Montgomery County Sheriff Ryan Needham closely monitors the trends in public safety agencies throughout Indiana. He sees many law enforcement departments facing the same challenge — finding candidates to become police officers.
At Tuesday’s Montgomery County Council meeting Needham asked county officials to raise salaries for incoming deputies.
However, the request came with a warning that in today’s environment it is getting more difficult to find new hires to replace the deputies leaving for more pay in neighboring counties.
“In the past two months we have lost three deputies to other counties,” Needham said. “We also have one opening that we have not been able to fill. I am concerned that in the next three years we have six deputies ready for retirement.”
Needham believes an increase in pay for beginning road deputies will help the department find new men or women to fill the open positions. He presented the council with a list of beginning salaries for 18 neighboring law enforcement agencies. Sixteen agencies on the list of 18 have higher pay. Only Parke and Putnam counties pay less than the current beginning salary in Montgomery County, which is $51,000. Needham asked the council to bump starting pay to $60,000.
“Pay is the highest driving force,” Needham said. “Our equipment is A-1 and the jail still looks new. We have a lot of good things going for us, but the low pay hurts us.”
Needham also said there are less people seeking careers in law enforcement, which plays a part in finding good candidates.
“Not everyone wants to go be a police officer in Indianapolis because we have all seen the news lately of three officers getting killed,” Needham said. “I want our department to remain having a family feel to it. I went to the fair last night and knew 90% of the people there and I like that. But we have an applicant shortage and it makes it more difficult to find the type of deputies we want.”
Needham said the law enforcement shortage is statewide. This also affects the way his department operates since many agencies are short on officers.
“Two weeks ago when we had the tanker turn over and closed I-74 down for eight hours, we had one state trooper respond,” Needham recalled. “We had to work the whole scene by ourselves and that took our manpower, meaning we did not have much coverage in the rest of the county. The problem is getting worse.”
Needham also said specialization in law enforcement adds to the shortage of working police officers. He cited the Indiana State Police have three S.W.A.T. units whose only job is to respond when a S.W.A.T. team is requested.
“Three S.W.A.T. teams takes 60 officers out of the mix,” Needham said. “They do not take any calls that do not involve the S.W.A.T. unit.”
Needham said the ISP recently raised their starting road officer salary to $70,000.
The council voted unanimously to raise the beginning deputy salaries to $60,000. The new pay structure will take affect Aug. 11.
Needham said applicants for the deputy position must be 21 years old and be able to pass a writing and physical test. Candidates must be high school or G.E.D. graduate. Deputies are trained after being hired.
