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The Austin City Council, during its work session Monday night, agreed to a revisement of its police officer hiring incentive that the city hopes will open the door to luring more officer candidates to Austin.

This proposed recruitment incentive would offer a total of $7,500 to new police hires that would be paid out in two installments: the first $3,750 would come after 30 days of satisfactory employment, with the second half coming after six months.

Prospective officers would need to maintain employment within the city for a minimum of two years.

As part of the proposal, the current employee referral incentive, that has been set at $1,000, would be increased to $2,000.

The initial plan, approved in December of 2021, called for student loan reimbursement and relocation reimbursement, however, the city discovered that local applicants often do not have student loan debt and don’t qualify for the relocation incentive.

“I’m 100% supportive of this,” Austin Police Chief David McKichan said. “This is something other agencies are doing.”