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    • Bloomington plans to spend million to increase police officer salaries in 2025
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    Bloomington plans to spend $3 million to increase police officer salaries in 2025

    Sakege Posted on

    He city ​​of bloomington plans to increase police officer salaries by at least $14,000 starting next year.

    “The goal is to strengthen recruitment and retention by aligning salaries and benefits with those of neighboring agencies,” said Desiree DeMolina, communications director for Bloomington Mayor Kerry Thomson’s office.

    The council is scheduled to discuss the pay increase in a special session at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday.

    City Council President Isabel Piedmont-Smith said the increase “should put the city in a competitive position compared to other police departments for years to come.”

    BPD salary lags behind other agencies

    He Bloomington Police Department For years it has been losing officers to higher-paying departments elsewhere in Indiana and to the private sector. BPD became the lowest-paid police agency in Monroe County this year after Indiana University increased the pay of its police officers by $7,000 statewide.

    IUPD increases base salary: Bloomington PD Now Lowest Paying Agency in Monroe County

    The BPD currently has 89 officers, 16 less than budgeted. The department has added officers in recent years, but continues to lose young and experienced officers to other departments, city officials said.

    City leaders have said Bloomington frequently pays to train young officers, only to transfer them to other departments for higher salaries. Additionally, understaffing contributes to burnout and a lot of involuntary overtime.

    Senior Police Officer Paul Post, head of the police union, said a BPD officer recently left to work for the IUPD.

    Post said the planned pay increase would make BPD’s salary competitive again and he is “hopeful” the department can add more officers in 2025. However, he doubts BPD will reach 105 officers by the end of next year.

    “The union is very pleased with the proposed pay increases and grateful for the work done by Mayor Thomson and her administration,” Post said by email.

    The Thomson administration also allowed officers to be equipped with Tasers (a measure that previous administrations resisted for decades) and has allowed police officers to take home their patrol cars. Post said those measures have also made BPD more attractive to recruits and transfers.

    Under the proposal, all police officers on January 1 would receive the 2.9% raise required in their contract plus an additional $12,000. For officers with one year of experience, that would mean their base salary would increase to $82,161, nearly $14,000 more than what they earn now. For a high-ranking police officer, it would mean an increase in base salary to $87,826, up from $16,600.

    Agency Base salary
    Indianapolis Metropolitan Police $71,829
    Carmelo PS $71,409
    Indiana University Police Department $70,325
    Columbus Police $70,000
    Lafayette Police Department $68,112
    Fishermen PD $65,792
    Fort Wayne Police $65,630
    Ellettsville Police Department $64,998
    Bloomington Police Department $63,683
    Greenwood Police $63,000
    Noblesville Police $62,753
    Plainfield Police $62,400
    Bloomington Police Department salaries lag behind many other departments serving smaller towns such as Ellettsville, Columbus and Lafayette.

    DeMolina said via email that the planned increase will increase BPD salaries by a total of $3.05 million compared to the 2024 budget.

    The administration aims to hire enough officers to be fully staffed, although it acknowledged it was an “ambitious goal.”

    City struggles to recruit and retain police officers

    The city council has been debating for years How to improve police officer recruitment and retention.and council and then-mayor John Hamilton increase in police salaries by 13% effective Jan. 1, 2023. That agreement increased salaries for officers with one year of experience by $6,700 and for officers with 20 years of experience by $9,200.

    Piedmont-Smith, the city council president, did not respond to a question about how the city could get out of the cycle of raising police salaries, only to be surpassed the following year by the sheriff’s department, the Indiana State Police. , the IUPD or departments in wealthier cities like Carmel.

    DeMolina said, “In addition to increasing salaries, we have also introduced take-home vehicles and Tasers, benefits that many other jurisdictions have long offered. Combined with BPD’s long-standing reputation for exceptional training and skilled detectives, and a supportive administration, these improvements create a “A more competitive, comprehensive and complete package. “This approach allows us to offer more than just a pay increase, making BPD a more attractive option while also striving to achieve pay parity with surrounding jurisdictions.”

    Post, the union president, said it’s difficult to answer because nationally, the number of people who want to become leaders has declined. As senior officers retire, departments across the country compete fiercely for the few candidates available to replace them.

    The Police Executive Research Forum had said as early as 2019 that police agencies were seeing declining numbers of applicants. And police officers in Indiana told The Herald-Times in 2021 They used to receive hundreds of job applications for open police positions, but at that time they only received dozens. And around 90% of applicants do not pass the preliminary phase. testing and training.

    However, PERF, a nonprofit police research and policy organization, also reported that police agencies hired more officers in 2023 than in any of the previous four years and that fewer officers resigned or retired overall.

    “In 2023, responding agencies hired nearly 30% more sworn officers than in 2020 and 6.4% more than in 2019,” PERF said.

    Post said on Monday: “Salary and benefits are the most visible things in terms of recruiting new employees, but you’re seeing agencies try all kinds of new initiatives to better position themselves to attract new employees (sign-on bonuses , moving costs, living expenses). , changes in educational opportunities, changes in health care coverage, etc.)”

    The city of Bloomington still advertises on its website a $5,000 sign-on bonus for transfers from other departments or rookies who have completed law enforcement academy training.

    You can contact Boris Ladwig at [email protected].

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