Wichita City Hall spent $3.4 million on police retention bonuses. Did they work?

At least 48 Wichita Police Department employees who received $5,000 retention bonuses last December left their jobs within a year, The Wichita Eagle has found.

And they get to keep the money.

The Wichita City Council reopened the city’s negotiations with the Fraternal Order of Police last year to approve $3.4 million in unplanned spending for the bonuses in an effort to encourage officers to stay with the department in the wake of a mayoral election where police staffing was the dominant topic.

But the city’s negotiations did not require anyone who received a bonus to stay with the department beyond that week.

The council unanimously approved the bonuses on Dec. 5, 2023. By late November 2024, 45 FOP-represented employees (including some non-commissioned officers) and three police lieutenants — who are not members of the FOP but still received the bonuses — had left the department, according to a staffing roster obtained through the Kansas Open Records Act.

In total, 34 commissioned officers left the department from December 2023 to December 2024, records show. Nineteen of those officers had more than 20 years on the force, while 10 had three or fewer years of experience with the department.

The Eagle’s findings underscore the city’s difficulty in retaining police officers even as it pushes more money at the problem. Staffing troubles continue to plague the department, despite historically high investments in policing.

The City Council is poised to approve another round of hefty raises and increased police spending in a new Fraternal Order of Police contract on Tuesday. The FOP’s president and city officials have said the raises are expected to help retain and recruit employees. Staffing shortages are known to be linked to slower response times, expensive overtime costs, lower morale and higher rates of burnout.

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The Wichita Police Department has 99 vacancies out of 708 commissioned officer positions — 14% — and dozens of officers eligible to receive full retirement benefits right away if they quit.

Jason Hood, director of human resources for Wichita, told the City Council before it voted on the bonuses last year that they were expected to “have a positive impact on recruitment and retention efforts.” Chief Joseph Sullivan told them the bonuses would “encourage our most-experienced officers to stay for a couple of years.”

Wichita police and city officials would not say whether they view the bonuses to be a success. City Council members did not respond to the same question on Monday.

It’s unclear how 48 departures between lieutenants and FOP-represented employees compares with departures in previous years. And it’s unknown how many officers stayed with the department who would have left had they not received the bonus.

“It started out during negotiations as a tool to help with retainment,” Wichita City Council member Mike Hoheisel said, “but [it] was always regarded as more of a thank you for working through the shortfall of officers and a moral (sic) boost.”

The lack of strings attached to the bonuses was known at the time they were approved, but the city continued to refer to the bonuses as “retention bonuses” to keep officers on the force who would otherwise retire or quit.

A ‘token of appreciation’

Sullivan, in a Facebook video posted on the department’s page last year, was critical of the City Council for delaying approval of the bonuses and tying them to additional changes in the FOP contract aimed at increasing officer accountability. He cited 108 commissioned employee vacancies at the time, Nov. 21, 2023. He said the bonuses were “intended as an unconditional token of appreciation for the tireless efforts of our officers who have been working short-handed throughout this year.”

The number of commissioned-staff vacancies within the department has hovered around 100 for at least 18 months.

On paper, the Wichita City Council has approved hiring 708 commissioned officers. In reality, the Wichita Police Department is 99 officers short of that mark, with 609 commissioned officers in its ranks, not including recruits.

The Eagle’s count does not include the police recruits, some of whom are still in the academy and others who are still in training. But the city included them in staffing numbers provided to The Eagle and has contended the recruits “reduce the number of police officer openings.”

The Eagle requested a breakdown of vacant positions by rank, finding unfilled positions increase down the promotional ladder. Chief, deputy chief and captain positions are fully staffed. The department is short two lieutenants out of 33 authorized positions.

At the FOP-represented level, shortages become more of an issue, with 10% vacancy rates for sergeants and detectives and nearly 17% vacancy rates for officers.

The city has 78 unfilled positions in the rank of officer, which the city contends is offset by 42 police recruits. Recruits undergo six months of learning in the academy and six months of training prior to being considered full-fledged officers.

In the upcoming FOP contract, officers will receive a nearly 13% hourly base pay raise in 2025 and would be eligible for an additional 2% merit raise. New officers will start out making $33.45 an hour under the new contract and would max out after 15 years at $47.27 an hour. Detectives will make hourly wages between $36.66 and $51.80, while sergeants make between $40.22 and $56.83 an hour.

The raises are so large in part because the city has agreed to include in police salaries a $2.25-an-hour “conduct pay” bonus officers currently receive for not violating city policies. Under the proposed new FOP contract, police will receive that additional pay whether they violate city policies or not.

The FOP has said it hopes that the 2025 wage increases — which will make the Wichita Police Department the best-paid department in Kansas — will help attract and retain officers amid a staffing shortage.

FOP President Jeremey Diaz has suggested that the city’s police staffing shortage is even more severe than what appears in the staffing records. He said a city Wichita’s size should have closer to 1,000 officers than the 708 it is authorized to hire.

This story was originally published December 9, 2024 at 6:29 PM.