SEATTLE — Seattle’s police chief believes the department can be at full strength in a year or two based on new hiring numbers and applications in the pipeline.
Chief Shon Barnes has only been on the job for three months but stood at the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Center in Burien this week with a smile on his face. He had just taken part of the fourth graduation ceremony in his short time as chief.
We’ve hired 50 (officers) year-to-date, which is five times the number we added last year. We’ve had over 4,000 applications,” said Barnes. “I think that in the next coming one or two years, I will be back to full strength.…