Local law enforcement agencies are finding it more and more difficult to fill positions with qualified officers, and officials say that the areas they serve are suffering as a result.
Franklin Police chief Bill Harrell and Macon County sheriff Robert Holland said they both have vacancies and few candidates willing to fill them.
A starting police officer with the Franklin Police Department can expect to make $33,521 a year based on current job listings, while a deputy with the Macon County Sheriff’s Department makes $32,600. Franklin’s numbers sit just a few hundred dollars ahead of salaries for the same position in Highlands and Murphy, but over a thousand dollars behind Sylva and over $4,000 behind Bryson City.
Holland: Numbers don’t tell story
Macon County’s starting deputy salaries actually lead Jackson, Swain, Graham and Cherokee counties by several hundred dollars, but Macon County sheriff Robert Holland stressed that that doesn’t tell the whole story. He said these other agencies are allowed to go above their
baseline pay to incentivize more educated officers and provide them with more cost of living adjustments.
Salary, incentive at issue
Without these measures, he worries that the issue of a low starting salary is compounded by less encouragement for officers to stick around.
“I have officers who have been on for a few years who, because we haven’t had any cost of living adjustments, they’re making the same amount now as when they started,” Holland said. “If you earn a promotion then you may be eligible for a raise on the county’s pay scale, but without a cost of living adjustment, deputies are making the same.”
Franklin Police Chief Bill Harrell said it’s no surprise that agencies all over the state have an unprecedented number of openings. With protests over police brutality popping up all over the nation this year in response to controversial police shootings, becoming a police officer in the first place is a less attractive proposition than it was when he first got into the profession.
Harrell said FPD is doing its best to have a dialogue with protestors and utilize more racial sensitivity training, but that only goes so far toward changing deeply ingrained anti-police sentiments.
“There have been several catastrophic events that have turned a lot of people’s attitudes against law enforcement,” Harrell said. “I won’t even try to justify the actions of a few bad cops, but a lot of people don’t want anything to do with us anymore.”
Even so, Harrell also said that public perception isn’t the main sticking point – money is the real issue. The chief finds himself in a tough position when reviewing applications, even when their resumes are up to snuff. He’s rejected a dozen applicants for his two current vacancies because they were unqualified.
Not many brand new recruits are excited to put in the time for a pension package they won’t see for 30 years, but when an experienced and respected officer comes his way from a larger city hoping for a change of pace, he almost never has the resources to bring them onboard.
“I get plenty of great guys and gals who call in with 15 years of experience, and I know that I can’t afford them,” Harrell said. “I know they could do great things for our town, but I just have to tell them to look elsewhere.”
Holland has the same problem. He currently has seven openings for deputies, and he said that most potential applicants don’t see the job as a good balance of risk and reward. Holland has asked the Macon County Board of Commissioners to adjust compensation for his officers on several occasions, citing how much extra work his existing staff has to put in to make up for hiring shortfalls, but COVID-19 was a fatal blow to hopes that it would happen in the 2020-21 fiscal year.
“It probably would have been remedied in this budget cycle, but the fact of the matter is that we had a pandemic, and the money wasn’t there anymore,” Holland said. “I’m hoping that a solution is coming in the very near future.”
No shortage of trainees
Curtis Dowdle, dean of public safety training at the Jerry Sutton Public Safety Training Center, said there’s no shortage of recruits. In fact, he said the Southwestern Community College program is seeing more applicants than in years past. However, widespread vacancies across the state mean that a newly trained officer with eligibility to work for any North Carolina police force is in high demand as soon as they graduate.
“Anyone looking for a new job is going to look at what’s best for them, whether it’s about their family, their location, their benefits or whatever,” Dowdle said. “Overall recruitment is up, but those recruits are spreading out more and more.”
Public safety
In the meantime, both Holland and Harrell worry about the toll that short staffing can take on the community. A smaller force can’t cover as much ground in as little time as a larger one, and even trying to make up for the difference subjects officers to difficult scheduling situations.
FPD officer Justin Riles said that working from noon to midnight is exhausting for both him and his family.
“I have a kid in school, and my wife is a school teacher, so on the days that I work, I just don’t see my family at all,” Riles said.
Harrell and Holland agree that municipal governments need to increase salaries to prove to both current and prospective officers that Franklin and Macon County value their services. In the meantime, Riles said that officers will continue to do their jobs – serve the public the best that they can.
“We love our jobs,” Riles said. “We love to help the public and we love the people in our community.”