Peachtree City Police Chief James Murray got some much-needed help from the City Council last week in what has become one of the tougher aspects of his job — recruiting and hiring new officers.

Council voted at its Jan. 6 meeting to bump up the starting pay for some certified officers by nearly $3,000 a year, correcting a deficiency that Murray said has been a great hindrance in his recruiting efforts.

Murray reported to city manager Jim Basinger in December that his department in 1999 had its lowest number of applicants in ten years, and the overall quality of those applicants was far below what has been seen in the past.

“As of this date [Dec. 9], we have five open positions for police officer, with no qualified applicants meeting the level of quality we desire for employment,” Murray said in his memo to Basinger. “This will preclude us from hiring any police officers for the police academy that starts in January 2000.”

This has happened despite the department spending more time in recruitment in 1999 than ever before, Murray said. Those efforts included 12 months of television advertisement, job fairs at three colleges (Clayton State, Griffin Tech and the Citadel), advertising in local newspapers as well as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, personal contacts by employees, and contacts made via the statewide police academy and statewide college placement offices.

While a number of factors have been mentioned as contributing to this problem, the salary issue stands out. After 40 percent of the applicants are weeded out due to problems with qualifications, employment history or criminal and driving history, many of the ones who are left – about 25 percent of the total — withdrew themselves from consideration because they were hired by other departments at higher salaries or simply found out what Peachtree City was paying, Murray said.

Uncertified officers have been receiving a starting salary of $25,688. That figure rises to $26,989 for certified officers, according to documents furnished by the city.

An investigation of possible solutions to the pay problem revealed that the starting salary for certified officers, many of whom have college degrees, is not in line with that being paid to paramedics with equal qualifications, certification and education.

This has been addressed with the creation of a new salary structure that divides certified officers into two categories — basic and advanced. Certified/basic officers will still start at $26,989 upon hiring, while those at the certified/advanced level will start at $29,790.

To qualify for the certified/advanced level, an officer will need state certification and either an associate's degree and one year of experience, or a bachelor's degree.

Murray prefers to hire well-educated officers and hopes to be able to attract more college-degreed candidates with the new $29,790 salary, which is the current starting point for a firefighter/paramedic.

The council decision took effect Friday morning, and the city is working immediately to take advantage of it.

“This is encouraging. It's a good move forward,” Murray said earlier this week. “We actively recruit all the time throughout the United States, and this will give us a really good foothold to be successful.”

Murray has talked to leaders in other public safety departments in the metro Atlanta area, and some of them have multiple openings as well, as everyone is feeling the pinch of the labor shortage and low unemployment rate.

“But we should be getting the best candidates all the time, no matter what the labor situation is,” Murray said.

The city will send out announcements to all police academies in the state and many colleges in the region, but not just those with criminal justice programs, as Murray wants to see candidates from different academic backgrounds.

The department is constantly competing against other municipalities, as well as state and federal agencies. Murray said he lost two of his sergeants to the Drug Enforcement Administration just last year.

“It's good we have the kind of candidates they want to recruit,” he acknowledged.

But Murray says Peachtree City has some advantages the feds cannot offer, like the opportunity to live and work in a community without the threat of being uprooted and transferred across the country every four or five years.

The appeal of living and working in Peachtree City is balanced by the fact that many other areas cost less to live in, Murray said, so that must constantly be factored in also.

The overall cost of the council decision last week was estimated at $46,529 for the remainder of the FY2000 budget, to be funded out of the council's contingency fund. But Murray said the out-of-pocket cost is not as exorbitant when one considers that those five officer positions, which were provided for in the budget, remain unfilled.

The city will look at the issue again at its April staff retreat.

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