BLOOMFIELD, Mo. --The story of police being underpaid is an old one, but few doubt its legitimacy.
In small towns throughout the nation, that is truer than many realize. The City of Bloomfield is working now to remedy that situation within its borders.
Until recently, a police officer in Bloomfield made $10 per hour. That equates to $20,800 before taxes.
For years, the pay has been kept low in exchange for the ability to offer around-the-clock coverage to its citizens. When an officer left the city in December to take a new job, Police Chief Tim Zych and the Board of Aldermen began revisiting the issue as a whole.
Zych gathered some statistics for the board and made what he believed to be a disturbing discovery--since 2011, the Bloomfield Police Department has had a 200 percent rate of turnover on employees.
"It cost about $4,000 each time we have to train and uniform a new officer," he said. "Based on those statistics, the city has spent roughly $45,000 training and equipping new officers since 2011."
In smaller towns, he is concerned that such an additional cost is often not taken into account.
"They just don't think about the cost of training someone new," Zych said. "That's always a substantial cost."
He believes the turnover is due almost entirely to the lower wages--with at least 70 percent stating as much outright.
"As it was, they could go anywhere and make more money," he said. "I have two guys who were putting in applications elsewhere because they need more money."
When another officer left the department in December, Zych knew the time was right. He joined with the Board of Aldermen where they all shared their concerns.
For the time being, the city is working with four officers--including the chief. While the work was harder and some responsibilities had to be shifted, the city kept its 24/7 police coverage.
The discovery of a special exemption under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) made the difference in Bloomfield. It was discovered that law enforcement and fire departments with fewer than five full-time employees could exercise an exemption that allowed them to make the employees salary-based as opposed to hourly employees.
"The board decided to exercise that exemption and made the entire police department salary employees," Zych said.
That new salary will be $26,500, which marks an increase of approximately 27 percent.
"We hope that the additional pay will help to keep officers around," Zych said.
In addition to the salary increase, the board left open for the employees to still have access to overtime grants from the Department of Transportation.
In the last year, the department received approximately $6,900 in overtime grants from the Southeast Coalition for Occupant Safety for seatbelt enforcement and another from the state for DWI enforcement.
On average, the officers could stand to make as much as an extra $2,000 per year through those overtime grants.
While Zych, who did not receive a raise under the new agreement, is grateful for the money to his department, he said there will be some difficulties due to working with a smaller staff.
Prior to the change, both Zych and an additional officer were on duty during the day. That freed Zych up to handle the administrative duties of the chief, while still leaving the town fully-covered.
Under the changes, Zych will go back to being a "working chief." That means he will still handle the paperwork, but will also be on patrol during the day as well.
"We expect about a 25 percent decrease in traffic revenues because of the change in coverage," he said. "It's due to the fact that I'll be handling the administrative duties in addition to the patrolling."
For now, the department is functioning with fewer officers, but this may not be a permanent situation.
"The hope is that we will be able to look at next year's budget and, if possible, add a fifth officer," Zych said.
It's never a guarantee, he said, but right now the chief is just glad to have been able to make the department a more attractive destination for incoming police officers.
"We don't want officers still looking for work the day they start here," he said.
cnoles@dailystatesman.com