NBC 7’s Joe Little reports on how the South Bay city hopes to entice police officers to join.
NFL players move from team to team every year. Sometimes those players are enticed to make those moves with signing bonuses.
Don’t fault the National City Police Department for doing the same thing.
On April 17 from 9 a.m. until noon, NCPD is hosting a recruiting event at its headquarters to help fill upwards of seven open positions on its police force. They’re offering a $30,000 lateral incentive for any active-duty officers from other law enforcement departments who decide to slide over to National City.
“We’re a smaller department, so everybody knows each other. The chief knows you by name, knows your family, knows your your kids,” said Officer Pamela Sosa.
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Officer Sosa said the $30,000 incentive is cheaper for the City of National City compared to sending a rookie through the academy. In fact, it’s less than half as expensive.
Sosa said other police departments also offer lateral incentives. None are as lucrative as National City’s. She said they need to remain competitive for officers because empty slots make things harder for everyone.
“It's very difficult,” she said. “You're talking it affects our officer’s safety. You have officers responding to calls for service with less amount of officers.”
