Hiring 172 Patrol Officers in Birmingham Will Meet Staffing Goals, Woodfin Says

The Birmingham Times Mayor Randall Woodfin said Thursday the Birmingham Police Department (BPD) will prioritize the hiring of 172 patrol officers to achieve staffing targets in the Birmingham police precincts. That number is part of a recruitment and retention plan the mayor has outlined to address the staffing shortages in BPD, he said. Mayor Randall Woodfin said Birmingham has to be more aggressive in recruiting and retaining officers for the Police Department. (File) “The ideal number of patrol officers needed to police all 99 neighborhoods across the city is 440. We are focused on hiring 172 patrol officers,” the mayor said. “This proposed plan is a supercharged effort to enhance our police patrol. BPD is hiring, and we are looking for good men and good women.” The recommendation would increase the signing bonus for new officers to $10,000 and establish a quarterly retention bonus of $2,500 for officers who have been in the department for two or more years. The city issued the following numbers to “provide an accurate number to the public” it said: the current total vacancies for all sworn personnel in BPD are 223. That includes 172 patrol officers, and 34 officers assigned to administration, operations and...