Home Antioch Antioch Set to Look at Recruitment Signing Bonus and Incentives for Lateral Police Hires

Antioch Set to Look at Recruitment Signing Bonus and Incentives for Lateral Police Hires

by ECT

On Tuesday, the Antioch City Council will discuss the authorization of an employee referral and recruitment signing bonus and incentives for lateral police officers.

If approved, the fiscal impact on the city is estimated to be $23,253 per lateral officer. The payment would be distributed in three separate increments over a period of three-years.

According to the staff report, since Measure C was approved by voters in November 2013, the police department has hired 49-sowrn officers. During that same time, 35-sworn officers have separated employment resulting in only a net gain of 14-officers.

Antioch currently has 96-sworn officers with at least 5 anticipated separations occurring within the next year.  The city has authorized its staffing level at 103 sworn.

The staff report cites that the recruitment for qualified lateral applicants has become difficult because of the job market being open and competitive. They noted that they had five lateral officers from different agencies scheduled for interviews, however, none of them showed up.

Recently, they had two lateral hires from Oakland Police that quit and return back to their agency due to the financial incentives Oakland had offered them to return.

Incentives stated by the staff report include:

  • Palo Alto is currently offering a $25,000 hiring bonus for laterals, and $10,000 for academy graduates. Each is paid in two installments –half upon  hiring and the other half at one year anniversary.
  • Modesto is currently offering a $15,000 hiring bonus for laterals, paid in two  installments -$10,000 upon hiring and $5,000 at five year anniversary.
  • BART is currently considering $10-15,000 hiring bonuses for laterals, but to date this has not yet been approved.
  • Fairfield is currently offering a $10,000 hiring bonus for laterals, with half paid  at time of hire and the other half paid at the successful completion of  probation. In addition, laterals have a full year of vacation and sick leave front-loaded on the books at the time of hire.

It is anticipated that by hiring lateral officers, they can save $60,000 in training costs—such as the academy, salary while training, and field training program.

The bonus/incentives will consist of the following:

  1. Applicant will be allowed to carry over up to 200 hours of accrued sick leave from his/her department.
  2. Prior law enforcement service seniority will be used to determine vacation accrual rate of the applicant.
  3. Automatic credit of 40 hours vacation upon employment.
  4. Signing bonus of $10,000 with payments in the following increments:
    • $2,500 –upon employment
    • $2,500 –upon successful completion of probation
    • $5,000 –upon three (3) years of service
  5. Any current Antioch employee who recruits a lateral officer will receive his/her choice of $1,000 or 20 hours of Comp Time upon the lateral’s successful completion of the field training program.

To view the City Council Agenda, click here.

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3 comments

Its about time Nov 26, 2017 - 8:43 am

Hard to believe Antioch is just now thinking about implementing this idea. This city needs every cop that we can get, to help clean this city up. What ever happened to the one traffic enforcement cop that the city hired about a year ago? I never see any traffic enforcement here, everybody and their mother, runs led lights.

Salazar Nov 27, 2017 - 9:35 pm

Leadership is key as well if you want to retain Police Officers. A good working environment is paramount. Most good Police Officers I know, have passion for the job. If an Officer Joins a department just for the Money; he may not be the right man for the job. The agency needs to understand if it can not provide good leadership from it’s Sgt’s, Lt’s, and Capts. for it’s Patrol Officers, Officers will take their skill set some place else. Don’t let Politics and Politian’s hamper the Cinergy of a good agency.

Old Pittsburg/Antioch Hwy Border Dec 1, 2017 - 8:20 am

What is the current Antioch Police force residency rate? Residents must demand any hires offered extra pay and bonuses to also seek residency within two years or payback the money. I don’t want my money paid to a Police person who whispers the words “Glad I don’t live there.”

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