Facing shortage of 160 officers, Raleigh proposes 12% pay raises for rookie officers

The city of Raleigh is proposing raises across the board in next year's budget, including raising the pay of the city's police officers. The police department is short 160 officers, or 20% of the city's force.

Raleigh Police Chief Stella Patterson said that a shortage of officers means that her department will not be able to as much community policing and engagement.

On Monday, during the City Council’s first budget work session, the city proposed a plan that would increase officers' starting pay by 12%, to $47,454, to help recruit and retain officers.

“It is a significant increase," Patterson said. "I think it’s a necessary increase for us to retain the best applicants.”

Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin said that the proposal has "widespread support among the council."

Rookie officers in Raleigh are among the lowest paid in Wake County. While the police department does not require that officers have a college degree, officers do have to complete a basic training course. After officers complete the course, the Raleigh Police Department pays each officer $42,300 a year.

That number is above the average pay that workers without a college degree make in North Carolina and across the U.S., and above the what the Massachusetts Institute of Technology classifies as living wage in Raleigh.

Officers who apply for jobs with an associates degree will receive an annual $660 and those with a bachelor's degree will receive an extra $1,320 each year.

The police department also has ongoing incentive programs including a $5,000 referral bonus for current employees, a $5,000 bonus for certified officers who come to Raleigh from other departments and a 5% raise to employees who have fluency in a second language.

“Lateral [hires] give us a huge bang for our buck. We get them, they come with experience and knowledge that they are ready to hit the ground running typically within a couple of months," Patterson said.

Rick Armstrong, vice president of the Raleigh Police Protective Association, says a 10-15% raise is needed to stay competitive with neighboring jurisdictions.

"It is a legitimate concern that while this $5,000 may recruit some, it won’t recruit enough," he said of experienced officers.

Armstrong claims that officers have not received any raises in the past couple years. If the city does not consider raising officer pay soon, he suspects more officers will leave for better paying jobs that aren't as stressful as policing.

"More importantly, we are concerned with retaining what we currently have. A lot of officers are leaving because of low pay and that needs to be addressed," he said.

Armstrong said Raleigh City Council will need to raise starting salaries by 10 to 15% across the board to be able to compete with other Wake County towns and cities.

“We are looking at over 160 vacancies currently and that is not getting any better," said Armstrong.

He believes that the "current trend of lack of respect for police officers within our society" is only going to get worse, and more officers will be compelled to leave the force.

While data from Pew Research Center shows that most Americans have some confidence in police officers to protect the public's best interests, more young adults are becoming wary of the police. Around 70% of all Americans say they trust the police "a fair amount" while 31% say that they have no confidence in the police, according to Pew.

Armstrong fears that more vacancies within the department means that officers won't be able to respond to calls as quickly as they need to.

“If there’s a shooting in progress, a robbery in progress and you have less officers it’s going to take significantly more time to respond to those calls," he said. "Additionally, it adds a lot of stress on to these officers.”

Despite the shortage in officers, Patterson said that officers "are not missing anything," and are still able to respond to calls for service.

However, Armstrong predicts that more officers will leave the force if they don't see any significant increase in their pay.

“It’s already a stressful job and when they have to do more work with less police officers it just adds that much more stress to their day-to-day business," he said. "It has to be this year. We have gone too far and waiting too long."

Aside from the politics of policing, an increased number of Americans report they want to put more money into police departments, according to polling from Pew Research Center.

“It’s a very rewarding job. When you do the right thing and you can help people and save people’s lives and protect people, it’s a very rewarding job," he said.

If the pay raise is approved by the city council, they would be implemented around August.

Patterson described the officer pay increase as "critical" and said it would be difficult to retain officers if the proposal does not go through.

“I think everyone recognizes we have to do better," she said.