About 900 Seattle Police Department employees must return a share of more than $13 million the city overpaid them. Someone in SPD's budget office used the wrong baseline year to calculate retroactive raises.

The error hit paychecks on June 12, when officers, managers and civilian staff received one-time retroactive payments under the 2024–2027 contract with the Seattle Police Officers Guild (SPOG). That contract, approved in December 2025, included a 6% retroactive raise for hours worked in 2024.

But instead of calculating the raise from 2024 base pay rates, an SPD staffer used 2020 rates, as first reported by PubliCola. Because pay was significantly lower in 2020, the gap produced far larger checks.

City officials called it a manual data oversight, not a system glitch, according to FOX 13 Seattle.

The overpayments were steep. One officer received $32,000 more than owed. About 100 employees got at least $20,000 extra, and another 225 received between $15,000 and $20,000, according to the mayor's office.

How the city found out

SPD flagged the problem to the City Budget Office (CBO) in July after noticing a discrepancy in its 2026 budget. Mayor Katie Wilson's office said it learned of the issue in mid-July, shortly before Wilson asked then-Chief Shon Barnes to resign.

The city council learned about the overpayments in early August, according to the mayor's office. Officers were notified in September of the amounts they would be expected to repay, KOMO News reported.

The mistake occurred under former Chief Barnes and current Chief Operating Officer Sarah Smith, who oversees both human resources and SPD's budget office. The mayor's office has not identified who made the error.

Getting the money back won't be simple

The SPOG contract is silent on what happens when the city overpays members. That means the city must bargain with the union over repayment rather than simply deducting the money. The mayor's office said the city will engage in bargaining with SPOG over the repayment method, as required by law.

SPOG has already filed a batch grievance on behalf of affected employees. Guild President Kent Loux told KOMO News the union is not trying to keep money that isn't owed. "What we do want is to make sure what we're paying back is accurate," Loux said.

SPOG also pointed to a broader pattern of payroll problems, noting that members have filed a class action lawsuit over separate pay inaccuracies and unresolved underpayments since the city implemented a new payroll system more than two years ago.

Two smaller unions representing some overpaid SPD employees, the Seattle Police Management Association (SPMA) and Teamsters Local 117, have existing contract provisions for resolving overpayments. Non-union employees must repay under state law.

Budget fallout

The $13 million hits the 2026 budget. SPD will need extra budget approval to avoid a legal exception for the year. The mayor's office said the overpayment will not affect the 2027 budget.

Mayor Wilson's proposed 2027 budget already increases SPD's budget by $68 million, to $556 million, driven largely by the SPOG contract's $57.8 million price tag, according to The Urbanist. The city faces a $175 million structural deficit heading into 2027.

District 7 Councilmember Bob Kettle, who chairs the Public Safety Committee, acknowledged the contract's budget strain during council budget meetings on Thursday, Oct. 1. "We were not set up for success in those agreements because of the bad decisions and the legacy of decisions made a half decade ago plus in this chamber," Kettle told The Urbanist. PubliCola reported it had not heard back from Kettle about the overpayment specifically.

Going forward, the CBO and the Office of City Finance must sign off on all retroactive payments before they are processed.

A public hearing on the 2027 city budget is scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 6, with remote comment at 1 p.m. and in-person comment at 5 p.m.