City Council to Consider Giving Bonuses to New Cops Tuesday

In the hopes of boosting hiring at the Santa Cruz Police Department the city council Tuesday will consider giving as much as $30,000 bonuses to officers who transfer from other departments and $20,000 to new trainees, double what was in place before.

The money for a lateral transfer includes a $5,000 recruitment bonus, $20,000 incentive and bonuses for education of $2,500 for an AA/AS degree and $5,000 for a BA or BS.

The money will be paid in installments of one third when they complete field training; one third when they complete probation and one third after two years.

There are 70 entry level police positions and six community service officers. With upper echelon officers, the department has 94 sworn, but is at 88. The city council has approved funds to over hire by five officers to quickly replace those who leave.

The numbers aren't out of line with the city's population of 60,000 for eight months of the year, but swells considerably in the summer. The Beach Boardwalk alone has 3 million visitors annually, most of them in the summer.

The $287,500 cost for new officers will come from salary savings in the General Fund, according to a report by Administrative Services Director Lisa Martinez Sullivan.

The council will also vote on members for a task force to study public safety. They will have six months to draft a report for the council

Members nominated are: