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Like many other police departments around the state and country, the Arcata Police Department (APD) has seen a severe staffing shortage over the last few years. And recently it has gotten so bad that the department is asking the Arcata City Council to approve a $50,000 transfer bonus for trained officers. 

According to a city staff report, the department currently has 19 officers on staff, down from 29 at the beginning of 2020. That means the department is about 34 percent understaffed, and two more officers are expected to depart soon. APD Chief Brian Ahearn told the Outpost that the department has been struggling to keep staff, and that it’s causing issues both within the department and for the community. 

“Because we’ve had to really constrict operations due to our staffing shortage, we’re not able to provide specialty services and haven’t been able to deliver some of those services that we know our community members expect,” Ahearn said in a phone interview Tuesday morning. “And just the sheer volume of work has really created a lot of fatigue within the organization, both mentally and physically.” 

The department already offers a $15,000 lateral transfer bonus, but Ahearn says that it has not been enough and thinks that increasing the amount will incentivize more officers to move to APD. And though $15,000 to $50,000 is a pretty huge bump, Ahearn said that it’s going to take a huge increase to keep Arcata competitive with other agencies. 

Hiring and transfer bonuses are nothing new, but have become increasingly common since COVID. Over the last few years many police departments in California and across the country have dramatically increased their transfer incentives, with cities like Redding and Chico offering a $40,000 transfer bonus, and Alameda offering a staggering $75,000 for lateral transfers. 

If approved by the council, the $50,000 bonus would be offered to police officers currently employed in the state of California who have successfully completed law enforcement academy and are “performing satisfactorily” in their current employment, according to the staff report. The payment would be spread out over two and a half years, with the first $10,000 added to the employee’s first paycheck. 

Additionally, Ahearn is suggesting the council approve $60,000 in funding to the police department to improve the department’s workstations, locker rooms, floor surface, lighting and equipment. According to the staff report, in recent exit interviews with officers leaving APD for other cities many shared that the departments they were transferring to had higher quality facilities and equipment. Ahearn believes that making some of these improvements could help APD recruit new officers and also improve conditions for the current employees and hopefully encourage them to stick around. Also to help keep the current staff on, Ahearn is proposing a short-term retention bonus that would offer current employees $7,500 a year for three years. 

Ahearn | Stephanie McGeary

This all might sound like a lot of cash to give to the police department, especially when Arcata’s budget is looking pretty tight this year. But part of the costs would be offset by the salaries and benefits savings the department has accumulated from the unfilled positions. Ahearn also holds that the long term savings from keeping officers and recruiting transfers who would be able to enter the field much more quickly would be worth the investment. The $50,000 transfer bonus is still less than the cost of supporting a candidate through the academy and field training, which is estimated to cost $65,000. 

When asked about why it has been so difficult to keep Arcata’s police department staffed over the last few years, Ahearn said it is not only the competitive market, but also that not as many people are interested in being police officers these days, something Ahearn attributed largely to the increasing scrutiny of police officer and department practices across the country. 

“I just think the profession has seen so much change in the last several years,” Ahearn said. “There’s been so many reforms, and many of those have been the right reforms. We need to continue to evolve as a profession. We have to continue to achieve excellence. But along the way, a lot of people have forgotten that police officers are human beings…and police officers are just being absolutely vilified.” 

Amid the calls for police reform that were largely sparked by the Black Lives Matter movement, many people have urged municipalities to “defund the police” and direct that funding toward alternative forms of emergency response, such as mental health services. Arcata Mayor Sarah Schaefer even said that reallocating funds from the police department budget was one her top priorities, back when she was running for council in 2020. 

And Ahearn feels that the APD and the City of Arcata have done a good job at responding to those cries for change. The department has been working with the county’s Mobile Intervention Services Team (MIST), which provides services for those struggling with mental health issues and/or substance use disorders in the community. Members of MIST are on staff at APD four days a week. 

Ahearn also mentioned Arcata’s Community Ambassador Program, a collaboration between APD and Arcata Main Street that was launched in 2022. The community ambassadors are trained in de-escalation techniques and can respond to issues that aren’t necessarily a crime. City staff is also proposing the council approve a .25 percent sales tax to be placed on the ballot in 2024 to help fund the Community Ambassador Program and additional upgrades for the police department. 

With these alternative programs in place, Ahearn feels that APD is a very progressive police department and hopes to attract officers who want to be a part of an organization that will “redefine and reimagine how policing is going to look moving forward.” He hopes that, if the incentive program is approved, that it will help make Arcata’s department more desirable and that once someone transfers here and sees what the department does for the community that they will want to stay. 

Ahearn does also realize that hiring bonuses only offer a temporary solution and that the department will need to continue to improve and possibly offer other incentives in the future, like housing allowances, covering education or childcare costs. But right now, the bottom line is that APD needs to fill these positions as soon as possible. 

“This is designed to bring these officers to us immediately,” Ahearn said. “We have been slowly bleeding out with our departures out numbering our new hires. So this is not a bandaid, it’s a tourniquet. Because if I don’t stop the bleeding now we’re going to bleed out and potentially we’re going to no longer exist as an organization. And I can’t let that happen.” 

The Arcata City Council will consider the APD’s proposal during its meeting tonight (Wednesday, Apr. 19) at 6 p.m. You can view the full agenda and directions on how to participate here.