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The Arcata Police Department will now offer a $50,000 bonus for officers transferring from another California police department, after the Arcata City Council unanimously improved the large bonus increase during its Wednesday night meeting. 

The APD has been struggling to hire and retain staff for a few years and the department has tried to increase its recruitment efforts and has already been offering a $15,000 transfer bonus for trained officers. But the department has continued to see a decrease in staffing and is currently down to 19 officers from 29 in the beginning of 2020. 

Danette Demello, Arcata’s assistant city manager, told the council that there is one confirmed hire who is entering into the law enforcement academy, and there are two more potential hires who are currently going through background checks. But even with three new hires, APD will still be understaffed. Plus it will take at least three or four months for the new hires to be on patrol, Demello said. 

This is why the department is pushing for lateral transfers – trained officers moving over from another police department, who can be in the field much sooner. Many other cities across the state have recently increased their bonuses to address short staffing, and Arcata Police Chief Brain Ahearn said that Arcata needed to increase their bonus significantly to remain competitive in the market. 

The $50,000 bonus will be offered to police officers who are currently employed in the state of California, have successfully completed law enforcement academy and are “performing satisfactorily” in their current employment. The bonus will be spread out over two and a half years, with $10,000 paid on the first paycheck. 

In addition to the increased transfer bonus, the council also approved a temporary $7,500 retention bonus to be paid to officers currently employed by APD once a year for the next three years, and $60,000 for the department to make improvements to its facilities. Some of the expenses will be covered by the revenue the department has saved since being understaffed and the rest will come out of the city’s general fund. 

A few community members spoke during public comment, most of them praising our local police force and speaking in favor of granting the department’s requests. 

“I do think we need to have more police on duty in our town,” Joanne McGarry, an Arcata resident and frequent city council meeting commenter, said to the council. “But I also think one of the things we need to do is not rely on the police so much for things that could be prevented.”

One commenter, Leslie Johnson, was not in support of more funding to the police department. Referencing a recent Times-Standard article about reports of roofies in Arcata, in which Chief Ahearn said he was not aware there was a problem with roofies, Johnson said that Arcata’s police are not doing their job effectively. 

“Police are obsolete,” Johnson said during the meeting. “You are the army of the rich… cops have lost the privilege of protecting us. The entire police force is wasteful, ineffective and abusive.” 

But the four councilmembers present (Arcata Mayor Sarah Schaefer was absent) all agreed that the police department was in dire need of additional staffing and felt that providing the funding for these recruitment efforts was absolutely necessary. 

“APD is working incredibly hard and is stretched dangerously thin,” Councilmember Stacy Atkins-Salazar said during the meeting. “I believe it is our responsibility to keep not only our community supported and safe, but to do the same for APD.”

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• Arcata City Council to Consider $50K Bonus for Police Department Transfers to Address APD Staffing Shortage