Council adding money to keep officers
By John Joyce
Published in News on November 1, 2015 3:05 AM
The Goldsboro City Council recently voted to approve funding for several measures it hopes will curb the flow of Goldsboro police officers leaving the department to seek other opportunities.
The police department is currently down 13 full-time positions, a trend which dates back more than a year.
Interim Police Chief Mike West said the issue is not new, but is at its height during his 23-year tenure with the department.
"I've spoken with previous chiefs, Tim Bell and (Jeff) Stewart and they both said it is not unusual to be down, maybe four or five officers. Sometimes as many as nine or 10."
The fixes the council put in place will draw an estimated $244,055.80 from the city's general fund.
The rate of departures has increased significantly over the past several months. In their exit interviews, the departing officers are asked to list reasons why they decided to go to work for other law enforcement agencies. Among the various responses, a few -- such as a lack of take-home cars, overtime pay, paid training and equipment issues -- seemed to come up time and time again.
Mayor Pro Tem Chuck Allen, before making a motion to approve the funding to correct those issues and others, said he had also become aware of morale and trust issues within the department.
"I don't think the council quite knew the police department was quite ... I think the officers were being told some things that just never happened, so I think morale was quite low," Allen said.
Allen said he, West and City Manager Scott Stevens had several conversations about the issue over last few months.
"And then we started losing officers left and right. And when you start losing officers left and right you start to look at why," he said.
West agrees, which is why he came before the Goldsboro City Council in September and again at its most recent meeting held Oct. 19, and asked that the council consider funding some of the necessary items to curtail the manpower and retention issues.
Allen made the motion to approve all of the funding requested in West's presentation, and the council voted unanimously to approve the measures.
City Finance Manager Kaye Scott said not all of the items will be funded at once, and multiple sources of funding will be used to pay for them.
For example, the police department is supposed to employ four trained K-9 officers, each with a working dog of his or her own. But, due to recent retirements, resignations and the naturally occurring turnover within the department, Goldsboro was down to one operating K-9 unit.
"We had a total of four. One canine officer left, that cut us back to three. Out of those three, we just retired one of those dogs and then we're fixing to retire a second one, so that put us with three officers for K-9 and only one dog," West said.
To get back up to standard, three additional dogs are to be purchased and trained.
Mrs. Scott said that money will come from drug money forfeitures.
"The total cost for the K-9s is $26,700. That includes the purchase and the training for all three (dogs)," she said.
Drug forfeitures will also pay the $60,955 needed to purchase 38 Tasers. Allen said that many of the officers disliked the fact they had to trade out Tasers with other shifts and spend time checking them in and out when coming on and off shift. The expenditure -- bringing the total number of Tasers to 78 -- ensures each officer will be assigned his or her own Taser.
Items already paid for which might make staying on with the Goldsboro Police Department more attractive are pay increases and a shift in the health insurance plan. While there is no actual increase to the starting pay, originally quoted to the council by West as $34,892, the correct figure for starting salaries without experience is $35,241. Add to that the money all city employees stand to save as the city shifts to the state health plan, and administrators feel that pay should no longer be a reason officer seek employment elsewhere.
"The younger generation likes the more glittery things. And I think that is the reason they are leaving. Because the ones that went to the Sheriff's Office are making less money than they were here," Allen said.
Still, in an attempt to right another perceived wrong and to deliver on promises made in the past, the council approved a measure to pay field training officers (FTOs) an additional 5 percent of their standard salary during the 16 weeks they spend training a new patrol officer. That, plus paying overtime that previously went unpaid, should go a long way to shoring up the retention problem, Allen said.
Allen said he spoke to an officer off the record and learned firsthand some of the difficulties police officers face due to the nature of their work.
"So here is the deal," Allen said, placing himself in the shoes of the officer. "I can be called in on my day off to go to court. I've got to hire a babysitter for my kid. Do whatever, come in from wherever, spend two hours -- they don't even hear the case or whatever happens -- whatever happens happens and I go back home. I still have to pay the babysitter for the time. So I have lost all that," he said.
The largest cost approved by the council, $92,400, comes in fuel costs the city will incur by allowing officers who live in the county to have take-home cars. Currently the policy is that officers who live in the city can, based on availability, have a take home car.
"Of the 22 officers who live in the city, only 17 were able to take advantage of the benefit of a take-home car. There simply weren't enough cars to go around," West said.
Of course, shifting to the county take-home policy means the city will have to purchase new cars. A complete fleet -- patrol cars, administrative cars for investigators and common staff and potentially an SUV -- would mean the purchase of 40 cars for $1.4 million.
West said the fleet is in constant flux, phasing out old cars that are creeping up in mileage or having too many mechanical issues and swapping them for new ones. In recent years, the department has gone with Chevrolet Caprices. During that time, many surrounding departments were opting for Dodge Charges, which were a couple of thousand dollars cheaper. But the Chargers wore down more rapidly and there was no local dealership to take them to for repairs.
Now, with a Dodge dealership opened up in town and with some modifications to the Charger in recent year models, the Chargers are outperforming the Caprices, a model Chevrolet will phase out of production by 2017, he said.
"The Chevrolets have been good for us, but they are manufactured in Australia. The turnaround period on a Caprice, if I ordered one today, I am probably going to get it in my parking lot in nine months, 10 months. And then I've got to send it off and get it equipped," West said.
The turnaround time for the Chargers is closer to four to five months, he said. Rather than purchase 40 cars, only to have to replace the fleet all at once again in 20 years, the purchases will be made incrementally four or five cars at a time.
"There is already enough money budgeted for that this year," Mrs. Scott said.