The Oxford Police Department’s salary initiative in 2015 led to an increase in officer retention and morale while saving the city thousands of dollars in training fees.
The department asked for an increase in salaries for their officers November 2014 because many officers were leaving Oxford to take jobs with higher-paying salaries in other police departments. The salary increases took effect in January 2015 and the majority of the money affects officers who are currently in their second to eighth year of experience with the department, McCutchen said.
OPD has lost 18 officers during its previous two years, many of whom left because the pay in Oxford wasn’t as competitive as other police forces within the state.
Oxford Police put together a study which compiled salaries of police officers from neighboring Mississippi towns like Southaven, as well as other towns in the Southeast that have SEC schools.
The study also included population statistics, median income value, cost of living and median home value for Oxford and other towns in order to show the Board of Aldermen why a pay increase was necessary.
OPD also researched how much money the department lost in previous years through training officers who went on to leave Oxford, according to McCutchen.
McCutchen estimated Oxford lost over $250,000 invested in officers who left to go to other departments. The board approved about $83,000 from Oxford’s general fund to go toward increasing the police department’s salaries, according to McCutchen.
After the raise, the department hasn’t lost any officers due to dissatisfaction with pay, McCutchen said.
Now, officers in the two- to eight-year experience range will earn a salary increase with each passing year until it’s capped off after eight years, which drives officers to seek a promotion to a ranked position. Ranked officers such as the sergeants within the department also receive raises.
Mayor Pat Patterson, who was a part of increasing the salaries, said he was happy the department’s pay was able to become more competitive.
“I’m glad we were able to help them out— we needed to,” Patterson said. “We needed to get (the police department’s) salaries up to a more competitive place.”
Oxford Chief of Police Joey East said another large benefit to the salary increases, aside from the improved retention rate, is an improvement in overall morale.
“Now we have young officers that didn’t get in to this job to make money, but they’re able to make a living,” East said. “Morale is better, our officers are very pleased with the department, the mayor and the Board of Aldermen because they see that the effort was there to help (the officers) and they feel like they’re taken care of.”
McCutchen said the salary increase has also led to an increase in the number of job applicants the department receives from people who already have police experience and have been to the police academy.
“About 60 to 70 percent of our last hires since we adjusted pay have been from other police agencies,” McCutchen said. “Those hires are people that we aren’t having to send to the police academy, which is around $3,000 that we aren’t having to pay. We’ve seen a lot more certified people put in applications, which means now we’re the agency that everyone else wants to compete with.”
East said while the department was pleased with the money it received, the department would like to see more increases in the future in order to continue to stay competitive.
“The city has been extremely good to us, but over the next two to five years we would like to see starting pay increase, we think that would really help us get a more quality person,” East said.
McCutchen said an increase in officers’ salaries should be revisited every few years.
“We need to ask ourselves if we’re seeing issues, if other agencies are taking our top talent, we just need to reassess that every few years,” McCutchen said. “We want to be able to stay ahead of coming trends and be cutting edge. We want to be able to let people know that when they come to Oxford, they’re safe.”
