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Atlanta Renews Recapture Program, Hires Retired Police Officers

October 6th, 2015

Assistant Police Chief Shawn Jones is with the Atlanta Police Department. His department is renewing the Recapture Program, which rehires retired police officers for a maximum of three years.

BRENNA BEECH / WABE

Atlanta City Council has just renewed what’s known as the Atlanta Police Department’s Recapture Program.

Part of the goal is to save money and fill vacancies by hiring retired officers.

The Atlanta Police Department first began the Recapture Program in 2013 amid concerns it was losing senior talent and had too many new officers. Some of the new officers leave to take jobs at other metro area police departments after they are trained.

So City Council approved a program to hire retired officers in order to bring back some of that expertise.

There are now 19 officers in the program.

Atlanta police said the cost of hiring, training and equipping a new officer is approximately $100,000, which exceeds any of the salaries of the 19 officers currently in the program.

According to a summary to City Council:

“Of additional financial consideration is whether the newly sworn officer will have the requisite experience level, will be successful at policing and whether they are committed to the department or will take their training to a different agency.”

Hiring a fully retired officer means the city of Atlanta doesn’t have to pay for pension, life insurance and Medicare costs. That’s a 30 percent saving for the city.

The retired officers are allowed to work for Atlanta police for a maximum of three years as part of the program and are helping fill vacancies in the department, which it said is an ongoing problem.