Council discusses police officer recruitment, retention

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

Charles City Administrator Steve Diers told the city council there are growing concerns regarding police officer recruitment and retention in Charles City.

“It’s getting harder to find officers that either are certified or can look to become certified,” Diers said at Wednesday’s planning session.

Diers said that police departments across Iowa and across the country are currently having problems recruiting and retaining police officers, and it’s something that Charles City has been struggling with for years. Currently, Charles City is technically down two officers from a full staff, with a third officer at the academy getting certified.

The council discussed strategies and adjustments for retaining and recruiting police officers and considered the pros and cons of making changes to compensation, residency, recruitment and vacation. Diers said he would like to hear from council members and he would like to have a proposal ready for Monday’s meeting.

Diers told the council that many area communities are seriously looking at ways to fill their ranks. As an example, Mason City, which is short about 14 officers, made some significant changes recently, including increased wages and decreased service time, added vacation time and signing bonuses.

Mason City has also opened up its residency requirement to allow officers to live within 30 miles of Mason City. This change would allow certified officers currently employed by Charles City to readily become officers of Mason City.

“That could potentially impact us,” Diers said. “A certified officer here could very well apply to a Mason City position and live in town here and work in Mason City.”

He said he fears that Charles City could potentially lose some good certified officers because of this.

Diers recently met with representatives of the Teamsters Union, which represents Charles City’s police officers, to address some of these issues.

He said that Mason City is a bigger city with bigger tax base, and pays between $4 and $9 an hour higher than Charles City does. Diers said that Charles City can’t expect to compete with that “dollar for dollar.”

What Charles City can do, Diers said, is implement some changes to benefits, bonuses and changes to residency to help retain and recruit more officers.

“I think we have some officers who are considering applying to Mason City,” Diers said. “We want to do right by our officers, and we want to retain the officers that we have.”

Some of the changes Diers suggested included the adding of two additional “steps” for employment in year 8 and year 10, an across the board $2 per increase in wages, an additional 5% increase in wages and a week of vacation time upon hiring.

Diers said staff has also been considering a signing bonus for certified officers of $5,000, payable over three years.

“If this is something we are having to do, I would certainly support doing whatever it takes and we certainly can’t go without,” said council member Keith Starr. “It seems to me that the lower the number of officers, the more it accelerates other officers wanting to leave, because they just have to work that much harder and longer hours.”

Diers said he would also like to implement a “residency stipend” of $2,000 a year for officers who choose to live inside city limits. Charles City currently expects officers to live within 10 miles of the community, and Diers wondered if the council would consider opening that up to 30 miles to increase the hiring range and match Mason City.

Diers said he hopes this can “close the gap enough to retain some existing officers as well as entice new applicants to come to Charles City.”

“I am currently working on the details about how these changes might impact the police department command staff and adjustment in salaries that you would need to do there, and hope to have a full picture for council meeting on Monday.” Diers said.

Some council members expressed concern at hiring officers that live a distance away who aren’t directly connected with the community.

Council member Phillip Knighten said he would like to see the extending of the hiring radius used only as a last resort. He said that when everyone knows and understands each other, it cuts down on a lot of the problems that could arise.

“I think it’s important that police officers be a part of the community,” Knighten said. “I think that sets us apart from a lot of other communities — our officers are right here in the community, and everybody knows the officers and the officers know the community.”

Police Chief Hugh Anderson told the council that it’s currently difficult for a newly-hired police officer to find good affordable housing in Charles City. He said officers are encouraged to move to the community when they are able, but sometimes it can take a while. In the meantime, the CCPD tries to find ways to engage the officers with community members, so they can better know the citizens.

“I think that all our officers are close enough to the community that they wouldn’t have these issues, but I certainly understand the concerns,” Anderson said. “I would definitely welcome input as to how to get police officers into the community and get their kids into the schools here. I think we do have to have them connected with the community.”