The city of Lima announced an agreement to increase the wages of new and existing police officers Tuesday morning.
Jacob Espinosa
LIMA —The city of Lima announced a pay increase for new and existing police officers to start the year in a press conference Tuesday morning.
Mayor Sharetta Smith said that the $560,000 investment was unprecedented and shows that growing the police and engaging them with the community is a top priority for her administration.
“This contract is an example of our continued commitment to safety services,” she said. “Overall, both police and fire continue to represent 40% of general fund expenditures which is something that we remain committed to. But I think it is also important to show that we want to be competitive.”
Lima Police Chief Angel Cortes said that the city, the FOP and the mayor’s office had been working on the contract for a while and that it would help make being an officer in Lima more attractive.
“Everybody wanted to accomplish the same thing: to bring in the correct amount that these officers deserve and to bring them up to other agencies in Ohio and make this a competitive position,” he said. “Across the nation, recruitment and retention is an issue and we have to make this job more attractive to bring in the best people for these positions as possible. That’s just one part of what the police department and the city have been doing to improve on that.”
Among the effects of the investment will be a $3 per hour wage increase for all existing officers and a 3% increase every year from then for the length of the contract, as well as an increase to starting pay of $29.28 per hour for new officers.
“We’re excited,” said Della Bradford, director of human resources for the city. “We believe that these increases will help us recruit new officers with that wage increase keeping us competitive with other counties and cities. We’re just really excited and proud to show how we support and appreciate our police officers.”
Smith said that it is the result of a process of building relationships with both the police and community members.
“Once a month, I go out into our various departments in our community to dialogue with workers and ask how I can be helpful,” she said. “But I also do that with the community. I hear from the police department about what they need, but I’m also hearing from the community about increased community relations and wanting to see more police officers in their neighborhood.”
Cortes said that the contract is only one part of improving recruitment and that the department has also raised the maximum age to attract those who have served in the military.
“What we’re working on right now is lateral transfers where we can have an officer who’s already certified and working in the state,” he said. “They can come to the department without having to take the civil service test, which cuts about six months off of their training and probation. Typically, it takes an officer nine months to hit the road, but we can do this in three months.”
Cortes said that there have not yet been results for recruitment, but that the department is retaining officers who were being hired away to the private sector and other police agencies.
“We knew we had to do something big to be competitive with police agencies across not just Ohio, but also the country,” he said. “We had to do something to bring those people back to work.”
Anyone interested in applying can find a civil service application on the City of Lima website.
Reach Jacob Espinosa at 567-242-0399.
