GREENFIELD — Experiencing high levels of turnover in a year when raises for public employees have been taken off the table, public safety leaders are looking for solutions to help recruit and retain officers.
With tax revenue down due to the economic impacts of the pandemic, both the Greenfield City Council and Hancock County Council recently passed budgets that included no raises for employees across the board. That impact is especially felt by Greenfield’s police and fire departments and the Hancock County’s Sheriff’s Department, which are struggling to compete with nearby communities to attract and retain employees.
Greenfield Police Chief Jeff Rasche said two officers have already left the department recently and several others have discussed retiring or applying for other jobs.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]
One officer who is leaving, Sgt. Rodney Vawter, will be particularly difficult to replace, Rasche said. With 15 years of experience at the department, Vawter is an expert on evidence collection and testifying in court. The other officer who has decided to leave has about six years of experience.
For younger officers, he said, the current climate may not look like a good time to invest in a long-term career in law enforcement.
“I think a lot of it probably has to do with the culture around law enforcement and what’s going on nationwide, and I don’t blame them,” Rasche said.
Others are considering leaving for another reason — to pursue higher-paying jobs with other departments. Rasche said that an officer can leave Greenfield for another nearby department and earn a salary of $15,000 to $20,000 more. For those concerned about providing for a family, he said, the move makes sense.
“I hate to lose their experience. I hate to lose anybody. But I’m not going to hold them back,” Rasche said.
The pay for a probationary Greenfield officer is $47,818, while base pay for fully qualified officers is $52,986.
Rasche added that the city has not increased the number of patrolmen on its streets in 10 years, despite a growing population.
GPD is not the only department in the city that’s having trouble recruiting. The Greenfield Fire Territory faces a similar problem. Deputy Chief Jason Horning said it has faced a 52% turnover rate in the last three years. That’s an unusually high number, with many of those leaving for higher-paying jobs in Hamilton or Marion County.
“It’s relatively difficult to recruit medics that are already in a fire department somewhere,” Horning said.
The fire territory is in the process of hiring new licensed paramedics. Three are in school now, but Horning said it is considerably cheaper to hire people who have already been trained.
The costs associated with replacing a firefighter/EMT are $92,289, while replacing a firefighter/medic runs to $176,941. It may take five years for the department to see a return on its investment in a new paramedic, Horning said.
The cost of hiring a new police officer to replace one who has left can also be significant. Rasche said it costs around $124,000 to train, outfit and otherwise ready a new police officer for the job. That includes the costs of sending them to the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy and on-the-job training, when they must be paired with a more experienced officer.
However, the city of Greenfield has approved a new policy that could change that. GPD gained approval from the city council to hire officers who have already passed law enforcement entrance exams without requiring them to go through the process again. That, Rasche said, should make it easier to attract officers who are still early in their careers but may want to move away from larger jurisdictions with higher crime rates or less supportive local politicians.
Rasche appealed to the city council for the change after being approached by an officer interested in making the switch to Greenfield from “a large department west of here,” he said. If someone is a lateral hire from another police force, they still need to be educated on local policies and geography, but the expense is significantly less.
Some young officers are interested in the move, Rasche said, trading a higher salary for better working conditions.
“We’ve got some pretty darn good people that are wanting to come here,” Rasche said. “…It was really encouraging to hear what we have to offer compared to what they struggle with every day.”
Rasche said losing a number of officers during a year in which the city is not planning to give raises is bad timing, but he would like to see a pay increase for his officers.
“We’re never going to be able to pay $70,000 like our friends over in Fishers, but I feel that we should at least be within arm’s reach of them,” he said.
Horning said he and Rasche are working on a potential proposal to the city council that could address the issue, although he declined to provide more details.
“Hopefully, we’ll able to put a plan together that helps retention and is fiscally responsible,” he said.
Greenfield Mayor Chuck Fewell said he understands why employees leave for higher-paying jobs, but salary is not the only factor in job satisfaction: The city government’s support of police and fire departments also makes a difference.
Fewell said he will work with Rasche and Horning on finding other ways to help recruit and retain employees, but that pay increases are not the right solution for the next year. He said he could not ask other city departments to make sacrifices if employees elsewhere were getting a raise.
“We’re going through tough times for the entire city,” Fewell said.
Hancock County
Hancock County Sheriff Brad Burkhart said he has faced many of the same problems city public safety departments have struggled with. To combat turnover, he said, he would like to see a pay increase or potentially a re-introduction of the longevity pay scale the county once had.
Eliminated about a decade ago, longevity pay rewarded county employees with raises for remaining in their positions over long periods of time.
“I know it’s going to be difficult to do, no matter what gets done,” Burkhart said.
A probationary deputy in Hancock County makes $47,975. A third-year deputy makes $52,975 — and now that longevity pay has been abolished, unless they are promoted to a higher level, they would continue to make the same amount no matter how many years they remained with the department.
Similar to the cost for the GPD, Burkhart said it costs his department around $125,000 to bring an untrained new deputy on board. That cost includes more than 400 hours of field training they must go through before they are able to patrol on their own.
Those new officers can then depart for cities like Indianapolis, Noblesville or Westfield, he said, where their salary will be $20,000 higher.
“I don’t want to be the training ground,” Burkhart said.
After discussing the problem with Burkhart, the Hancock County Council plans to form a committee to meet with the Sheriff’s Department Merit Board to work on possible solutions.
County councilman Bill Bolander said he is open to working out a plan that would help improve retention for sheriff’s deputies. He also favors re-introducing longevity pay, which he said he argued against eliminating at the time.
“We’re kind of set on our budget this year, but that doesn’t mean we can’t come up with something different,” Bolander said.
Jim Shelby, another member of the council, said the problem is not just a local one — other departments are losing employees, too.
“I’ve talked to a couple of sheriff’s deputies, younger people, that say they’re rethinking the whole business of policing,” Shelby said.
However, he said, that may mean bigger departments are also losing officers and are turning to Hancock County to recruit new employees.
Bolander said he believes troubles at other departments might end up being a good thing for Hancock County.
“We have competition from Indianapolis, but on the other hand, who would want to work there?” he said.