San Diego Police Department Offering Home Loans as Hiring Incentives

The San Diego Police Department wants first-time home-buyers to join the ranks of its sworn officers, and is willing to loan those individuals $50,000 to help them settle in the Southern California city.

According to the San Diego Union Tribune , the $750,000 program will help the department recruit and retain officers, while also boosting community policing by encouraging more officers to live in the city instead of other parts of the region.

The agency has held several events to introduce the new program to prospective and currently serving officers, and says that the concept has been well received.

The idea is to enable currently serving officers who may live a great distance from San Diego to both live and work in the city, and to give prospective officers an added incentive to choose to serve in the citizens of San Diego.

Cities such as Chicago and San Francisco also offer similar home-buying incentive programs.