewhere, including in suburbs where hours tend to be more predictable and less grueling.

To battle ongoing problems with attrition on the force, MPD officials say they’ve been aggressively trying to recruit officers — and they insist that they’re trying hard not to lower standards as they do so. City officials have expanded eligibility for MPD’s cadet program, which they tout as a strong pipeline for new police officers. The department has even gone so far as to place ads in the New York City subway system — perhaps an effort to poach police from a department that’s also struggling to retain officers.