Heather Curtis
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON (WMAL) – They need a few good men and women, and the D.C. Police Department’s offering financial incentives to get them.
D.C. is one of the most expensive places in the U.S. to rent an apartment, so the city’s police department is offering new recruits $1,000 a month for six months in rent assistance for apartments in the city through the Recruit Six Month Rental Assistance Program.
“That is a great program in my eyes because, first of all, you’re starting a young person off in their career with a little bit extra money so they can afford housing here in the District,” said Chief Peter Newsham.
He believes once recruits move to the District they will stay, and more police officers will live in the communities where they work.
First time home buyers who join the force can get no-interest loans and help with closing costs to buy houses in the District that cost $620,000 or less through the Employer Assisted Housing Program. Officers who stay in the homes for more than five years don’t need to pay the loans back.
The Senior Law Enforcement Officer Program allows officers eligible for retirement to continue working while collecting retirement benefits.
The Police Officer Retention Program gives 72 people up to $12,500 in student loan forgiveness or tuition reimbursement.
Newsham cautions TV and movie portrayals of police officers are not accurate.
“If you look at TV shows and you look at movies, what you see is a police office who breaks all the rules, shoots people, beats up people. That’s not what we do in policing. Policing is a service profession,” Newsham said.
He said the message about what police in America actually do has gotten lost, and he wants to make sure new recruits understand the realities of policing.
Despite a lot of negative publicity about police over the last few years, the MPD has seen an increase in new officers. Mayor Muriel Bowser said at the end of the Fiscal Year 2017, the department had 3,821 sworn members, an increase of 84 members over FY16.
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