When Mayor Ed Murray released a proposed 2015–2016 budget on September 22, one portion in particular made a lot of headlines: his plan to hire 100 new police officers by the end of his term. Noting in his budget speech that “Seattle has more people than at any point in its history, but the number of fully trained officers has actually decreased in recent years,” Murray pledged to make good on a campaign promise of adding 100 additional officers to the ranks of the Seattle Police Department. And he means new positions above and beyond attrition, his office says. Sounds great!

But what, exactly, does this uptick in officers mean? Where are these officers going to come from? What’s the precise timeline? As with lots of political promises, when you get deep into the math, things start to get a little confusing and new questions arise.

Take this year’s cop hiring, for example. Although the 2014 budget called for hiring 46 new officers, this year the city was able to hire only 33, due to “current hiring constraints,” says Murray spokesperson Jason Kelly. Those constraints, he explains, include “increased attrition, limited academy slots, [and] extended field training.” But by the end of this year, given how many officers are likely to have left the much-criticized, still-under-Justice-Department-supervision police force, the city estimates it’ll see a net gain of only 18 officers. To recap: The city planned to hire 46 officers this year, actually hired 33, and at the end of the year is likely to end up with only 18 more than it had before. That’s an achievement, but it still leaves 82 more officers to go over the next three years to meet Murray’s promise. Can it be done? Well…

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